242 On the Study of JSTutural History. 



and to devote one's moments of leisure or of relaxation to 

 every department in which are the means most available. 

 You, gentlemen, engaged in the classical studies of a pre- 

 scribed course, are not supposed to be devoted to any foreign 

 to it. The moments of relaxation and of leisure which you 

 devote to the cabinet and the collection, to the research into 

 the mysteries and wonders of nature, are admirably beneficial 

 to that degree of physical health and mental vigor, without 

 which the midnight hours of the study would be weary and 

 depressing. It is well that the classical and industrious stu- 

 dent can find pleasure and profit in such pursuits as bring, 

 with instruction, the glow of health and the strength of body. 

 In them he may be laying the foundation, not only of long 

 life, but of a refined taste. The high standard of scholarship 

 which the alma mater is yearly demanding, is taxing to the 

 utmost the physical and mental powers. To be faithful to 

 her expectations demands a most careful and attentive regard 

 to a healthy condition of body and n)ind. To strengthen those 

 and improve these should be the earnest and constant aim. 

 How essential, then, that something should be found which 

 should be likely to secure this. The most careful and meth- 

 odical arrangement of hours of study and of exercise will not 

 necessarily produce the effect. The mental energies, like 

 the physical functions, are always demanding nutriment, and a 

 varied diet is as essential to the one as to the other. The 

 silent solitary walk of the student, at close of day, with the 

 shadows of damp night falling about him, with no interest in 

 any thing around, and bent on the prescribed length of the 

 way, or engrossed on the next lesson, can necessarily give no 

 requisite solace nor respite. To his ear the music of busy 

 nature is unheard; or, if he wanders forth at other times, the 

 mysteries of organic change are unnoticed. Absorbed in his 

 books and studies, I have met the man of deep thought and 

 intense research, in whose countenance I could trace anxiety, 

 and whose frame indicated a lack of that exercise which he 

 was vainly seeking to obtain. Well, then, I repeat, is it for 

 the student to find other themes of reflection and instruction; 

 to find 'books in the running brooks, sermons in stones.' 

 That he can leave behind the classic halls for a brief hour or 

 so, and, amid tangled woods and untrodden recesses, feel gush- 

 ing into his bosom those healthful emotions of joyous wonder 

 and rapturous delight which nature always can communicate 



