Marvels of Earth, Air, and Water

An excerpt from the Introduction: THERE are some people who go through life practically blind. Indeed, for many purposes they might just as well be blind. Of them it might with truth be said, that "seeing, they see not." To their eyes and perceptions the sun is just a hot, bright body, that warms us too much sometimes; sunset is simply the signal for lighting candles or gas, or for sitting idly, or groping awkwardly under the pretence of " blind man's holiday ; "a...
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An excerpt from the Introduction:

THERE are some people who go through life practically blind. Indeed, for many purposes they might just as well be blind. Of them it might with truth be said, that "seeing, they see not." To their eyes and perceptions the sun is just a hot, bright body, that warms us too much sometimes; sunset is simply the signal for lighting candles or gas, or for sitting idly, or groping awkwardly under the pretence of " blind man's holiday ; "a thunderstorm is a terrible nuisance, especially if, dressed for a visit, they happen to be caught in one; the star-spangled heavens afford a very pretty excuse for a walk, during which they never so much as lift their eyes to the splendid vision ; and life's pageant is but a round of duties or parties, which certainly do not lift their thoughts heavenward.

How extraordinary and forceful is the contrast between this state of mind and that person's who possesses the seeing eye, the hearing ear. To such, among whom we venture to claim a place, the sun is a glorious orb of fire, emitting light and heat which are essential to the life of a world; sometimes dazzling us with its full radiance, often warming us and cheering our hearts after a winter's cold, ripening the harvest and embrowning the complexion; the leader, for us, of that continuous procession of brightness across our sky ; now bold and ruddy at the beginning and close of his daily round, now pure and white as he is seen higher in the sky; and anon showing, in the glories of sunset, the extraordinary effects which may be produced by simple light and cloud, with the varying distribution of vapour in the air. How can people be insensible to the charms of twilight, whether long drawn out or suddenly precipitated, the stillness of the air as the sun glides down, or the shrill whistle of the wind as the night storm rises, the graceful oscillation of the branches of trees, too often and too early shedding their leaves as they move? Even the dull leaden sky, the gentle, steady downpour of rain, have their own points of interest, which the lover of nature is not slow to find out; while the consequences of rain in the general refreshment of plants, the cleansing of the air and of the ground, the washing of houses, the filling of streams and rivers, are among the most delightful of natural phenomena. Only at one atmospheric effect, in producing which, however, man is a participator, do we not rejoice - namely, at the various kinds of fogs, laden with sooty particles from manufactories and locomotives, and all kinds of effluvia and germs of disease ; and we look upon it as a pretty sharp lesson, with its attendant colds and rheumatisms and accidents, to sluggish mankind to mend his ways and consume his own smoke, - a lesson which will probably become more severe each year till we learn it.