FRANCIS WILLUGHBY, 145 



as a class of men for their longevity. It may 

 be pursued as a study or an amusement, at a 

 very small expense ; it is unlimited in its resources, 

 and so calculated to improve the moral character, 

 that it is asserted by an eminent writer, that less 

 evil has been chargeable, in proportion, upon the 

 naturalists, than upon any other order of students. 



In addition to these advantages, the examina- 

 tion of nature tends peculiarly to produce and 

 establish a serene and happy state of mind. It 

 is hardly possible to read the lives of naturalists 

 without making the reflection, how considerable 

 a share of happiness they must have enjoyed. 

 They have been compared, in this respect, to 

 the father of mankind yet unfallen, when engaged 

 in the happy garden in giving names to the 

 cattle, fowls of the air, and beasts of the field. 

 How silent, how peaceful, must have been the 

 meditations of these priests of nature how pure, 

 now healthy their perceptions how free, how 

 full of joy the action of their intellect when 

 communing with the denizens of air, and earth, 

 and ocean ! 



What superiority to the envies of courts, and 

 the tumults of camps and senates, and even the 

 competitions of the dull distant city, which they 

 have descried in their far off wanderings, and 

 whose fumes and blackness are but the too exact 

 emblems of their agitations and crimes ! 



Nor may it be forgotten that the pursuits of 

 the naturalist are peculiarly calculated to remind 

 him of the clearest natural argument for his own 



K 



