INTUOUITCTION. 



matheiimtics as an adinirablc mental exercise, independently of its intrinsic value, 

 we still 'do assert, without hesitation, that similar advantages must result from 

 the properly directed study of Natural History, and that other benefits are at 

 the same time secm-ed, which cannot in any way be associated with mathematics. 



We shall endeavour now to give a very few examples of the mode in which 

 a study of Natural History operates beneficially on the mind. Let us take 

 the case of a person who has studied Entomology, we do not mean in that 

 cursory way in which a mere collector does, who looks more to the beauty of 

 the specimens than to their sj)ocific history and individual characteristics, though 

 even this has its advantages. Let us take, we say, a person who has really 

 studied Entomology, and become conversant with its details and the principles 

 on which the classification of the various orders and families depend. Suppose 

 he has only studied British Entomology, what a vast number of individuals' 

 are comprised in that term* and yet should any one single insect be presented 

 to him, he can readily determine its place within certain limits, and eventually 

 the particular spot it must occupy, and which can be filled by no other creatxire 

 that is not of the same species. What ideas of order and regularity must not 

 this man possess; what mental discrimination, to whom the individual charac- 

 teristics of ten thousand essentially different creatures present no serious 

 '^difficulties: what powers of combination, to whom these ten thousand creatures, 

 taken together, present one beautiful and orderly whole — to whom even these 

 ton thousand creatures as a whole present but the filling in of one small 

 portion of the entire system of nature, which his mind is able to look upon 

 with satisfaction, and to understand, even though his particular study has only 

 taken in the one branch of British Entomology. Thus much for the high 

 quality of the mental education which rcsidts from a well-regulated study of 

 Nature. 



Let us now turn to another branch of education which is too frequently 

 overlooked, but which yet is of the utmost importance to man in his social 

 and domestic relations, and which cannot but be greatly influenced, in a 

 right direction, by the. judicious use of Natural History as a recreative study; 

 we allude to what is called the education of the affections. Would it be 

 possible for a child who had been instructed in the marvellous transformations 

 of the meanest insect — who was acquainted with the beautiful mechanism 

 exhibited in its organization — who knew that it had nerves and muscles like 

 himself — that it had its little pleasures and pains — that it had a definite object 

 in life — that even in death it besame necessary to support the life of some 

 other creature; how would it be possible for him to torture this little insect, 

 as, we regi'et to say, is too often the case with the ignorant, who look upon 

 the agonizing writhings of the impaled insect as affording them intense delight, 

 and whose only regret at its death is that their amusement is at an end. We 

 well remember the horror and indignation we felt, when about nine years of 

 age, on seeing a boy of our acquaintance catching butterflies and then depriving 

 th3Ui of their wings, leaving the poor mutilated insects to linger out their 



