16 NATURAL HISTORY 



bound them to their work, and cheered them in 

 their investigations. The power of this element has 

 never been more fully recognized than in the late 

 work of the great master in Zoology, who sums up 

 each of his thirty-three first chapters as expressions 

 of thoughts of the Creator. He does not, like the 

 Alchemist, claim that he has made the gold which 

 he holds up to our admiring view. He presents the 

 gleaming ore, and says, Here I found it, where it 

 was poured in all its purity by God himself. 



"We have now laid open broad veins by centu- 

 ries of patient search ; but it was the shining 

 particles of the same true ore, the thought of God, 

 that led on the early searchers, though they found 

 it in grains so small and scattered, while walking 

 upon the edge of the placer, that the multitude 

 could see nothing. "We have drawn on to richer 

 fields, and Natural History has assumed such an 

 importance so many are engaged in its pursuits 

 it is coming to take such a place in our courses of 

 instruction that we may well inquire its relations 

 to man as an intellectual, emotional, physical, and 

 religious being ; or, in other words, the relation of 



