CONDUCIVE TO HEALTH. 125 



will not even then be satisfied with mere common- 

 place conversation. Home can only be truly enjoyed, 

 where a taste for some one rational pursuit exists ; 

 and among these, there are few which promise more 

 delight, than the love of natural history. 



(71.) Our science is no less conducive to health, 

 than to rational pleasure. It requires to be prose- 

 cuted by different means — #11 tending, indeed, to 

 the same point, yet carried on by different indivi- 

 duals, under different circumstances. The practical 

 and the closet naturalist have each their respective 

 departments, equally essential to the advancement 

 of science, although very different in their duties. 

 Facts regarding habits and instincts must be sought 

 for in the fields and the woods ; while their appli- 

 cation and generalisation can best be meditated 

 upon in the closet. Exercise is essential to health ; 

 and a lover of nature wants no other inducement to 

 secure such a blessing, than the active pursuit of her 

 treasures. It is curious to remark the great age 

 which naturalists generally attain. Whether this 

 longevity is to be attributed to those quiet and tem- 

 perate habits inseparable from their studies, or to 

 that exercise necessary to active investigation, 

 certain it is, that both must have considerable in- 

 fluence on the prolongation of life. An entomologist, 

 having no professional occupation, and ardently 

 devoted to his study, may be said to live, during the 

 greatest part of the year, in the open air. No soil 

 or situation is unproductive of his game ; he has 

 not to wait until the First of September, for free 

 licence and permission to capture. No sooner do 

 the first mild beams of a spring sun awaken the 



