60 INTRODUCTION. 



all the higher Aspirations, to keep in check all that is low and de- 

 grading. But the mind must have recreation and amusement ; 

 and the more closely it is kept by the system of education adopted, 

 to the exercise of any one set of powers, the more potent will be 

 that reaction which will urge it, when restraint is removed, to 

 activity of some other kind ; and the more important is it, that 

 this reaction should receive a direction to what is healthful and 

 elevating, instead of to what is weakening and degrading. It is 

 quite a mistake to imagine that those evil habits which result 

 from a wrong exercise of the natural powers, a wrong direction 

 of the natural tendencies, can be effectually antagonized by the 

 simple effort at repression. The constant exercise either of ex- 

 ternal coercion or of internal restraint, tends to keep the atten- 

 tion directed towards the forbidden object of gratification ; the 

 malady is only held in check, not cured ; and it will break out, 

 perhaps with augmented force, whenever the perpetually-present 

 impulses shall derive more than ordinary strength from some 

 casual occurrence, or the restraining power shall have been tem- 

 porarily weakened. The only effectual mode of keeping in 

 check the wrong, is by making use of these same powers and 

 tendencies in a right mode ; by finding out objects whereon they 

 may be beneficially exercised ; and by giving them such a direc- 

 tion and encouragement, as may lead them to expend themselves 

 upon these, instead of fretting and chafing under restraint, ready 

 to break loose at the first opportunity. There is no object on 

 which the youthful energy can be employed more worthily, than 

 in the pursuit of Knowledge ; no kind of knowledge can be 

 made more attractive, than that which is presented by the Works 

 of Creation ; no source is more accessible, no fountain more 

 inexhaustible ; and there is none which affords, both in the mode 

 of pursuing it, and in its own nature, so complete and beneficial 

 a diversion from the ordinary scholastic pursuits. 



If there be one class more than another, which especially needs 

 to have its attention thus awakened to such objects of interest, 

 as, by drawing its better nature into exercise, shall keep it free 

 from the grovelling sensuality in which it too frequently loses 

 itself, it is our Laboring population ; the elevation of which is 

 one of the great social problems of the day. On those who are 

 actively concerned in promoting and conducting its education, 

 the claims and advantages of the Study of Nature can scarcely 

 be too strongly urged ; since experience has fully proved, what 

 might have been a priori anticipated, that where the taste for 

 this pursuit has been early fostered by judicious training, it be- 

 comes so completely a part of the mind, that it rarely leaves the 

 individual, however unfavorable his circumstances may be to 

 its exercise, but continues to exert a refining and elevating in- 

 fluence through his whole subsequent course of life. Now for 

 the reasons already stated, the Microscope is not merely a most 

 valuable adjunct in such instruction, but its assistance is essential 



