56 NATURAL HIS TORY 



highest point. In the study of Natural History, its 

 entire relation to man is to be considered. The 

 Intellect, as we have already shown, finds here a 

 soil adapted to its growth. Like a sturdy tree, it 

 may here strike its roots deep, and send up the 

 heavy trunk, and broad branches, and load them 

 with golden fruits. Here, too, Taste may flourish 

 under the same favoring influence, as pure intellec- 

 tual culture ; like the vine or prairie-rose upon the 

 oak, twining in graceful folds, and spreading over 

 the broad, firm branches of intellectual growth an 

 eternal adorning of indescribable beauty. 



It is on the relation of Natural History to Taste 

 that I wish to speak at this time. 



There is in man a love of the beautiful. And by 

 the beautiful we mean that which delights by sim- 

 ple contemplation that which we admire without 

 the thought of utility, and without the ability, 

 perhaps, to explain the cause of our admiration. 

 The emotions excited by beauty and grandeur may 

 be pronounced simple or complex, in our analysis of 

 the emotional nature, but " they are," says Allison, 

 "distinguishable from every other pleasure of our 



