Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1879 — A Bit of Moss. [ARTICLE]

A Bit of Moss.

To the eye of Him who watches over a sparrow’s fall there is nothing great, nothing small. The man of science trains his eye to a similar impartiality in looking at nature. A moss to the untrained eye seems insignificant. To the eye of the botanist it is a little world. A friend once complained to the great Swedish botanist that Sweden did not afford scope enough for the study of nature. Linnaeus laid his hand upon a bit of moss, on a bed of which they were reclining, and said: “ Undej this palm is material for the tutjy of a lifetime 1 ” One day, when lost in an African desert, Mungo Park came across a tuft of moss. This bit of green growing in an arid waste was a messenger from God to the desponding explorer. “ If God cares for the moss,” he said to himself, “ surely He cares for me.” And he went on his way, exhilarated by the sight of a bit of moss. Wordsworth speaks to ears that can hear: To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do otten lie too deep for tears.