ae Notice of British Naturalists. 157 
improvements. It falls in very happily with their professional 
knowledge. 'The mysteries of the creation of God, as well as 
his attributes, and his government of the world in his dispen- 
sations to man, it is their duty to study and to exemplify; but | 
while they confine themselves to the revealed word alone, they 
shut out of sight a volume which speaks not less forcibly of the 
love and excellencies of the Creator, and of his mighty wisdom 
and perfections. 'There is no reason why persons of this profession 
should’ be less sensible to, or less well informed in regard to phy- 
sical objects, than the other educated classes of society, but rather 
the contrary ; and the greater their knowledge is, the greater 
likewise will be their capabilities of fulfilling the end of their 
lives. The Jesuits,* whose system of education is perhaps, as a 
means, one of the very best adapted for producing the required 
tesults, are very far from’ neglecting the study of these subjects; 
and they have exemplified in practice, what the good George Her- 
bert has asserted in theory, that “the country parson is full of all 
knowledge, They say it is an ill mason that refuseth any stone : 
and there is no knowledge but in a skilful hand,—serves either 
positively as it is, or else to illustrate some other knowledge. 
He condescends even to the knowledge of tillage and pasturage, 
and makes great use of them in teaching, because people, by 
What they understand, are best led to what they understand not.”’+ 
Some of the ereatest living naturalists of Great Britain are 
clergyman, among whom we may mention Dr. John Fleming, 
Minister of Flisk, Fifeshire, Rev. Leonard Jenyns, and Professors 
Buckland and Sedgwick, to whom Geology owes much of its 
Present eminence. 
The following extracts from White’s original preface, are not 
Unworthy of repetition :— 
“The author is also of opinion that if stationary men would 
Pay some attention to the districts in which they reside, and 
Would publish their thoughts on the objects which surround them, 
ftom such materials might be drawn the most complete county 
Sa ae eee rea 
~ Sie etiam quoniam artes, vel Scientia Naturales ingenia disponunt ad Theo- 
logiam, et ad perfectam cognitionem et usum illius inserviant, et per seipsas ad 
eundem finem juvant ; qua diligentia par est, et per eruditos Preceptores, in omni- 
bus “incere honorem et gloriam Dei querendo, tractentur.” 
Pars4. Cap. XII. §3. 
s ‘onstitutiones Societatis Je. 
A Priest in the Temple.” Chap. IV. 
