S10 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



history of our church can boast of; for the name of 

 Jones of Nayland will ever shine as one of the bright- 

 est ornaments of the Christian profession. These dis- 

 courses, to be found only among his works, illustrate, 

 in the most simple and beautiful manner, many points 

 of that harmonious analogy between the material and 

 the spiritual world, between natural and revealed re- 

 ligion, which pervades creation. As a naturalist, 

 this excellent man was not profound ; for he lived 

 when the philosophy of this science was in its infancy. 

 How much more, then, could be achieved in these 

 days by one who, like the present Woodwardian 

 professor at Cambridge, could bring to the subject 

 the richest stores of modern discovery, with the 

 sound and orthodox principles of the established 

 church.* On the Croonian lecture little need be 

 said ; it was instituted, according to Mr. Babbage, 

 by Dr. Croone, for an annual essay on muscular 

 motion. The payment, indeed, is but small, — 

 three pounds, — yet still it might, like the last, be 

 made a subject of honourable competition among 

 medical students. At present, it seems to have 

 been given, " as a sort of pension," year after year 

 to one individual. 



(217.) Such is the general nature of the char- 

 tered societies of this country formed for the promo- 

 tion of science, and such are the means they possess 



* Those who feel interested on this subject will peruse, with 

 admiration and delight, the Discourse on the Studies of the 

 University of Cambridge, by Professor Sedgwick ; while the 

 Critique of Dr. lire's Geology in the British Review for July, 

 1829, by the same author, has been justly termed " an essay, 

 equally worthy of a philosopher and a Christian." 



