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sometimes by way of reproach, too, that naturalists, and out-o'-door 

 naturalists more especially, are somewhat prone to attach undue im- 

 portance to creature comforts. Now we hold that a proper attention 

 to the wants and wishes of the outer man, is in no wise derogatory to 

 the character of a naturalist, or incompatible with the pursuit of know- 

 ledge, whether in the closet or the field. For there is another old 

 saw worthy to be placed alongside the one quoted above, which says 

 that " the horse which goes well in one path, will go at least tolerably 

 in all : " whence we would infer that he who most admires the beau- 

 ty of natural objects inpuris naturalibus — that is to say, uncooked, 

 can scarcely fail to appreciate them equally after they have been sub- 

 jected to the mysteries of the culinary art. This, to some, may ap- 

 pear to partake of the figure of speech termed a non seqnitur, but it 

 is true, notwithstanding ; as will readily be granted by all who, like 

 Johnson and his unlucky companions in Greane Isle, have felt the 

 pangs of hunger and thirst beneath the summer's sun. To them, how 

 delicious -the association of ideas awakened perhaps by the unexpect- 

 ed apparition of a plant used in re culinarid ! Of Lady Scott it is 

 recorded, that whilst walking with her husband 



" Abroad in the meadows to see the young lambs," 



and Sir Walter happening to make the remark that these little animals 

 are very interesting creatures, her ladyship replied "Yes; with mint 

 sauce ! " Now, as the converse to this, let us suppose a botanist 

 placed in a similarly intei'esting position to that of our old friends in 

 Greane Isle ; and let us also suppose him to come suddenly upon a 

 patch of some species of Mentha ; is it too much to believe that his 

 weary and fainting spirit would be refreshed by visions of roast lamb 

 with mint sauce ? In like manner would Thymus suggest ideas of 

 roast veal well stuffed; and a field of barley conjure up mental 

 pictures of the foaming tankard of ale, or the wee drap o' mountain 

 dew, bright and sparkling as the gems which deck the ebon brow of 

 night. So that if he agree with those metaphysicians who hold that 

 there is nothing material in the objects which surround us, but that 

 like Macbeth's air-drawn dagger they are all nothing more than men- 

 tally daguerreotyped ideas, the naturalist in the pursuit of knowledge 

 under difficulties has but to follow the advice of Erasmus to Sir 

 Thomas More, when the learned Dutchman forgot to return the 

 horse he had borrowed — he has but to believe that all the good things 

 he thinks of are before him, and then he may fa tu an ate to his 

 stomach's content, finishing off with the produce of the choicest vin- 



