What is that plant standing in a conspicuous place in the conservatory?
It is a beautiful azalea, covered with hundreds of pure white blossoms.

But there is so much else to see in that conservatory that we scarcely notice it as we pass by.

Nor are we at all surprised to see it there; it is just the very place in which we should look for such a plant.

Nor are we astonished to find it so flourishing and so full of bloom, for we know that everything in that conservatory is calculated to improve its growth, the atmosphere is just what it should be, not too dry or too damp, it has exactly the right soil, the proper amount of light, the most carefully regulated heat; it has in fact everything which it ought to have to make it a flourishing and beautiful plant.
Accordingly we are not surprised to find it full of bloom and beauty.
But suppose, on the other hand, that walking through the slums of London we see a similar sight.

In one of the closest, most filthy courts we see, in a garret window, a white azalea full of flowers, pure as the untrodden snow.
Now indeed we are surprised to see it, for it is in the most unlikely place; there is nothing to favour its growth, the air is foul, the light is dim, everything is against it, yet there it stands, a marvel of beauty! And we look at it and say, 'Wonderful!' Surely we have even now seen the white azalea in the garret.