ITS ADVANTAGES IN AFTER LIFE. 881 
for any one philosophic or intellectual pursuit, which 
might be followed, if not as a study, at least as an 
elegant amusement, suited to the education they 
have received, the advantages they enjoy, and the 
superior station of society in which they move. How 
frequently do we see young men of naturally superior 
abilities, after gaining university honours, to which 
they were excited by the short-lived stimulus of 
competition, leave their college, and settle down 
upon their paternal estates as mere country gentle- 
men, hunting squires, or racing patrons: filling 
situations, in short, which should be occupied by men 
of a lower grade in the scale of intellect, but which 
they fall into, merely because they have not been 
instructed in any pursuit which will call into con- 
tinued activity those abstract powers of reasoning 
or observation they may have acquired at college. 
The mind, however high may be its natural capa- 
bilities, invariably sinks to a level with its usual 
occupations. And science, being neglected by these 
men, who have almost exclusively the power of pur- 
suing it with true dignity, is left to those who are 
obliged in most cases to connect it with objects of 
trade, or of pecuniary advantage. 
(262.) But if a taste for natural history is so well 
calculated to give elegance and dignity to the re- 
creations of the aristocracy, how much more is it 
in unison with those feelings and habits of thought 
which should belong to the young clergyman when 
he quits his college, and desires to enter upon the 
sacred duties of his profession? The excitements 
of collegiate studies are now over ; competition is 
at an end, and he either waits to be called to active 
