STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 4<9 



Young minds cannot, I should conceive, be too 

 strongly impressed with the simple wonders of cre- 

 ation by which they are surrounded : in the race of 

 life they may be passed by, the occupation of exist- 

 ence may not admit attention to them, or the 

 unceasing cares of the world may smother early 

 attainments but they can never be injurious will 

 give a bias to a reasoning mind, and tend, in some 

 after, thoughtful, sobered hour, to comfort and to 

 soothe. The little insights that we have obtained 

 into Nature's works are many of them the offspring 

 of scientific research ; and partial and uncertain as 

 our labours are, yet a brief gleam will occasionally 

 lighten the darksome path of the humble inquirer, 

 and give him a momentary glimpse of hidden truths : 

 let not, then, the idle and the ignorant scoff at him 

 who devotes an unemployed hour, 



No calling left, no duty broke, 



to investigate a moss, a fungus, a beetle, or a shell, 

 in " ways of pleasantness, and in paths of peace."" 

 They are all the formation of Supreme intelligence, 

 for a wise and a worthy end, and may lead us by 

 gentle gradations to a faint conception of the powers 

 of infinite wisdom. They have calmed and amused 

 some of us worms and reptiles, and possibly bet- 

 tered us for our change to a new and more perfect 

 order of being. 



We yet possess two forest-trees, beautiful and 

 unmutilated ! An oak in Shellard's-lane has escaped 

 the woodman's axe, the hedger's bill : it stands on 

 the side of the waste, and has long afforded shade 



