308 HOW TO STUDY NATURAL HISTORY. [xn, 



combine them in your mind. Remember that while 

 England is, and ever will be, behindhand in metaphy- 

 sical and scholastic science, she is the nation which above 

 all others has conquered nature by obeying her ; that 

 as it pleased God that the author of that proverb, the 

 father of inductive science, Bacon Lord Yerulam, 

 should have been an Englishman, so it has pleased 

 Him that we, Lord Bacon's countrymen, should improve 

 that precious heirloom of science, inventing, producing, 

 exporting, importing, till it seems as if the whole 

 human race, and every land from the equator to the 

 pole must henceforth bear the indelible impress and 

 sign manual of English science. 



And bear in mind, as I said just now, that this 

 study of natural history is the grammar of that very 

 physical science which has enabled England thus to re- 

 plenish the earth and subdue it. Do you not see, then, 

 that by following these studies you are walking in the 

 very path to which England owes her wealth ; that you 

 are training in yourselves that habit of mind which 

 God has approved as the one which He has ordained for 

 Englishmen, and are doing what in you lies toward 

 carrying out, in after life, the glorious work which God 

 seems to have laid on the English race, to replenish 

 the earth and subdue it ? 



One word more, and I have done. Unless you are al- 

 ready tired of hearing me, I would suggest a fewpractical 

 hints before we part. The best way of learning these 

 matters is by classes, in which men may combine and in- 

 terchange their thoughts and observations. The greatest 

 savants find this; and have their Microscopic Society, 

 Linnaean, Royal, Geological Societies, British Associa- 

 tions, and what not, in which all may know what each 



