196 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



have long enjoyed the beneficial results, without 

 even knowing it ; for he was an intellectual sun 

 illuminating all territories of life ; the salutary 

 influence of which has been experienced by all 

 who can feel and think, though moving in the 

 narrowest limits of existence. 



Of all intellectual pursuits, the study of nature 

 affords unquestionably the most satisfactory 

 kind of enjoyment. Certainly it is less exciting, 

 and does in a less degree influence our imagina- 

 tion and passions, than the study of human 

 nature ; it being essentially objective, and more 

 free and positive, than the researches into the 

 subjective regions of morality, feeling, and 

 fancy; it rewards the patient inquirer with 

 more valuable results than any other study can 

 possibly offer ; it preserves the energy of the 

 mind, and kindles the love of the sublime, akin 

 to that higher disposition of the soul, the con- 

 ception of the infinite and the free, the realms 

 of the purely intellectual.* The progress of the 



* I converse with the Almighty through the instrument 

 of nature, through the history of the world. Every con- 

 dition of the human soul has some parable in the physical 



