INTRODUCTION. 7 



born and educated in the country, it can only be because in the 

 latter state he is more familiar with them, and knows more about 

 them. The connection between moral conduct and the love of 

 animals and plants, may be thought intimate or remote by 

 different individuals ; but the more we trace design and pur- 

 pose in the works of nature, shall we not sympathise the more 

 with the fitness of means to ends in human conduct? The 

 more we enter into the details of nature, shall we not in- 

 crease our taste for facts ? which is, in other wordsj the love of 

 truth, thefoundation of justice and honesty. It is unnecessary 

 to trace the influence of the study of natural history from 

 individuals to nations, and its tendency to universal inter- 

 course, civilisation, and peace. For these reasons, amongst 

 many others, the study of natural history is particularly 

 adapted for the earliest education of young people; and this 

 idea is confirmed by the rapid progress which children make 

 in this study whenever it has been considered a fitting 

 acquirement. Infants, who have made but little progress 

 in languages or sciences of reasoning and reflection, have 

 yet made considerable progress in the observation and re- 

 collection of natural objects. 



Natural history is the parent of natural religion. To 

 know and to acknowledge the Author of nature, are precepts 

 inculcated by the religion and morality of every civilised people ; 

 and the history of the world shows that most nations have had 

 someway of what they considered knowing God, and some par- 

 ticular reasons which they assigned for loving and reverencing 

 him. Without interfering with that knowledge of God which 

 is obtained by revelation, or with those reasons for loving him 

 which are deduced from the doctrines of particular religions, 

 natural history arrives at a knowledge of the Author of nature, 

 by enquiring into the skill and contrivance manifested in his 

 works, calls forth our affections towards him in loving those 

 of his works which contribute to our happiness, and leads us 

 to adore him in the contemplation of the superhuman power 

 and wisdom displayed in the general system and particular 

 contrivances of the world and its various details. " He," ob- 

 serves Linnaeus, " who does not make himself acquainted with 

 God from the consideration of nature, will scarcely acquire 

 knowledge of him from any other source ; for if we have 

 no faith in the things which are seen, how should we believe 

 those things which are not seen?" * 



For this reason, the knowledge of the Author of nature, 

 through his works, maybe called the universal religion, as the 



* Reflections on the Study of Nature, p. 21. 

 B 4 



