22 NATURAL HISTORY 



nature, flashes upon the mind. The time will come, 

 when the humblest work of the Natural Historian 

 will, like the soap-bubble of Newton, vindicate 

 itself. We are sure this is so ; for in every created 

 object in the myriad forms thrown up by every 

 wave in the beetle that fills with drowsy hum the 

 evening air in the worm that crawls in the moss 

 and mildew there is a thought of God. We are 

 sure, that what it was not beneath the dignity of 

 God to create, is riot beneath the dignity of man to 

 study that it can not fail to vindicate fully its claim 

 to our attention. We simply wish to do something 

 to hasten that time. 



Natural History is the study of the earth as one 

 mass, and of every object upon its surface and with- 

 in its crust. We ask you, then, to enter the portals 

 of this great temple, and read the thought of the 

 Builder in every separate stone, and its joining. 

 Nothing is superfluous nothing is wanting. Every 

 line, seemingly useless in the separate stones, serves 

 to show their true place in the arch or dome. And 

 not a single tint could be lost without marring the 

 grand picture which the pieces all conspire to form. 



