LECT. I.] SCIENCE OP BOTANY. 31 



these; and the pleasure to be derived from the 

 knowledge of it is not confined to any period of 

 life, or any rank in society. In youth, when the 

 affections are warm and the imagination is vivid ; 

 in more advanced life, when sober judgment as- 

 sumes the reins ; in the sunshine of fortune and 

 the obscurity of poverty ; it can be equally en- 

 joyed. The opening buds of spring, the warm 

 luxuriant blossoms of full-blown summer, the yel- 

 low bower of autumn, and the leafless, desolate 

 groves of winter, equally afford a supply of men- 

 tal amusement and gratification to the Botanist. 



I have thought it necessary to state these ex- 

 amples of the usefulness of > Botany and the plea- 

 sures to be derived from the study of it, in order 

 to satisfy the demands of those who consider that 

 nothing ought to be attended to which does not 

 present some immediate object of profit or of uti- 



" spirit of emulation; and we shall hear no more of these paltry 

 " feuds : give them more useful and more interesting subjects 

 " of conversation, and they become not only more agreeable, 

 " but safer companions for each other." I would add, that 

 men who exclaim against learned women, often allow the sex 

 an excessive and unrestrained pursuit of pleasure ; and think 

 so meanly of their powers of mind, as to believe them fit only 

 to be amused with the fictions of romance. But, if pleasure be 

 essential for the happiness of woman, it can be obtained from 

 the pursuit of science, that knowledge which is founded on 

 truth and utility, provided an early taste for it be implanted in 

 the mind. 



