PREFACE. V 



sical pursuits. For, as every age has its intellect- 

 ual claims, so also has every grade of talent. The 

 schools of the highest reputation have generally 

 been conducted too exclusively to the advantage of 

 the superior class of minds. The fine porcelain has 

 been beautifully moulded and delicately pencilled, 

 but the coarser clay has been almost entirely ne- 

 glected. Yet many a young man who will never 

 shine in the Senate House or the Schools, may yet 

 pursue Natural History with success, and find in 

 such pursuits improvement for his mind, a refuge 

 from ennui, and a substitute for sensual pleasures. 

 There is much truth as well as benevolence in a re- 

 mark I once heard from an amiable coadjutor of 

 Pestalozzi ; " Tout terrain est bon si 1'on sait le 

 cultiver." 



Much of the instruction thus communicated, will 

 doubtless fade from the mind ; but not with it will 

 pass away all the benefits arising from these stu- 

 dies. In after years they may be recommenced 

 with greater facility, in consequence of the early 

 training, and every incidental reference to these 

 subjects, which conversation or literature may 

 present, will be more readily seized, and more 

 clearly comprehended. And may it not be anti- 

 cipated, that through the judicious introduction of 

 these branches of education into our schools, the 

 latent powers of genius may be kindled, and talents 

 elicited that shall push forward the limits of sci- 

 ence,* and force the Proteus nature to reveal still 

 more of her secret truths ? 



C. MAYO. 



* In confirmation of this idea, it may be stated, that a very in 

 genious improvement of the dissecting microscope, which has 

 merited a reward from the Society of Arts, has been invented 

 by a very young person brought up on these principles. I have 

 the more unmixed pleasure and honest pride in mentioning this 

 fact, as it refers not to a pupil of my own, but to one educated at 

 Stanmore. 



