PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST EDITIOX. 



An instinctive general love of nature, that is, in other words, of the 

 works of God, has been implanted by Him, the Great Architect of the 

 universe — the Great Parent of all — in the mind of every man. There is no 

 one, whether old or young, or of whatever circumstances or rank in life, 

 who can look without any feeling or emotion on the handiworks of Creation 

 which surround him — who can behold a rich sunset, a storm, the sea, a 

 tree, a mountain, a river, a rainbow, a flower, without some degree of 

 admiration, and some measure of thought. He may, indeed, for the time, 

 or for a moment, be engrossed by some worldly care, or some other subject, 

 some remembrance of the past, or anticipation of the future, but this 

 cannot always be the case, and whenever the mind is relieved from that 

 overpowering feeling, the spontaneous thoughts which originate in the love 

 of nature, will be sure to arise in his soul. 



Whether indeed in some there is more than a general feeling of this kind; 

 whether all, if opportunities had been afforded to them, and had been 

 aflbrded to them in good time, would have found that especial delight 

 which others find in the more intimate study of this or that branch of 

 Natural History, whether it may have been only the pressure of different 

 and altogether necessary thoughts that has pre-occupied the mind, and taken 

 away, or, rather, set aside, these which would otherwise have naturally found 

 favour with it, I will not take upon me to determine; but thus much I can 

 and do say, because I can say it of and for myself, that with me, in this 

 sense, the universal includes the particular — includes every particular that is 

 included under it ; for there is no group of the wide-spread family of nature 



