CHAPTER I. 



THE LOVE AND STUDY OF NATURE. 



IT is not less instructive than it is interesting 

 to examine the formation, and functions, and 

 histories of animate and inanimate bodies, and 

 to trace out their various relations to each other; 

 and to whatever branch of this study we apply 

 our minds, in the spirit of candid enquiry, we 

 cannot fail to discover adaptations, so wise, so 

 beneficent, and sometimes so surprising, that it is 

 impossible to resist the evidence of a Divine hand, 

 or to withhold the tribute of the profoundest 

 veneration. 



Among these adaptations, that of external 

 nature to the powers of the human mind, has 

 lately been treated with much eloquence and 

 felicity by a deservedly celebrated author ; but I 

 do not remember that, in his varied illustrations, 

 he has noticed that beneficent provision in the 

 moral and intellectual constitution of our race 

 which affords them a relish for the very enquiry 

 he has so successfully prosecuted, in one of its 

 most important departments. 



It is not easy, however, to turn our attention 

 to this subject, without being struck with admi-^ 



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