Notice of British Natw^alists. 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 capabihties 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 

 results, 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.^'f 

 Some of the greatest living naturalists of Great Britain are 

 clergyman, among whom w^e may mention Dr. John Fleming, 

 minister of Flisk, Fifeshire, Rev. Leonard Jenyns, and Professors 

 Buckland and Sedgwick, to v/hom Geology owes much of its 

 present eminence. 



White 



petition 



stationary 



pay some attention to the districts in which they reside, and 

 would publish their thoughts on the objects which surround them, 

 from such materials might be drawn the most complete county 



*" Sic etiam quoiilam artes, vel Scientm Naturales ingenia disponiint ad Theo- 

 logiam et ad pcrfectam cognitioneiu et usum illius Inscrvlant, et per seipsas ad 

 eundem finem juvant; qua diligeutla par est, et per eruditos Pr^ceplores, m omni- 

 bus sincere honorem et glorlam Dei quaerendo, tracteniur." 



Constitutiones Sodetatis Jesu, 1558. Pars 4. Cap, XII , § 3. 



t ** A Priest in the Temple," Chap. IV. 



