414 



ders I To these contemplations the young mind may most 

 beneficially be directed; but there is no mind above being 

 improved by reflection, and the requisite exertion soon 

 brings its own reward. But if the inquiries to which I 

 have just alluded, rarely enter into the contemplation of a 

 common observer, how much more seldom do the most 

 reflecting minds spontaneously notice, with due attention, 

 those almost infinitely varied circumstances of form, situ- 

 ation, or colour, by which individuals of the vegetable as 

 well as of the animal creation, and their several parts, are 

 distinguished; observing, at the same time, those delicate 

 and intricate combinations and coincidences by which the 

 whole of nature is harmonized, and her manifold irregu- 

 larities and luxuriances reduced to the most perfect order! 

 Here indeed our limited faculties fail us, as we attempt to 

 measure them against the operations of Omniscience ; but 

 we may derive abundant consolation from the reflection, 

 that we are allowed and enabled to consider those opera- 

 tions at all, and to converse, at the most humble distance, 

 with Him, who in perfect wisdom has made them all, and 

 who, in condescending to render his laws in any measure 

 intelligible to us, has manifestly designed that we should 

 at least try to understand them. If he has not made the 

 study of these natural laws, like those of his moral govern- 

 ment, our indispensable duty, he has reserved no ordinary 

 reward for such of his children as raise their thoughts to 

 him even among these his lowest works. What he has 

 made beautiful to us, he doubtless intended we should ad- 

 mire ; and in whatever form we are allowed to trace the 

 footsteps of his wisdom and beneficence, it must be, in 

 every instance, for the great ends of our own moral and 

 intellectual improvement. 



Such considerations as these cannot but suggest them- 

 selves to every mind directed to the observation of nature. 

 They stimulate us to exertion, and they reward our perse- 

 verance. They furnish us also with a ready answer to all 

 who doubt the importance or the utility of our pursuit, and 



