18 NAT URAL HISTORY 



cents? "I wish," argues the prudent father, "to 

 give my son one thousand dollars ; it must be safely 

 invested, so that it will bring in sixty dollars an- 

 nually. Shall I put it into the vault of the sav- 

 ings-bank, or into my son's head in the shape of 

 Natural History ?" It is with him a mere matter 

 of judicious investment. The son's head is balanced 

 against the stone vault, or a wooden box, as a safe 

 place for depositing money. If the box is surest to 

 bring semi-annual dividends, the money goes there, 

 and the apartments in the son's head are still empty. 



The argument from design is so obvious, and has 

 been so well presented, that a certain relation of 

 Natural History to religion is acknowledged by 

 those who have given the least thought to this great 

 revelation. That it has other and more important 

 bearings than these special arguments thus far pre- 

 sented, it would not be difficult to show. 



But two important departments still remain In- 

 tellect and Taste that have not yet been properly 

 connected with Natural History, so that it should 

 be seen to have high claims in reference to them 

 alone. On the first of these, the relation of Natural 



