4:0 NATURAL HISTORY 



and Linnaeus, and Kirby, and Audubon, and Lyell, 

 and Murcliison, and Agassiz, and others, the titles 

 of whose books would fill volumes. In what de- 

 partment will you find deeper problems for thought, 

 or more attractive subjects for every period of life? 

 "We might go further, and say that no class of books 

 is more eagerly sought for, or more generally 

 studied. For the man of general intelligence, or 

 for the scholar, the literature of Natural History is 

 unsurpassed. "What more charming descriptions 

 than in Audubon and Wilson? What more inspir- 

 ing than the works of Miller ? What authors re- 

 quire deeper thought and the exercise of higher 

 mental powers than the writers on classification ? 

 What works encourage more self-reliance and bold- 

 ness of views than those of the late geologists ? 



But the important relation of Natural History to 

 intellect as an educating power, is apparent from its 

 modes of investigation- from the objects it presents 

 from the powers it exercises from the accuracy 

 of its processes and the grandeur of its results. 



It calls men to the field, and teaches them to treat 

 of real things, and not of mere names, " terms of 



