415 



who think it a degradation of their own sublime talents or 

 characters, to submit either to the guidance or the admo- 

 nition of infinite wisdom, however manifested to us. 



How far the attentive study, or even the slightest ob- 

 servation of nature, is delightful and salutary to the mind, 

 let those say who have, by a natural taste or an acquired 

 habit, given themselves to such contemplations. Is it 

 better to walk abroad with the eyes open or shut? Is the 

 interchange of ideas in human society delightful and in- 

 structive ? Are the imitations of nature in the finest works 

 of art admirable ? And shall it not be thought a privilege 

 to hold converse with the source of all thought and wis- 

 dom and perfection ? Do not the changes of seasons, and 

 the endless variations in the aspect of nature and her pro- 

 ductions, excite perpetual attention, and entertain us with 

 never-ceasing variety? If our deepest inquiries lead us so 

 far as to understand why a bud unfolds itself in the spring, 

 and a leaf falls in autumn, we shall have learned enough 

 to convince us of the existence of design in nature, and of 

 the application of the most wise and compendious laws to 

 the most decided and satisfactory ends. One fact, thus 

 established and understood, may serve the philosopher as 

 a basis, not by his machinery to overturn the world, but 

 to raise a structure that shall truly reach from this world 

 to another. The study of nature is undoubtedly, above all 

 others, a science of practical observation ; but to with- 

 hold the exercise of our reasoning faculties as we pursue it, 

 would be a strange example of intellectual blindness. The 

 old physicians indeed, to whom I have alluded, were often 

 content to adopt the opinions and follow the practice of 

 men who had lived a few centuries before them ; and some 

 have declared they would rather be in the wrong with an 

 ancient than in the right with a modern. But such an ab- 

 ject prostration of the best faculties and duties of man has 

 never long existed, except where the most sordid interest 

 has acquired an exclusive dominion. In medicine and na- 

 tural science such a tyranny must soon work its own cure ; 



