108 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
or of luxury; or, 2. they administer to intellectual 
gratification and our spiritual welfare. When, 
therefore, we speak of the advantages attending 
the prosecution of this science, we must readily 
admit that they chiefly belong to the latter class, 
although they may, in a limited degree, be ap- 
plied to the former. The great characteristic, 
however, of natural history, is its tendency to im- 
press the mind with the truths of religion; and 
thereby of improving and regulating the moral 
feelings. Its application to the wants of man is 
comparatively slight, and generally so remote as 
not to be immediately perceptible. It has not, like 
chemistry, been employed to the improvement of 
manufactures, nor'can it contend with botany in 
adding to the luxuries of the table or the elegances 
of taste. It very rarely opens a new source of 
commerce, nor can it assist astronomy in giving 
power and confidence to the mariner. Neither 
does it lead, like other kindred pursuits, to pecuniary 
advantage, public employment, or academic honours. 
Natural history, therefore, will never assume its 
real station in a commercial country like this, so 
long as it is not protected and fostered, encouraged 
and rewarded, by the government. The office of 
natural history is to expound the works of Omnipo- 
tence; and it becomes, from that very circumstance, 
one of the most dignified that can employ the human 
mind. It seems, in fact, to be that peculiar study 
which is, above all others, most designed to bring 
“man into communion with his Maker. In this re- 
spect it is even superior to astronomy. The gran- 
deur of the heavenly bodies may speak more 

