30 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



inferior to its extent. Some but little acquainted with 

 science, see in natural history merely a collection of anec- 

 dotic facts, more calculated to excite the curiosity than to 

 exercise the understanding ; or a dry study of technical 

 terms and arbitrary classifications. Such an opinion is 

 based on ignorance : and the utility of the study of natural 

 history cannot fail to be recognised by all who possess 

 even the preliminary ideas of the science. The grand and 

 harmonious view it presents of Nature, whose bean ideal is 

 so much superior to that of human invention, tends to 

 elevate the mind to lofty and sound thoughts. 



The knowledge of ourselves and of surrounding objects, 

 is not given merely to satisfy the desire for learning which 

 develops itself always according as the intelligence enlarges; 

 it forms a necessary basis to many other studies, and is 

 eminently calculated to give to the judgment that rectitude 

 in the absence of which the most brilliant qualities lose 

 their value, and in the course of life lead the mind astray. 



On the other hand, to be convinced of the practical 

 importance of the natural sciences, we have only to look 

 to geology and mineralogy, and the services they have 

 rendered to industry ; to botany, and to the myriads of 

 beauteous and useful plants it describes ; and to horticul- 

 ture, of which it is the guide ; to recollect the animals to 

 which we owe wool, silk, honey which lend us that power 

 which man so often requires, or which, far from being 

 useful to us, threaten our harvests with destruction ; lastly, 

 to consider the long catalogue of human infirmities, and to 

 reflect on the dangerous character of that medicine which 

 is not based on a scientific knowledge of the human 

 structure. 



