354 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



not pecuniary resources of their own. We speak 

 not here of dilettanti, who amuse themselves — and 

 rationally so — with learning what has long been 

 known, and who, after the ordinary business of the 

 day is finished, make the elegancies of science their 

 recreation. These neither seek or require any other 

 inducement or reward than the self-approbation, 

 and the intellectual pleasure, derived from such a 

 rational source of relaxation ; they skim the surface, 

 sip its sweets, but never dive to the depths below. 

 Far otherwise, however, is the case with him who 

 devotes his undivided attention to science, in her 

 highest and noblest garb, who consumes days and 

 nights, months and years, in learning all that the 

 accumulated labours of mankind have made known 

 upon his favourite theme, only that he may discover 

 something that they have not ; that he may unfold 

 new applications of those general laws already 

 known, trace more clearly the results of their com- 

 bination, or discover others which open fresh sources 

 of harmony and wonder. The most ordinary mind 

 must immediately perceive, that studies such as these 

 are quite inconsistent with the ordinary business 

 and concerns of life ; that they cannot be pursued 

 together ; and that, if the depths of science are to 

 be fathomed, and new discoveries brought to light, 

 the task can only be achieved by those whose time 

 is at their own command, whose attention is not 

 divided or distracted by avocations purely worldly, 

 and whose circumstances are such as to make them 

 free from pecuniary cares. Talents, fitting their 

 possessors, for such speculations, must be of a high 

 order, and they are consequently rare; yet still 



