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by our mental constitution, for the study of those 

 wonders which a Divine hand has every where 

 scattered in such profusion around us ; and surely 

 no one will be found who thinks that such an 

 adaptation has been afforded us without a point, 

 an end, a meaning, or a destination ; on the 

 contrary, all must acknowledge that the study 

 and contemplation of nature, while it tends to 

 gratify a laudable curiosity, and to fill the mind 

 with a rational delight, is calculated, in no trifling 

 degree, to improve the understanding, and to 

 give scope and vigour to all the powers of the 

 mind. 



In the mere gratification of our taste for the 

 study of nature, viewed in its various phases and 

 arrangements, there is not only enjoyment, but 

 the means of mental cultivation. Taste has been 

 sometimes considered as nothing but the appli- 

 cation to external nature of that faculty, which, 

 in morals, enables us to distinguish between right 

 and wrong the beautiful, in objects of sense, 

 being supposed to be perceived by the same ope- 

 ration of the mind, which distinguishes what is 

 proper and becoming in the intercourse of soci- 

 ety ; but without adopting this opinion, we may 

 confidently assert, that, from the exercise of the 

 former, a salutary effect upon the character re- 

 sults, somewhat analogous to that which arises 

 from the exercise of the latter. 



The man who has been accustomed to cherish 

 a Love of Nature, and eagerly to pursue her steps, 

 wherever they are to be traced, acquires a habit 



