STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 49 



Young minds cannot, I should conceive, be too 

 strongly impressed with the simple wonders of cre- 

 ation by which they are surrounded : in the race of 

 life they may be passed by, the occupation of exist- 

 ence may not admit attention to them, or the 

 unceasing cares of the world may smother early 

 attainments but they can never be injurious will 

 give a bias to a reasoning mind, and tend, in some 

 after, thoughtful, sobered hour> to comfort and to 

 soothe. The little insights that we have obtained 

 into Nature's works are many of them the offspring 

 of scientific research ; and partial and uncertain as 

 our labours are, yet a brief gleam will occasionally 

 lighten the darksome path of the humble inquirer, 

 and give him a momentary glimpse of hidden truths : 

 let not, then, the idle and the ignorant scoff at him 

 who devotes an unemployed hour, 



No calling left, no duty broke, 



to investigate a moss, a fungus, a beetle, or a shell, 

 in " ways of pleasantness, and in paths of peace." 

 They are all the formation of Supreme intelligence, 

 for a wise and a worthy end, and may lead us by 

 gentle gradations to a faint conception of the powers 

 of infinite wisdom. They have calmed and amused 

 some of us worms and reptiles, and possibly bet- 

 tered us for our change to a new and more perfect 

 order of being. 



We yet possess two forest-trees, beautiful and 

 unmutilated ! An oak in Shellard's-lane has escaped 

 the woodman's axe, the hedger's bill : it stands on 

 the side of the waste, and has long afforded shade 



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