SSt Catalogue of Works on Gardening, S/X. 



We hope the example set by Mr. Niven will soon be followed 

 by the curators of all the botanic and horticultural gardens 

 throughout the country. 



Art. IV. Catalogue of IVorks on Gardetiing, Agriculha-e, Botany^ 

 Rural Architecture, Sfc, lately published, ivith some Account of those 

 considered the more interesting. 



Letters on the Natural History of the Insects mentioned iti Shak- 

 speare's Ploys : \ioith incidental Notices on the Entomology of 

 Ireland. By Robert Patterson, Treasurer of the Natural 

 History Society of Belfast. 12mo. London, 1838. 



A very agreeably written book ; and one which may create a 

 taste for natural history in those who have delighted chiefly in 

 poetry. In the first letter, the author has some remarks on the 

 defects of modern education, which, though they contain nothing 

 new, can scarcely be too frequently repeated. Addressing his 

 friend, who has returned from college to a retired part of the 

 country, and can find nothing in what surrounds him to employ 

 his mind, he says, — 



" I do believe that, if the true cause of your dissatisfaction were explored, it 

 would be found to spring from what I consider a radical error in the system 

 of education pursued in our universities. You have passed through the usual 

 course with honour ; you have on many occasions won ' golden opinions from 

 all sorts of people;' and yet I do venture to assert that the defects in this very 

 course of education are the primary causes of your present discontent. Take 

 one of those graduates who have been most distinguished ; ask him concern- 

 ing an event in the ancient history of the world, the translation of an admired 

 passage in Anacreon, or the connexion of classic fable and historic truth; and, 

 in all probability your questions will be answered. Inquire how the knowledge 

 of mathematics gives new views of the sublime science of astronomy, and you 

 will receive the information you demand. Request an exposition of some 

 particular theory in metaphysics, and your desire may still be gratified. But 

 ask the same student to describe the functions or uses of some common plant 

 or insect, one which he sees every day, with which he has been familiar from 

 childhood, and he will be unable to answer; nay, most likely unable to tell its 

 name. 



" This is the radical error in university education. Its votaries are conver- 

 sant with books, not with nature; or, as it has been quaintly expressed, 'they 

 view nature through the spectacles of books.' With the works which form 

 the most lasting monuments of the talents of man they are familiar; of those 

 nobler works which bear the visible impress of the Deity, they are profoundly 

 ignorant. 



" I have no desire that you should become either a farmer or a sportsman ; 

 but, with your mental powers and habits of observation, I should rejoice 

 indeed to see you become a naturalist ; not one of that kind who suppose a 

 knowledge of nature to consist in a knowledge of the terms which have been 

 applied to her works, or of the sections into which they have been divided ; 

 but one who studies the things themselves, and gives to classification its proper 

 functions; namely, that of designating correctly the individual objects of 

 enquiry." 



