Oil the Study of Nature and Science. 5 



And flying fast as roebucke through the fen, 

 All naked without shame or care of cold, 

 By hunting and by spoiling liveden ; 

 Of stature huge, and eke of corage bold. 

 That sonnes of men amazd their sternesse to behold." 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. 

 Richmond, Yor^kshire. Nov. 7. 1830. T. E. L. 



Art. II. On the Study of Nature and Science. 

 By Joseph Hayward, Esq. 



Sir, 

 Although I am so unfortunate as neither to have pos- 

 sessed leisure, nor perhaps inclination, to study the methodi- 

 cal arrangements of botany or entomology, nor to have found 

 room in my memory for their technical terms and distinctions, 

 I have always been an admirer of Nature; my admiration 

 principally arising from the beauty and elegance of her 

 designs in the formation of all her subjects, and the all-per- 

 fect adaptation of them to her ends. One object of your Ma- 

 gazine must, no doubt, be to direct and attach the mind to the 

 study of nature, in its simple as well as in its complex garb ; 

 and therefore, though some of your more learned readers may 

 think my abilities too limited, you, perhaps, may not think my 

 endeavours to contribute to your miscellany unworthy of your 

 notice. In studying nature, with whatever view, unless we 

 confine ourselves to some definite object, we may be led, like 

 too many authors, into the bewildering extreme of "perverting 

 the study of nature into metaphysical subtlety and vain logo- 

 machy." My observations have been chiefly, if not wholly, 

 directed to those objects in which the exhibitions of beauty 

 and demonstrations of utility are combined ; consequently, my 

 attention has been given more to vegetables than animals : but 

 as the one is so much dependent on the other, they cannot 

 well be separated. Thus we find that the symmetrical forms 

 designed by nature to be assumed by vegetables, are often 

 obstructed and destroyed by their being made necessary to 

 form the food and habitations of insects : and as it, therefore, 

 happens that there are no means of preserving the one without 

 destroying the other, we are necessitated to study the means 

 of annihilating one object of beauty to preserve another. In 

 the pursuit, however, of destruction, we are often permitted 

 to enjoy the mental pleasure of contemplating an exhibition 

 of the beautiful designs of Nature, and the all-perfect execu- 

 tion of them, conformably to her ordinances. 



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