346 Audubon’s Ornithology, First Volume. 
to be carelessly and capriciously set down by the prejudice and 
injustice of those who may not sympathize with his pursuits and.» 
his tastes, as a vagabond, an idler, and at best a very useless indi- 
vidual, if not one who should be regarded as an outcast from 
society. ‘The entomologist, with his net and other paraphernalia 
for the pursuit of the objects of his study, has at last ceased to 
be looked upon except by the ignorant and the unintelligent, as 
at best a sort of monomaniac, who manifests his insanity by pin- 
ning all sorts of curious bugs to the crown of his hat. 
The study of the natural sciences is fast becoming a more and 
more favorite pursuit ; every hour adds to the numbers of its vo- 
taries, and its warmest friends have at length every reason to be 
satisfied with the progress it is making, and to feel that before 
long it will keep pace with that of civilization and intelligence. 
Beyond this would be to expect impossibilities. 
The friends of the natural sciences need ask for no stronger 
proof of the beneficial effects which follow the study of their 
favorite pursuits, than that offered by the simple fact of its on- 
ward progress, and the rapidly increasing favor it finds with the 
public. Did these not exist, in vain might Cuvier have labored ; 
in vain would have been all the fascinating eloquence of his lec- 
tures ; in vain the simplicity and clearness of his writings. He 
might, indeed, for a time, have carried captive, by his powers of 
intellect, an imaginative people ; but they would sooner or later 
have detected the imposture, had they been pursuing an ignis| 
fatuus, or even a harmless but unprofitable shadow. An intelli- 
gent people may for a time be deceived and misled, but they 
are never long deliberately in error; and we may therefore appeal 
with confidence to the striking and conclusive facts that where 
there is most intelligence, there and there only, the natural sci- 
ences flourish best, and also that the more the attention of a peo- 
ple is called to the subject, the more and more popular do they 
become, and the greater and more universal the avidity with 
which their study is pursued. It is not only because they are a 
never failing source of delightful ocettpation—it is not only be- 
cause their study has been found by the experience of years to 
convey nothing at all at variance with morality or religion—but 
S Moreover because of the direct and positive benefit which 
they are found to create both in a religious and a moral point of 
. view, that we find their study now encouraged and sanctioned 
by the enlightened and the unprejudiced public. 
