DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE. 231 



would continue to do so with less and less of the 

 original propelling force ; and when it came to the 

 air and the sunbeams, its labour would, comparatively 

 speaking, be at an end at least, compared with the 

 first struggle in the deep. 



To those who have been accustomed to look at 

 nature only on the small scale, and as conducive to 

 the puny possessions of man's little life, those specu- 

 lations may appear to have but little to do with the 

 " popular" observation of nature ; but, in truth, they 

 belong to the popular, and not to the systematic 

 part of natural history: for they come upon the 

 popular student in his very novitiate, nay, they 

 probably force themselves more or less upon the 

 attention of all young people, learned and unlearned, 

 when they are permitted to think for themselves. 

 There is not a child but will break its toys almost 

 at the moment that it gets them into its hands and 

 certainly the instant that it has seen their external 

 novelty, which is soon seen ; and it takes a great 

 deal, both of precept and example, and sometimes 

 chiding and chastisement, to break the child of that 

 habit so perfectly painful and unnatural to it is pos- 

 session in which there is no enjoyment. To defend 

 either the natural propensity of the child, or the 

 lesson of early care which is inculcated by means 

 of the rattle and the penny trumpet, is not our busi- 

 ness. It may be that when the toy is saved, the 

 desire of knowledge in the child is broken ; and it 

 may be that frugality is produced by the lesson. If 

 it be the former, " the whistle" is, indeed, a costly 

 one ; and if it be the latter, probably the best way 

 would be not to purchase the toy at all. 



But all that we contend for is the fact, and that 

 must be admitted, as it is one to which there is no 

 exception, if it has not been produced by teaching. 

 Now if a desire to know the structure of every thing 

 that comes within its observation be irresistibly 

 natural to every child, until that child is flattered or 



