ZOOLOGICAL REMARKS. I 9 



" All that relates to Nature is in itself so delightful, and 

 the pursuit of it elicits so many of our best and truest 

 feelings, that every undertaking of this kind ought to be 

 imbued with the sentiment inculcated by the above maxim, 

 instead of repelling students by too much technicality. 



"The author and his readers have a joint property in the 

 subject-matter, and they are held together by the same tie 

 of sympathy. 



' . Pleasure is spread through the earth 



In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.' 



" Our communion with GOD, through His works, affords 

 one of the purest and most unalloyed of pleasures that is 

 permitted to us in this transitory state. Even the mere 

 contemplation of them, in any of their various aspects, if it 

 is made in a fitting mood, assures us, much more forcibly 

 than human teaching can, that our minds our spirits our 

 souls partake of His eternity, and are imperishable. This 

 idea has pervaded all men and in every age. It is innate 

 and ineradicable. 



"At the same time it cannot be denied that novels, 

 magazines, and newspapers constitute now-a-days the 

 literature which chiefly occupies the small reading-time of 

 the public, and that scientific books generally are over- 

 looked, unless they advance some startling proposition as 

 to the origin or remote antiquity of our own race. There 

 can be no use, however, in blaming the popular taste ; nor 

 would it be reasonable to expect that every one should 

 follow a scientific path, if his inclinations do not lead him 

 that way. The love of Nature is not confined to any one 

 period, and its votaries must not feel disappointed, should 

 their peculiar studies not be shared by all their contem- 

 poraries." 



