of his Providence condescends to notice and to 

 bless the meanest object in his universe ; that 

 the same hand which guides the sun in his daily 

 journey through the sky, and " wheels the rolling 

 spheres" as they cheer the silence of night, gives 

 life and enjoyment to the microscopic insect, 

 and breathes softly on the opening blossom, and 

 spreads the green carpet beneath our feet, and 

 gives grace and sweet odour to the modest 

 flowers which springs to adorn it. 



With regard to the Study of Nature, I would 

 shortly observe how necessary and important it 

 is to acquire an extensive store of facts ; for, 

 without them generalizations and theories be- 

 come " mere philosophical webs, woven by in- 

 genuity, the device of which is beautiful, but 

 the fabric too frail to endure the touch." Let us 

 stop but a moment, and behold as it flows, and 

 contemplate in its wonderful, and almost im- 

 measurable extent, with feelings of the most pro- 

 found veneration, the sacred stream of science. 

 Behold it flowing, at first a small and scarcely 

 noted rivulet, gently and silently gliding through 

 shady and retired glens, and receiving in its 

 progress many as humble and insignificant a rill, 

 till the whole united forms a mighty river, foam- 

 ing onward in the grandeur of its course, and 

 fertilizing the regions through which it passes ; 

 and, like that river must be the student of nature 

 despising not the humblest fact that presents 

 itself to his observation ; though, as the little rill, 

 it may be useless in itself, arid alone derive its 



