150 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



economy of animals, again, can only be learned by 

 observation; and this implies a habit of quick-sighted 

 attention, and a knowledge of such points as should 

 be more especially attended to. Facts, so trivial in 

 themselves that ordinary observers would pronounce 

 them insignificant, are often, in the eye of the na- 

 turalist, of the highest importance ; not, indeed, in 

 their isolated character, but as leading to or corro- 

 borating some of the great truths of the natural 

 system. As an instance of this, the manner in which 

 the chrysalis of a butterfly is suspended, whether 

 with its head upwards or downwards, would appear, 

 to all but an entomologist, too trivial for record. 

 Yet this simple variation of position determines at 

 once to which of the primary types of the diurnal 

 Lepidoptera the insect in question belongs. A 

 thousand similar instances might be adduced, were 

 they necessary, to enforce the most critical precision 

 in recording observed facts. 



(92.) The advantages of natural history, as a 

 philosophic study, need not be dwelt upon, after 

 what has been so ably said in reference to the phy- 

 sical sciences in general *, of which this forms but a 

 part. We have already shown, that there are depart- 

 ments which may be cultivated without a profound 

 acquaintance with those physical laws hereafter to 

 be explained. But were we, in this place, to enu- 

 merate all those qualifications which constitute' a 

 philosophic naturalist, — the varied acquirements he 

 should possess — the materials he should collect — 

 the years that he must study — the countries he 



* See Sir J. F. Herschel's Preliminary Discourse. 



