88 PRECAUTION* IN OBSERVING NATURE. 



AVS fefc W[ : i-fcrij 



SECTION IV. 



Precautions in observing Nature. 



THE precautions necessary to be observed in 

 contemplating the works of nature are very few. 

 It is not necessary to allude to personal safety ; be- 

 cause it may be presumed that everybody can at- 

 tend to that, by keeping out of dangerous situations, 

 and from eating unknown vegetables. But still, 

 there are some prejudices to be avoided, as well as 

 some general laws which must not be violated, else 

 in either case the result of our observation will be 

 error, and not knowledge. 



However tastes may differ, and tastes, which 

 are habits formed by the thoughts running more in 

 one direction than in others, are perhaps as often 

 founded in error as in truth, there is really no 

 ugliness in nature unless it is actually made by the 

 observers themselves. The exercise of the senses, 

 and especially that of the sense of sight, is always 

 pleasing a gratification, and the only way in which 

 both mind and body can be gratified. It is gratify- 

 ing, because the probability is, that sensation is in 

 itself a direct renewal of the organ of sense. It is 

 jrobable that the exceedingly small and delicate 

 jexture in the eye feeds upon and drinks up the 

 colours of the landscape, or whatever else it sees, 

 'n the same manner that the mouth receives food 

 ind drink for repairing the general waste of more 

 rude and common parts of the body; and it is 

 equally probable that the immediate organs of all 

 i-ne other senses receive the same renewal from ex- 

 ercise ; and that, as the eye gets healthy, and fat, and 



