18953. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 30 
the general habit of care and accuracy in all the other occupa- 
tions. This applies to the whole range of the study of natural 
history. How few people there are who use their eyes as they 
might, and how blind are many of us to the beauties with which 
we are constantly surrounded, which we do not see and cannot 
appreciate because our eyes are not educated to see and our 
minds have not been cultivated to appreciate these things. 
The constant association with nature leads to a more natural 
life and a better appreciation of the beauties and wonders of 
nature itself, and consequently must of necessity elevate and 
raise the man. The continued contemplation of works which 
are in themselves perfect, leads to the cultivation of a higher 
tone of mental and moral development and the desire to reach 
to the same perfection which characterizes all the works of the 
Creator. They necessarily raise the individual above what is 
petty and low to longings for higher aims in life. The con- 
templation of what is always beautiful leads to a higher aspira- 
tion for what is initself beautiful. All that one finds in nature 
is beautiful and true and well adapted for the purposes for 
which it is designed. Where is it possible to find more striking 
evidences of design than in the formation of the feet of animals 
to adapt them to the various conditions of climate and of en- 
vironment’? If you study mechanism, what better example can 
you find than the construction of the wings of birds and their 
adaptation to the laws of flight? The balancing of the wings in 
front by the body behind, so that the centre of gravity is re- 
tained in all positions, is one of the most remarkable adaptations 
of means to an end that can be found in animated nature. 
Will you study construction? What better illustration of it 
can you find than the light, hollow bones, so filled with air ducts 
and channels that the air can be forced into or extracted from 
them according to the needs of the animal? Look at the 
feathers, always so arranged that in the necessity of rapid flight 
each part will interlock, so as to allow no air to pass, but so 
constructed that in some species that the flapping of the wings 
produces no noise, so that the animals upon which it preys for 
food may have no warning of its appreach. Look at the adapt- 
ation of means to an end in the beak, generally used as an 
instrument for obtaining food, straight,,blunt, crooked, and so 
arranged that it can cut, tear or break, as it is needed, and some- 
times even used as a hand in climbing. Look at the combina- 
tion of sand and muscle in the gizzard, which is adapted to the 
maceration of the food. What grinding mill made by human 
hands is better contrived? What better adaptation of energy 
and skill can we find than the shortening of the tendons of the 
