Excerpt from The Alphabet and Language, Vol. 3: Immortality of the Big Trees Wealth and Poverty of the Chicago ExpositionAny one actuated by a proper spirit, who has derived great mental profit and pleasure from prolonged study of outdoor nature, or of art, science, or any branch of instructive literature, desires to extend that pleasure and profit to others. This will especially be true where a lover of good books constantly sees, from library re ports, how small a proportion of such books are tasted beside the vast number of trashy volumes devoured. The writer of these essays knows that the subjects herein treated are great and profitable ones, and that, even if he has been incompetent to do anything like justice to them, or has misapprehended some of their teachings and laws, his book still contains enough instructive and elevating facts to attract the attention of students. He thereby hopes to lead them to pursue the study of some at least of the subjects herein directly or indirectly treated. He has derived intense pleasure and profit therefrom; others cannot fail to give like testimony, if_ they use like diligence.The author has long been deeply impressed with the necessity of mental digestion and assimilation following reading. If they do not, reading is but unprofitable cramming, from which no real mental nutriment is derived. He, therefore, urges students to think as they read, and to allow no author to impress his conclu sions upon them until they have themselves carefully exercised their best judgment upon the subject under review.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.