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PLEASURES AND ADVANTAGES OF THfi 

 STUDY OF NATURE. 



" Haec studia adolescentiara alunt, senectutam oblectant, se- 

 cundasres oraant, adversis solatium, et perfugium praebent." 



I HAVE been very frequently enquired of as to the 

 utility of studying Natural History, and as to the 

 propriety of spending time in making collections of 

 the various objects in this science. When one is 

 questioned as to the use of anything, which has a 

 variety of palpable advantages, and which has, by 

 the general consent of thinking people, been per- 

 mitted to hold a distinguished place amongst the 

 blessings and advantages of this life ; it is not won- 

 derful that, for the moment, he is deprived of the 

 power of explanation, and rendered incapable of 

 giving; an answer, which should do justice to the 

 subject. So it has happened with myself; and 

 I now venture on a formal replication to my querists 

 and others of like minds. On this side eternity, hap- 

 piness is the grand desideratum. Some men pursue 

 it by one route, and some by another ; each accor- 

 ding to the bent and inclination of his innate desires. 

 Some men's happiness is centered in the love of gain, 

 others enjoy an equal pleasure in distributing to 

 their utmost power. Some are infatuated as artists, 

 .or mechanics, others as natural philosophers; and 

 *t is thus that we explain the faults of some, who 

 bestow an undue proportion of their time in this 

 pursuit, at the expence of others at least as necessary, 

 and to the detriment of their worldly interests and 

 the objects of that calling ; which they have under- 

 taken. 



More frequently we meet with minds in which a 

 nearer approach to an equilbrium of the propensities 

 and endowments is sustained ; still however, for rea- 

 sons which depend upon the original structure of the 

 mind, or on the education it has received, the con- 

 sideration of the productions of nature is consigped- 

 to exclusion, or amounts at most to superficial ob- 

 serations. It is highly probable, nay, I think it 



