CONCLUSION. 325 



the vacant eye of ignorant admiration on what he was 

 born to investigate and understand ; or at best satisfies 

 himself with acquiring a very limited store of knowledge, 

 in proportion to his capacity. 



Placed in an amphitheatre of boundless space, he suffers 

 himself to be confounded and lost, in the magnificence and 

 multiplicity of the objects that solicit his attention. His 

 eager mind aspires to comprehend the whole at once ; and, 

 when it finds that attempt impracticable, it sinks iAto 

 apathy and indifference ; and thus intercepts the source of 

 the most sublime enjoyments, the patient investigation 

 of truth in the retreats of nature. How can we otherwise 

 account for the slight acquaintance that mankind in general 

 contract with the works of creation ? It is not that the study 

 is deficient either in pleasure or in profit ; nor that this 

 science is, in itself, unattainable by ordinary capacities : 

 but the origin of this neglect resides in indolence, which 

 shrinks from mental exertion ; in an impatience, resulting 

 from an inability to grasp in a short period of time what 

 would afford subjects of the most rational entertainment to 

 an active and inquiring mind, through the longest duration 

 of our existence. 



To point out errors and defects, however, without pro- 

 posing the means of their rectification and redress, is a 

 useless, invidious, and perhaps ungenerous occupation. 



As the highest powers of man are limited, it is prudent 

 to moderate our attempts. The most stately palace is 

 raised by the progressive accumulation of single stones ; 

 the noblest monuments of art are but the gradual effect 

 of reiterated touches. A young student in Natural His- 

 tory, therefore, should begin with parts, and progressively 

 increase his stores of knowledge. Animated existence is 

 that branch of it which possesses charms the most numerous 

 and the most diversified, and is fraught with the most im- 

 portant consequences to man ; but even this division of 

 nature cannot be comprised by a glance. It is advisable, 

 for this reason, to begin with examining the nature and 

 qualities of such QUADRUPEDS as are most familiar to our 



