20 



nature, arc found as they advance to manhood, 

 to hecome more blind to the beauty and grandeur 

 impressed on the objects around them, and less 

 alive to the treasures of knowledge arid mental 

 enjoyment, as well as to the proofs of wise arid 

 beneficent design with which creation teems. 

 There must be some radical defect in the disci- 

 pline by which the youthful mind is cultivated, 

 when the mental eye, as it expands, only sees the 

 hand of its Creator more dimly, and the very 

 faculties which were intended to enable him to 

 view His works, and to receive an exalted enjoy- 

 ment in the contemplation of His perfections, be- 

 come more contracted and obtuse, as the means 

 of exercising them become more abundant. 



We should pity the man whom we should 

 discover wandering blind arid insensible in a 

 splendid museum, amidst the exquisite produc- 

 tions of art ; but much more, most assuredly, 

 is he to be cornrnisserated, who, with his eyes 

 open, walks unmoved amidst the wonders of the 

 universe, and casts a " brute unconscious gaze" 

 upon scenes which reflect the glories of the Eter- 

 nal, and from which the highest created intelli- 

 gences receive edification and delight. 



In following out the views I have laid down 

 in the preceding pages, and aiming more at use- 

 fulness than originality, I shall endeavour to 

 embody, in easy and unsystematic essays, such 

 popular views of nature as may lead the mind, 

 without any laborious effort, up to nature's God, 



