POPULARITY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 297 



Fix'd in the centre of a prickly brake, 



That the thorns wound her not, they only guard. 



Powers not unjustly liken'd to those gifts 



Of happy instinct, which the woodland bird 



Shares with her species, Nature's grace sometimes 



Upon the individual doth confer, 



Among her higher creatures born and trained 



To use of reason. < 



******** 



Blest with a kindly faculty to blunt 



The edge ot adverse circumstance, and turn 



Into their contraries the petty plagues 



And hindrances with which they stand beset." Wordsworth. 



I have now shown, in its various phases, that reference to the objects of Nature 

 which is acceptable to all persons of common reading and education ; and as it 

 makes no pretence to any thing that may not from observation be accessible to 

 any one, so it is, correctly speaking, popular. I have next shortly to consider 

 Natural History when assuming a scientific form. 



Scientific Natural History comprehends the classification of the whole of 

 animate and inanimate Nature, and the necessary attendant terminology. Hence 

 of course, the student, if he intends to become a practised naturalist, has an 

 ordeal of study to pass through which no ingenuity or tact of observation can 

 enable him to dispense with. I must here refer to the very appropriate and 

 valuable observations of Mr. Swainson, in Part iv. of his Geography and Classi- 

 fication of Animals, in the Cabinet Cyclopcedia, which every young naturalist 

 would do well to reflect upon. 



But the tenour of my discourse has little reference to the regular student, 

 who, consigned to the hands of the professor, will doubtless in due time possess 

 acquirements to observe and classify for himself, or at least to choose out of the 

 numerous systems that demand his attention. I am anxious to consider the 

 interests of those who are not professionally devoted to the study of Nature ; but 

 who, as amateurs or collectors, wish to enjoy the charms of their favourite 

 pursuit as much as possible. These form a considerable class, and as they are 

 the readers and purchasers of works on Natural History, every effort should be 

 made to increase their numbers, and supply their wants. Many persons have 

 but a limited time that they can devote to the pursuit they love ; they naturally 

 wish to give the greatest part of this time to the woods and fields, and when they 

 attempt to study their acquisitions in detail, and to obtain a scientific name for 

 them, they too often find the systematist has prepared such a puzzle for them, 

 that they abandon the attempt in despair, and feel inclined to indulge the idea 

 that u ponderous tomes of cramp technicalities" deserve no attention. 



At the present moment excessive analysis has so cut up every department of 



