126 TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OP 



these ornamental works, and no despicaLle sum was raised by tlie 

 sale. 



Other sums, for charitable purj)Oses, have been realized in a way 

 which a botanist would deem more legitimate, by the sale of books 

 of prepared and named specimens ; and my friend, the Kev. Dr. 

 Landsborough,* I am told, has in this manner collected money 

 which has gone a considerable way towards building a church. There 

 seems no good reason why missionaries in distant countries might 

 not, either personally or through their pupils or families, collect these 

 and other natural objects^ and sell them for the benefit of their mis- 

 sion ; by which means they v/ould not only obtain funds for pursuing 

 the work more immediately committed to them, but would have the 

 satisfactiori of knowing that in doing so they were unfolding to the 

 admiration of mankind new pages of the wide-spread volume of 

 nature. 



Unfortunately, it happens that in the educational course prescribed 

 to our divines, natural history has no place, for which reason many 

 are ignorant of the important bearings which the book of Nature has 

 upon the book of Revelation. They do not consider, apparently, that 

 both are from God — both are His faithful witnesses to mankind. And 

 if this be so, is it reasonable to suppose that either, without the other, 

 can be fully understood ? It is only necessary to glance at the absurd 

 commentaries in reference to natural objects which are to be found in 

 too many annotators of the Holy Scriptures, to be convinced of the 

 benefit vfhich the clergy would themselves derive from a more ex- 

 tended study of the works of creation. And to missionaries, es- 

 pecially, a minute familiarity with natural objects must be a power- 

 ful assistance in awakening the attention of the savage, who, after 

 his manner, is a close observer, and likely to detect a fallacy in his 

 teacher, should the latter attempt a j)ractical illustration of his dis- 

 course without sufficient knowledge.! This subject is too important 

 for casual discussion, and deserves the careful consideration of those 

 in whose hands the education of the clergy rests. These are not days 

 in which persons who ought to be our guides in matters of doctrine 

 can afford to be behind the rest of the world in knowledge ; nor can 

 they safely sneer at the "knowledge that puflfeth up,'' until, like 

 the Apostle, they have sounded its depths and proved its shallowness. 



Why should the study of the physical sciences be supposed to have 

 an evil influence on the mind — a tendency to lead men to doubt every 

 truth which cannot be made the direct subject of analysis or experi- 

 ment? I can conceive a one-sided scientific education having this 

 tendency. If the mind be propelled altogether in one direction, and 

 that direction lead exclusively to analytical research, it is possible 

 that the other faculties of the individual may become clouded or en- 

 feebled ; and then he is the unresisting slave of analysis — not more a 

 rational being than any other monomaniac. And yet, paradoxical 

 though the assertion seem, he may be all his life a reasoner, forming 



« Author of "A Popular History of British Seaweeds." 



f See some excellent observations on this subject in " Foot-prints of the Creator ; or, 

 the Asterolepis of Stromncss," by Hugh Miller. London, 1849. 



