354 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
not pecuniary resources of their own. We speak 
not here of dilettanti, who amuse themselves—and 
rationally so— with learning what has long been 
known, and who, after the ordinary business of the 
day is finished, make the elegancies of science their 
recreation. These neither seek or require any other 
inducement or reward than the self-approbation, 
and the intellectual pleasure, derived from such a 
rational source of relaxation ; they skim the surface, 
sip its sweets, but never dive to the depths below. 
Far otherwise, however, is the case with him who 
devotes his undivided attention to science in her 
highest and noblest garb, who consumes days and 
nights, months and years, in learning all that the 
accumulated labours of mankind have made known 
upon his favourite theme, only that he may discover 
something that they have not; that he may unfold 
new applications of those general laws already 
known, trace more clearly the results of their com- 
bination, or discover others which open fresh sources 
of harmony and wonder. The most ordinary mind 
must immediately perceive, that studies such as these 
are quite inconsistent with the ordinary business 
and concerns of life; that they cannot be pursued 
together; and that, if the depths of science are to 
be fathomed, and new discoveries brought to light, 
the task can only be achieved by those whose time 
is at their own command, whose attention is not 
divided or distracted by avocations purely worldly, 
and whose circumstances are such as to make them 
free from pecuniary cares. Talents, fitting their 
possessors, for such speculations, must be of a high 
order, and they are consequently rare; yet still 
