Audubon’s Ornithology, First Volume. 349 
‘** Thus may our lives, exempt from public toil, 
Find tongues in trees, books in the running eet 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.’ 
A very visible and decided change in the public mind in favor 
of the study of natural history, has taken place in this country 
within a very short space of time. The universal dependence of 
almost every one upon his own individual exertions for support, 
have deterred, till within a few years, nearly all from even the 
most partial attention to this subject. Our young men have felt 
that their time was too sto besoemployed. But a mark- 
ed change has been t ‘place. The avidity with which the 
youth of many of our seminaries of learning are turning their 
attention hither is most gratifying. We hail it as a harbinger of 
good—as a means of doing away with a vast deal of those vi- 
cious habits into which students at colleges are but too prone to 
fall from sheer want of something to occupy their leisure hours, 
and which we cannot but believe the study of nature will sup- 
ply to many. It was well remarked by one familiar with the 
subject, in a recent lecture before the Natural History Society of - 
the young men of Harvard College, at their anniversary in May: 
‘He who loves nature, loves not revelry ; artificial excitement has no fascina- 
tion for him. The overflowing cup and unmeaning and dishonest game, cannot 
entice him. He avoids them with disgust and disdain. Fortunate indeed is it for 
that oung man who early imbibes his taste for — objects, and who has not 
been thwarted in his wishes by injudicious friend 
“Does es any one doubt the influence of these er upon the morals? I will 
ask him to point to me the immoral young man who is devotedly fond of natural 
hardly realize that such sources of —— s sasarade were ever within their reach. 
Ashamed to indulge in thei , to associate with their for- 
mer companions, they st aa ‘forth regenerated; and, with ee health and 
ardent devotion, live, grateful worshippers of th ee 
‘The day is not far distant, when the establishment or your sean shall be 
acknowledged to have been a most happy occurrence ; when it 
back to as the era at which commenced a visible change-in the tastes and habits 
of the young men, who have resorted hither, when to be one of its members will 
be a passport to confidence and respect. Heaven grant the time may not be long 
a ere a fountain shall flow here, whose water shall be the purer the deeper 
n—ere, within these consecrated aneilny by the enthusiastic naturalist, 
ey ponies the works of the Almighty.” 
No one has probably contributed more towards creating and fos- 
tering a taste for nature in this country, ae the justly celebrated 
Vol. xxx1x, No. 2.—July-September, 1840. 
