16 PREFATORY NOTICE* 



person must begin observation in his own way, or 

 else lose all the pleasure of it, the less of detail 

 which was mingled with the attempt to excite the 

 feeling, it seemed to me the better. Following my 

 own judgment on a subject which is so perfectly 

 original that, so far as I know, there is not a book 

 or even a page expressly on it, I may be wrong, and 

 may have failed ; but even in that case, I shall not 

 feel so much humbled by absolute failure in an 

 original attempt, as I should have done at inferiority 

 in an imitation. 



The plan which I have adopted has been to throw 

 momentary glances on those portions of nature 

 which struck me as capable of reflecting the greatest 

 breadth and brilliancy of light ; and such as I thought 

 the most likely to induce the reader (and more es- 

 pecially the young reader) to return again to the 

 subjects, and work out the details for himself. I 

 have studiously avoided system, because it is to be 

 wished that every one should enter upon the obser- 

 vation of nature unfettered ; and I have also been 

 anxious to steer as clear as possible, not only of 

 hypotheses, but of theories. 



In some places I have called in the aid of num- 

 bers, to estimate causes of action which are not 

 generally estimated in that way ; but immense as 

 some of these numbers may seem, they are all under 

 what the legitimate deductions from the data can 

 bear. At page 76, it is stated that the hand that 

 is, the muscular feeling can divide space to greater 

 nicety than the eye ; and as that is not in accord- 

 ance with the common belief, I shall here state my 

 authority. Mr. James Gardner, the geographer, 



