108 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



or of luxury; or, 2. they administer to intellectual 

 gratification and our spiritual welfare. When, 

 therefore, we speak of the advantages attending 

 the prosecution of this science, we must readily 

 admit that they chiefly belong to the latter class, 

 although they may, in a limited degree, be ap- 

 plied to the former. The great characteristic, 

 however, of natural history, is its tendency to im- 

 press the mind with the truths of religion ; and 

 thereby of improving and regulating the moral 

 feelings. Its application to the wants of man is 

 comparatively slight, and generally so remote as 

 not to be immediately perceptible. It has not, like 

 chemistry, been employed to the improvement of 

 manufactures, nor can it contend with botany in 

 adding to the luxuries of the table or the elegances 

 of taste. It very rarely opens a new source of 

 commerce, nor can it assist astronomy in giving 

 power and confidence to the mariner. Neither 

 does it lead, like other kindred pursuits, to pecuniary 

 advantage, public employment, or academic honours. 

 Natural history, therefore, will never assume its 

 real station in a commercial country like this, so 

 long as it is not protected and fostered, encouraged 

 and rewarded, by the government. The office of 

 natural history is to expound the works of Omnipo- 

 tence ; and it becomes, from that very circumstance, 

 one of the most dignified that can employ the human 

 mind. It seems, in fact, to be that peculiar study 

 which is, above all others, most designed to bring 

 man into communion with his Maker. In this re- 

 spect it is even superior to astronomy. The gran- 

 deur of the heavenly bodies may speak more 



