SUBJECTS OK NAIM'RAL HISTORY. 189 



to Nature for the materials, and to a knowledge of Nature for the 

 methods of using them. All the most masterly combinations of the 

 painter and the sculptor are but selections from the vast field of na- 

 tural products. If he succeed in bringing together such an assem- 

 blage as no individual was ever known to exhibit, yet must tlie se- 

 lection, in all its parts, follow the great outline and manner of Na- 

 ture, otherwise, instead of a Venus or an Apollo, he would embody 

 a monster. 



Were I to bring before you any work of art in which genius had 

 done its utmost, I could only shew you that the most perfect speci- 

 men of human ingenuity is but a faint and imperfect reflection of 

 Divine Wisdom. The highest and noblest inventions of man can 

 never stand the test of a comparison with the works emanating from 

 the source of perfection. No parallel ought to be attempted between 

 the works of Nature and the works of man. What are pyramids, 

 that chronicle scarcely less than forty centuries, to your own neigh- 

 bouring hills ? What the most brilliant tints of the palette to the 

 colours of the rainbow or the varied tints of autumn ? What are 

 the mausoleums of the east to the rocks and mountains that pre- 

 serve the remains and memory of an extinguished world ? 



The works of Nature are so many and so varied — they include 

 objects so beautiful and exquisite in their structure, and so jjerfect 

 in all their adaptations — they are based upon principles so simple, 

 yet so powerful, efficient alike upon the atom and the mass, now de- 

 termining: the orbits of comets and the career of planets through space 

 to which we can assign no bounds, and again giving colour to the 

 rainbow and the flower. The vast extension of Natural History, 

 and its endless application to the wants of man, raises it so high in 

 the scale of our inquiries and pursuits, that every attempt to impart 

 its facts and conclusions in an easy and persuasive form is desirable 

 and praiseworthy. To this end the building in which I am speak- 

 ing, placed in the centre of your city, has been devoted; for this 

 purpose its museum is stored with materials of interest, which can- 

 not fail of imparting a feeling of surprise and admiration to those 

 who visit them. Do not be disappointed if you cannot make out the 

 object or uses of all you see; to understand any department a pre- 

 vious acquaintance with the labours of others is necessary. The 

 energy of many minds has been exerted in the study of Natural 

 History ; and the limits of former discovery should be the starting- 

 post for you. 



Among the primary elements of education is the acquirement of 

 tlic art of imparling to others all that may be passing in our own 



