RESEARCHES 



IN 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



CHAP. I. 



INTRODUCTION. PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON THE 



TONE AND TEMPER OF MODERN SCIENCE. INTRO- 

 DUCTORY WORKS ON SCIENCE. ASPECT OF NOMEN- 

 CLATURE, AND ITS MUTABILITY. 



NATURAL History is now much cultivated among us, 

 and its study seems eminently calculated to soothe 

 the mind and soften the affections of the heart, virtues 

 that will not flourish amid the abstract mathematical 

 sciences, though we would not be understood to decry 

 their worth and underrate their usefulness. Both 

 sexes, and every age, may enjoy this pursuit, and make 

 their election of that which is most congenial to each. 

 Healthful pleasures are attendants in her train : we 

 are not trammelled by the mechanism of art, wearied 

 by the sedentary labours of the closet, or suffocated 

 by the fumes of the laboratory : " we walk," as Sir 

 J. E. Smith has expressed it, " with God in the garden 

 of creation, and hold converse with his providence ; " 

 and this feeling will be equally enjoyed, whether we 

 " consider the lilies of the field how they grow," or 

 B 



