"HE who the dear delights would know,
Which love of nature can bestow,
Must seek her in her dwellings wild;
Contented as a little child
To woo her sweet society:
Not satisfied to hear and see
With others' eves and ears alone,
To look and listen with his own!”
DEAR young friends,-I have one object before me in this little book: I want to please and instruct you. The title tells you it is to be a history of the year; not of any particular year, but more or less of every year that rolls along. Not the history of men or nations, or of what comes to pass in any one year; for then I must tell of many great and sad things, of wars and famines and shipwrecks, of murders and pestilence and terrible calamities. As you grow a little older, you will learn much of these sad things: for the history of every year, of all time, since sin came into the world, has been a tale of sickness, sorrow and death, the natural outcome of sin, and of violence, deceit, oppression and cruelty, the outcome of those wicked passions which sin begets. No, beloved readers; not of these things, but I wish to give you a history of some of the beautiful things of nature, or, as I would rather express it, of the works and ways of God, as seen, not in man and his bad ways, but in fields, woods, and streams; in flowers, birds, and insects: in the deep, deep sea, and in the high bright heavens above our heads.
Books, I mean good books, are all well in their place, but I want you to find your best books, and by far your most interesting ones, in the grasses and mosses, the ferns and flowers of the field. There is not an insect that creeps, not a butterfly or bird that wings its way through the air: not even a bud, or a leaf, or a flower, from which you may not get hours of pleasure. I want you to find your amusements in the beautiful things and the wonderful creatures God has made. Every month will bring out something new. Even the dark gloomy months of winter, which at first might seem barren of all pleasure and instruction, will be found full of profit. Some of you live in the country and have every opportunity of seeing and becoming acquainted with all these works of God. Oh! what a privilege is yours! Others live in crowded cities and smoky towns, and but seldom see the beauties of nature, or the wonders of the works of God. But there is not one who could not find great delight, if he would only use his eyes and ears, whenever he walks abroad. I cannot tell you much, but I want you, dear young friends, to learn for yourselves. What a difference you will find in the trees: their trunks, barks, branches, leaves, and fruit. It is said there are not two blades of grass alike. What an infinite variety of flowers! Insects can scarcely be numbered. Never be afraid of them, rather make them your friends. It is well to learn their names, but to know their habits and their history is far better. All this you can easily learn, though it can only be done by patient perseverance.
Once a sturdy man, with pickaxe in hand, stood at the foot of a mountain. To dig down that mountain was his resolve. How was it to be done? “Little by little" was his motto. Let that motto be yours. Martin Luther was once asked how he managed to translate the whole Bible, “Never a day without a verse," was his quaint reply. At once make a beginning: let not a day pass without adding something to your stock of knowledge, and at once you will begin to reap your reward.
All these things make up a book for God not His best book, Oh, no! The Bible is His best book. Everything in the world, even in nature, tells the sad tale of sin, but God's best book tells of His best gift to this poor world, even the gift of eternal life to such poor sinners as you and I, and this life is in His Son. But "the things that are made" tell us of God too and I trust this story of the year will give us many a rich lesson as to His "eternal power and godhead.”