14 Observations on the Causes that have retarded 



man of imagination associates with tenderness and friendship. 

 In passing along through the country, every man's garden 

 may furnish a chie to his character, much better and safer, in 

 our esteem, to trust to, than either physiognomy, phrenology, 

 or autography. Do we see the kail bed of large and ample 

 dimensions, encroaching upon every inch of cultivated soil, 

 we pronounce the possessor to be a political economist, or 

 radical, or voluptuary ; on the other hand, if we witness flowers 

 of all hues adorning the vicinity of his habitation, we know 

 there is a spark of his better nature yet unextinguished. It 

 unfolds to us the current of his thoughts and feelings ; it tells, 

 like the other also, of honesty and industry; but it tells, be- 

 sides, of generosity and charity, love and fidelity, of brave 

 sons and beautiful daughters. 



I lately was made acquainted with a rustic of this latter 

 class, whose house botanists are wont to frequent for the 

 beauty of the surrounding scenery, and the rare plants to be 

 found in the neighbourhood, a house that Isaac Walton 

 might have dehghted in. One of the last acts of this honest 

 vintner's life, was to call his daughter to his pillow, when he 

 said, " Mary, it is a fine morning; go and see if *Scilla verna 

 is come in flower." May the virtues of the father descend upon 

 his children ! Then may botanists continue to find at this 

 humble inn*, cleanliness and civility, a trowel to dig up their 

 plants, and even a vasculum to secure them. J. E. B. 



Aprill. 1828. 



Art. II. Observations on the Causes that have retarded the Pro- 

 gress of Natural History in this Country^ and on the defective 

 State oj" our Public Museums. The first of a Series of Essays, 

 intended to comprise a succinct Vievo of the System of Baron 

 CuviER, as contained in his Regne Animal, and of his ^q- 

 searches on Fossil Bones. By B. 



There is no country that has the same facilities for pro- 

 curing objects of natural history from every region of the 

 globe as Great Britain; there is no country where larger 

 sums of money have been expended to purchase them ; and 

 yet there is no country in the civilised world, where there are 

 fewer facilities offered to the student of natural history than in 

 England. 



The truth of this remark cannot be denied. The two 

 causes which have mainly contributed to impede the study of 



* The Running Horse, at Micklehavn. 



