54 On the Economical Uses of some species of Testacea. 
branches ; and as such they are the parents and fosterers of the arts. 
What do not the miner and the landowner owe the geologist ?—the 
agriculturist to the zoologist and botanist ?—and every one to mine- 
ralogy ? and yet how seldom is it that we view these pursuits in this — 
light. Were this connection more frequently reflected on, and the 
useful results of science more generally brought to notice, we are — 
convinced that many who now neglect it would study it, as condu- 
cing to their own progress, as well as to that of their country, in prac- 
tical knowledge ; and those who now idly despise it, would become 
its warm and active advocates. 
As far as regards the cultivation of our minds, the utility of the 
science cannot be denied. It is from the contemplation of the works 
of the Creator, that the highest and most glorious thoughts of his 
majesty and beneficence are drawn; it is from the observation of 
them that we form our ideas of beauty, of elegance, or of grace ; 
and in them we find a never-ceasing source of admiration, amuse- 
ment, and instruction. ‘This study enlarges the mind, in a peculiar 
manner softens the heart, and above all, prompts to a continued de- 
pendence on Him who “ provideth the raven with his food,” and 
decks the lily with more beauty than even Solomon in all his glory 
was possessed of. 
*«No man,” remarks the great Bacon, “need say that learning 
will expulse business, but rather it will keep and defend the posses- 
sion of the mind against idleness and pleasure, which otherwise may 
at unawares enter in to the prejudice of both.” 'The greatest and 
best in all ages have been celebrated for their knowledge of and 
love for natural history. To mention but a few—Solomon, we are told, 
wrote a work on the subject: “of trees, from the cedar tree that is 
in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.... 
of beasts and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes ;” Aris- 
totle, the deepest and most able ethical philosopher that perhaps 
ever existed, has left us a large and most learned work on the same; 
to Sir Isaac Newton, the christian is not Jess indebted than the phi- 
losopher ; and in still more modern times, Cuvier is scarcely more 
celebrated for his researches into, and classification of nature, than 
for his political acme, general learning, and piety. But perhaps in 
no branch of natural history has this connection been more neglected 
than in Conchology ; the generality of our shells are comparatively 
so minute, and their uses so seldom obvious to us, that with a very 
few exceptions, writers have altogether forgotten to mention the pur- 
