OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 349 



the first impulse still vigorous and undiminished. It 

 may truly, indeed, be said, that there is scarcely a 

 single branch of physical enquiry which is either 

 stationary, or which has not been, for many years 

 past, in a constant state of advance, and in which 

 the progress is not, at this moment, going on with 

 accelerated rapidity. 



(384.) Among the causes of this happy and desir- 

 able state of things, no doubt we are to look, in the 

 first instance, to that great increase in wealth and ci- 

 vilization which has at once afforded the necessary 

 leisure and diffused the taste for intellectual pursuits 

 among numbers of mankind, which have long been 

 and still continue steadily progressive in every prin- 

 cipal European state, and which the increase and fresh 

 establishment of civilized communities in every dis- 

 tant region are rapidly spreading over the whole 

 globe. It is not, however, merely the increased 

 number of cultivators of science, but their enlarged 

 opportunities, that we have here to consider, which, 

 in all those numerous departments of natural re- 

 search that require local information, is in fact the 

 most important consideration of all. To this cause 

 we must trace the great extension which has of late 

 years been conferred on every branch of natural 

 history, and the immense contributions which have 

 been made, and are daily making, to the depart- 

 ments of zoology and botany, in all their ramifica- 

 tions. It is obvious, too, that all the information 

 that can possibly be procured, and reported, by the 

 most enlightened and active travellers, must fall 

 infinitely short of what is to be obtained by indivi- 

 duals actually resident upon the spot. Travellers, 



