Ulustrations of Nature. 399 



the strictest sense. Theory is to science what design is to a 

 building. Particular instances are the only legitimate materials 

 of philosophy, but particulars are infinite, and facts unarranged 

 are but incumbrances to the mind, as blocks unused are fit only 

 for the mason's yard ; the plan is that which determines whe- 

 ther these particulars shall for ever remain in chaos, or whether 

 a rude hovel, a stupendous tower, or an expanded arch shall be 

 therefrom constructed. They who regard theory in any other 

 light than as a convenient mean of associating facts, and ar- 

 ranging the numerous particulars of knowledge, entertain very 

 erroneous notions of its nature and utility. I hold theory in 

 estimation no farther than as it enables me to associate parti- 

 cular truths ; and that theory I esteem to be best which ena- 

 bles me, with the greatest perspicuity, to arrange the greatest 

 number of particulars, just as I should esteem that point of 

 vision the best from which I could see most clearly ; or that 

 museum the most convenient, in which I could deposit the 

 largest number of specimens arranged to the greatest advan- 

 tage, and exhibited with the least disorder. Theory is not to 

 be despised; for, as Dr. Young hath elegantly observed, " The 

 phenomena of nature resemble the scattered leaves of the si- 

 bylline prophecies of old ; a word only, or a single letter, is 

 written on each leaf, which, when separately considered, con- 

 veys no instruction to the mind ; but, when by the labour of 

 patient investigation every fragment is placed in its appropriate 

 connexion, the whole begins at once to speak a perspicuous, an 

 harmonious tongue." Shall the antiquary with patient zeal 

 explore the defaced and broken characters, rendered almost 

 illegible by the ravages of years, and think his labour well 

 repaid when he can decypher inscriptions graved by men in 

 olden time; and shall the naturalist shrink. from the task of 

 contemplating the varied forms of nature, and reading thence 

 an oracle which will reveal truths the most curious, important, 

 and sublime ! Some few of these scattered leaves of nature I 

 have attempted to arrange ; for as scattered leaves alone they 

 would serve to amuse rather than to instruct, and yet, when 

 collated and disposed in their natural locations, they form a 

 history the most sublime, they compos^ a volume the most 

 important that human being can contemplate, that finite under- 

 standing can comprehend. 



2D2 



