138 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



resources ! We need not insist, that such knowledge, 

 properly and judiciously made use of, will not only 

 be useful, but lucrative. The first traders who sup- 

 plied China with the furs of America, realised large 

 fortunes; and the same results will always attend 

 every such enterprise, however irregular it may 

 appear, if it is only founded on knowledge, and 

 conducted with prudence. People go on trading in 

 the beaten track, not because there are no others, but 

 because the traders are in general totally uninformed 

 on those circumstances which lead to their discovery. 

 The produce of the animal kingdom, in our com- 

 mercial lists, is much more limited than that of the 

 vegetable and the mineral. Yet how few of the 

 valuable exotic drugs, dyes, and medicines do we 

 know more of than their ordinary names ! Some 

 that, from being produced in small quantities, and 

 in a limited district, bear a high price, may very 

 possibly be abundant in adjacent countries, or might 

 be transplanted and cultivated in other situations less 

 remote and more convenient. It is the business of 

 the merchant, if he aims at wealth, to discover new 

 sources of commerce, of which he can reap the first 

 fruits ; but this will never be done, save by accident, 

 without he is well informed respecting the produc- 

 tions, — whether natural or artificial — of other 

 nations ; in order that he may supply their wants, 

 or import their produce. The truth is, that the pro- 

 fession of commerce embraces many branches of in- 

 formation, and even of science, which at first sight 

 appear totally unconnected with it: and among these, 

 natural history holds no inconsiderable station. 





