104< STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



served, or, if observed, unrecorded. He may thus 

 remove the veil from one stone at least of the temple 

 of nature ; or he may, by the discovery of one single 

 but important fact, clear away an accumulation of 

 doubts and difficulties that have long impeded the 

 path of the greatest adepts. Let us not, therefore, 

 affect to despise, as some among us have done, the 

 describer of species ; but remember that in the temple 

 of nature there are niches for all her votaries. 



(54% ) Natural history has generally been termed 

 a science of observation ; and such, in a restricted 

 sense, it undoubtedly is. The error of the definition 

 is this, not that it is untrue, but that it is partial and 

 insufficient. What would be thought of an astro- 

 nomer who defined the study of the heavenly bodies 

 to consist in a correct nomenclature of the stars, an 

 accurate computation of their relative magnitudes, 

 and of the various appearances which, under parti- 

 cular circumstances, they assume? Suppose, also, 

 that the business of the mineralogist was simply to 

 study the external forms of the substances of the 

 earth, to compile a dictionary of their names, and to 

 point out the uses to which they could be applied. In 

 either of these cases it would be manifest that the 

 essential philosophy of these sciences would be lost 

 sight of ; that we should merely be regarding the 

 surface of things, and be busying ourselves about 

 effects, to the utter neglect of those great and sub- 

 lime causes which are unfolded by the laws of gra- 

 vitation, the theory of motion, and all those splendid 

 truths which give such dignity to these sciences- 

 As it is with astronomy and chemistry, so is it with 

 natural history : . knowledge of individuals, and of 



