NO WASTE IN NATURE. 109 



tary, our complaining is unjust: nature never for- 

 sakes us and leaves us alone, it is we who are 

 insensible of and neglect nature. And when we do 

 so, we violate our own nature as much as we belie 

 and libel the rest of nature around us ; for our natu- 

 ral bent, our natural pleasure is to observe every 

 thing, be it what it may, which comes within the 

 range of our observation; and if we refrain from 

 doing so, we are degraded from our proper rank in 

 the creation, and the degradation is our own fault. 

 And the punishment of shame and inferiority, and 

 the misery of a useless and ungratified mind, which 

 are upon us, are of our own bringing, and brought 

 by us against every inducement to an opposite 

 course ; so that, even though there were any one 

 to pity us, we merit not pity, but ridicule ; because 

 our eyes are open and all our senses fitted for the 

 perception of something better ; and we, from mere 

 laziness, and not only that, but by stifling with la- 

 bour, and often with hard labour, the powers which 

 have been given us, knowingly remain ignorant 

 when we might more easily be informed, and. take 

 the crooked path of error when we well know that 

 the straight road of truth is both shorter and more 

 easy. 



Those two which have been mentioned, together 

 with some ramifications into which they may branch, 

 are perhaps the most stubborn obstacles in the way 

 of the successful observation of nature ; and if we 

 could get the better of them, we should have a will 

 to the work, and where there is a will, it is true, and 

 common even to a proverb, that there is a way. 

 But as, even where they exist, and are acted upon 

 in all their inveteracy, we are not very willing to 

 confess them, it may, perhaps, be as well to suppose 

 that we have got the better of them, and are dis- 

 posed, not only to push vigorously onward in the 

 road of observation, but to be informed of every 

 K 



