ITS ADVANTAGES IN AFTER LIFE. 381 



for any one philosophic or intellectual pursuit, which 

 might be followed, if not as a study, at least as an 

 elegant amusement, suited to the education they 

 have received, the advantages they enjoy, and the 

 superior station of society in which they move. How 

 frequently do we see young men of naturally superior 

 abilities, after gaining university honours, to which 

 they were excited by the short-lived stimulus of 

 competition, leave their college, and settle down 

 upon their paternal estates as mere country gentle- 

 men, hunting squires, or racing patrons : filling 

 situations, in short, which should be occupied by men 

 of a lower grade in the scale of intellect, but which 

 they fall into, merely because they have not been 

 instructed in any pursuit which will call into con- 

 tinued activity those abstract powers of reasoning 

 or observation they may have acquired at college. 

 The mind, however high may be its natural capa- 

 bilities, invariably sinks to a level with its usual 

 occupations. And science, being neglected by these 

 men, who have almost exclusively the power of pur- 

 suing it with true dignity, is left to those who are 

 obliged in most cases to connect it with objects of 

 trade, or of pecuniary advantage. 



(262.) But if a taste for natural history is so well 

 calculated to give elegance and dignity to the re- 

 creations of the aristocracy, how much more is it 

 in unison with those feelings and habits of thought 

 which should belong to the young clergyman when 

 he quits his college, and desires to enter upon the 

 sacred duties of his profession ? The excitements 

 of collegiate studies are now over ; competition is 

 at an end, and he either waits to be called to active 



