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teries of the laws of organic matter, it were scarcely 

 possible, that some, new and hitherto unobserved 

 truth should not be unfolded. Hasty and casual ob- 

 servation is led to suppose that little remains to be ac- 

 complished after the labors of some devoted and emi- 

 nent student in a particular department of research ; 

 but it needs only a more familiar acquaintance with 

 the subject to expose the error. With what fidelity 

 and almost veneration have the grossest and most 

 anomalous mistakes been cherished and maintained in 

 the very opposition to reason and observation ! Nat- 

 ural Science in common with every other branch of 

 human knowledge is yet, too much indebted to the 

 dulness and obstinacy, the theories rather than practi- 

 cal experiments of its advocates and disciples, for the 

 most palpable errors. The pages of misnamed treatises 

 on the subject, are too often burdened with idle 

 speculations on idle themes. It becomes us then par- 

 ticularly, not to err on such grounds, preferring rather 

 a single correct and personal observation to a multi- 

 tude of fictitious, though recorded, opinions. 



The pursuit of Natural History is in this point of 

 view, entirely in the power and at the option of every 

 one. Well would it be, were the first and oftentimes 

 feeble efforts, feeble, because unaided and unsup- 

 ported by the sympathy of kindred spirits, of many 

 a curious observer of Nature rendered available and of 

 utility to himself and others. But the existence of 

 the present circumstances may be in a great measure 

 attributed to the popular system of education and 

 mode of thinking. The almost intuitive love for, and 

 admiration in such studies, with the young, by some 



