Biographical Sketch 2 7 



barbarous colony, all whets and matures 

 your own powers of observation. 



" You will become what I so early * vatici- 

 nated,' Linne the Little, if God spares you, 

 and you act according to the laws of prudence 

 and religion. I fear the climate of the warm 

 parts of the Pacific, especially in surveying 

 lagoons and inlets. May God preserve you ; 

 use the means of safety, leave the result to 

 His Providence. My dearest son, in one sense 

 this is a joyous epoch for you, in another it is 

 solemn but God will ever be with you. Even 

 to the natural eye the moral nature (that is 

 the will and the motives) is superior to the 

 intellect, which is only one of its servants. 



" If you should never again hear from your 

 father " (he never did), " take this as his last 

 earnest counsel, to view as the substantial 

 paramount business of your life to prepare 

 for a glorious future in the world to come. 

 Again, my dearest Thomas, farewell." 



In those days so much of the world was a 

 " dread unknown " and communication was 

 so very uncertain, that we must not wonder 

 at the serious way in which young Edmond- 

 ston's family took the thought of his going 

 so far, on a vague voyage of discovery. 



