102 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE NATURAL 



and libraries and museums will be ft^raduallv collected, so as to enable 

 those residing in the country to acquire all the various knowledge which 

 has so long given an exclusive charm to the society of the metropolis. 



We have said much of the pleasures arising from the study of Natural 

 History ; but it should never be forgotten that we are accountable for 

 the employment of our minds, and that no study which is not iji some 

 way or other useful can be long innocently indulged. " Nature gave us 

 curiosity/' says the eloquent Bolingbroke, *' to excite the industry of 

 our minds ; but she never intended it should be made the principal, much 

 less the sole object of their application. The true and proper object of 

 this application is a constant improvement in private and in public virtue. 

 An application to any study that tends neither directly nor indirectly to 

 make us better men and better citizens, is at best but a specious and 

 ingenious sort of idleness,"* This reproach may be easily avoided by 

 the natural historian, for his studies comprehend a consideration of 

 many circumstances important to the welfare of society, as may be con- 

 cluded from the manner in which Dr. Hastings speaks of the labours of 

 the Committee of Statistics. 



"This committee, the ohjects of which may be greatly assisted by gentlemen 

 who reside much on their estates, by men of general science, and by the ministers 

 of religion, should be occupied with every thing relating to the cultivation of the 

 county ; its population ; the employment of the inhabitants of its towns, or of the 

 country labourers, their wages, diet, the regularity of their labour, their habits of 

 life ; descriptions of houses inhabited by different classes of persons ; the situation 

 of particular towns, cities, or villages ; i*eligion ; the number of lunatics, idiots, 

 and deformed persons ; hospitals, infirmaries, dispensaries, and arrangements for 

 the sick poor, and pauper lunatics : prisons and penitentiaries : and they should 

 particularly endeavour to obtain more correct lists of births, marriages, and deaths, 

 than have been hitherto afforded. The importance, indeed, of statistical investiga- 

 tions cannot well be too highly estimated, for it is only by widely extending, 

 throughout the kingdom, this species of inquiry on statistical or political philosophy, 

 that this most important of all sciences, and which should be held most in reverence, 

 can be established on sure foundations. No science can furnish to any mind capable 

 of receiving useful information so much real entertainment ; none can yield such 

 important hints for regulating the conduct of individuals, or for extending the 

 prosperity of the state ;' none can tend more to promote the general happiness of 

 the species." 



Dr. Hastings has entered into some - very interesting particulars 

 respecting the population of Worcestershire, the habits and occupations 

 of the people, and the diseases to which they are exposed. It is con- 

 solatory to learn that the salubrity of the county has considerably 

 increased during late years ; that severe forms of fevers are rare ; and 

 that the ague has nearly disappeared from the list of diseases at the 

 infirmary. That science is not to be lightly spoken of which leads to 

 conclusions like the following : — 



** I cannot disguise the gratification produced in my mind by the investigations I 

 have made relative to the statistics of the county, which prove the flourishing con- 

 dition of Worcestershire, and the increasing health and comfort of the great body 

 of its inhabitants. When the raven note of despondency is so often heard de- 

 nouncing the decline of our commercial prosperity, it is truly gratifying to observe 

 that we have in the richness and variety of the natural productions of our county a 

 solid foundation for the continuance and increase of its present wealth. 



" Nor is it less gratifying to find that as far as our examination has extended, 

 the mean duration of human life has considerably increased since the commence- 

 ment of the present century. Opinions will vary as to the cause of this happy 

 change ; one may ascribe it to the more ample supply of food, clothing, fuel, better 

 habitations ; another to a salutary change in the habits of our population, as shewn 



* Letters on the Study of History. 



