ON THE STUDY OP NATURAL HISTORY. 5? 



ever opening to us, and we make continually new 

 discoveries. The tilings which delighted us in child- 

 hood, yield us little delight in manhood then 

 " Eartb, and every common sight, 



To us did seem 

 Apparelled in celestial light, 

 The glory and the freshness of a dream." 



But a sort of wearisome familiarity began to cling 



to them, 



" Shades of the prison-house begin to close 



Upon the growing boy, 

 But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, 



He sees it in his joy ; 

 The youth who daily from the East 

 Must travel, still is nature's priest, 



And by the vision splendid 



Is on his way attended ; 

 At length the man perceives it die away, 

 And fade into the light of common day." 



So, says the poet, is it with the ordinary experiences 

 of life. If it could be shown then, that there was 

 any one subject of study, which, beyond all others, 

 and with less trouble, could afford us a never-ending 

 experience of new pleasures pleasures, which 

 should not pall our satiated appetites, which have 

 the very least alloy of disappointment in them, is it 

 not worth while to pay a little attention to it ? I 

 may be said to be exaggerating, to be enthusiastic in 

 my mode of recreation ; but I appeal to all natura- 

 lists to bear me out in what I have said, and I 

 confidently leave it to the experience of others. 



The subject is one, not so much for the library and 

 the study, as for the theatre of Creation itself you 

 will bear in mind the view with which I am now re- 

 garding it we shall learn most by personal exami- 

 nation, and what we so learn we shall seldom forget. 



Nature probably is most fascinating, subjectively, 



