HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 105 



ing the specimens in the museum. The application of the same systematic 

 observations to fishes, if any knowledge of the angler's art is possessed, 

 and to insects, and to plants and flowers of every description, is obvious, 

 and attended with no difficulty. Those who read Dr. Hastings's lecture 

 will find their attention directed to many birds and plants which they 

 have probably not known were actually within the sphere of their own 

 observation. Nothing, again, is more easy than to collect the nests of 

 birds when the young are flown ; and the comparison of the diflTerent 

 nests will well illustrate the diversified industry and nature of the 

 little builders. The youngest children delight in gathering flowers ; and 

 the elements of botanical knowledge may be acquired at an early age. 

 When those who have the care of young persons are neither indifferent 

 nor ignorant, the capacities of young pupils for acquiring natural 

 knowledge are found to be very considerable. Every walk becomes a 

 lesson, not formal, and dull, and wearisome, but cheerful and enlivening, 

 and leading the thoughts from the works of the Creator to a contem- 

 plation of his glorious attributes. Children so situated live in a charmed 

 world. Every plant, every little insect, every warbling bird, affords them 

 a new delight ; and whilst they seem only to be reaping enjoyment, they 

 are gathering knowledge, and becoming every day more fitted to advance 

 through all the more arduous paths of science which will afterwards 

 claim their attention. Who that observes how the little gardens before 

 the humblest cottages are filled with brilliant flowers, or who that has 

 marked how the little window of the poor artisan in towns is crowded 

 with garden-pots, whilst the song of some imprisoned but well tended 

 bird cheers the hours of his labour, can fail to acknowledge the instinct 

 with which man is drawn to notice and to love the various works of the 

 creation by which he is surrounded. 



So it is also with mineralogy and geology. The first lines of these 

 sciences are written on every side of us ; and the most uncultivated 

 minds are roused at least to wonder by the mere variety and strangeness 

 of pebbles. The cutting through a hill for the repair of a road, the 

 digging of a well or a foundation, is the opening of a geological book. 

 In some districts, the pages of the book are written in stronger and 

 sublimer characters than in Others ; but the book is every where open. 

 In ploughing a field, fine specimens of the ammonite appear ; in digging 

 for gravel, some fragments of an elephant are found ; and if away from 

 fields and pastures, yet even in knocking at a door in a street, if we cast our 

 eyes on the steps below, we often find them crowded with fossil shells : 

 and all these are the remains of the world before the deluge, the mys- 

 terious hieroglyphics of the ancient earth. But where some unrecorded 

 convulsions have elevated portions of the earth's surface far above the 

 general level, or where the industry of man has penetrated into its hidden 

 depths in search of precious metals, the study of mineralogy and geology 

 acquires even a greater interest. 



In whatever country the youthful student may be placed, he may learn 

 much of these sciences by his own observation. The works to be found 

 in good libraries, and the specimens in museums, will greatly assist him ; 

 but the habitual exercise of his own senses is indispensable to his making 

 a satisfactory progress in a branch of knowledge which gives an interest 

 to every walk and ride. Worcestershire is, in this respect, a rich field 

 for study; but the study has attracted so little attention, that a shaft was 

 sunk, not many years ago, with the expectation of finding a gold mine 

 in the Malvern Hills. The following extract, taken from many valuable 

 details, for which we regret that we cannot afford space, will give our 

 younger readers a glimpse of the wonders that are beneath their feet : — 



