4:4: NATURAL HI STORY 



such of them as became distinguished succeeded in 

 spite of their mistake ; and in this respect they are 

 no more to be followed by the student, than the mis- 

 takes of Franklin's boyhood are to be copied be- 

 cause he became a statesman and philosopher. 



There is no tiring amid the variety of the objects 

 which Natural History presents, and they cannot be 

 exhausted. The land and water still abound in un- 

 studied forms, and the scalpel and microscope reveal 

 new wonders in those that are old. They are gen- 

 erally beautiful in themselves, always beautiful in 

 their relations, so that the mind is constantly re- 

 lieved by new points of interest, and thus dwells 

 upon them without weariness. They daily meet the 

 eye, and invite us to review. Other studies may be 

 forgotten because the books are closed and gathering 

 dust on the shelves, but the flowers and the trees 

 can not thus be put away. They press themselves 

 upon the attention every day, and the insects and 

 the birds will have a hearing. If the cold of winter 

 drive them away for a season, they make up for the 

 loss when they return in the spring, tilling every tree 

 and bush with their melody. Whoever heard of a 



