INTRODUCTION. 15 



around him, and left him, within certain limits, the accountable 

 master of the creation. 



On the utility of a knowledge of the objects of Nature, to a 

 being depending on her productions for the supply of all his 

 conveniences and wants, it is scarcely necessary to insist. No 

 species of human learning is so well calculated to form habits of 

 attention and correct observation as the study of the different 

 branches of Natural History, and none is more admirably adapt- 

 ed to the feelings and capacities of the young. Besides the im- 

 provement of the intellectual powers which the examination of 

 the structure and habits of any class of organized beings is cal- 

 culated to produce, and the associations likely to be thereby 

 awakened, there is something in the study of nature which ap- 

 proaches to philosophy of a higher kind something that, while it 

 teaches man his place in this Creation of Wonders, infallibly 

 leads him to admire the wisdom, and power, and goodness dis- 

 played by its Great Author. 



