_Dov._ It is wonders of this kind, and forewarnings of this nature, that
natural history offers to the contemplative mind: in the place of
superstitious follies, and unavailing predictions, such as the
foretelling of luck from the number or chattering of magpies; and the
wonder how red clover changes itself into grass, as many a farmer at
this moment believes.

_Von Os._ Linnaeus himself was a bit of a prophet; as, indeed, thus well
he might; for experience and observation amount almost to the power of
vatacination. In his _Academic Aménities_ he says, "Deus, O.M. et Natura
nihil frustra creaverit. Posteros tamen tot inventuros fore utilitates
ex muscis arguor, quot ex reliquis vegetabilibus."

_Dov._ English it, Von Osdat; thou'rt a scholar.

_Von Os._ "God and Nature have made nothing in vain. Posterity may
discover as much in mosses, as of utility in other herbs."

_Dov._ And, truly, so they may: one lichen is already used as a blessed
medicine in asthma; and another to thicken milk, as a nutritive posset.
And who, enjoying the rich productions of our present state of
horticulture, can recur without wonder to the tables of our ancestors?
They knew absolutely nothing of vegetables in a culinary sense; and as
for their application in medicine, they had no power unless gathered
under planetary influence, "sliver'd in the moon's eclipse."

_Von Os._ When Mercury was culminating, or Mars and Venus had got into
the ninth house.

_Dov._ 'Tis curious to reflect, that at the vast baronial feasts, in the