2 LECTURE I. 



nexions ; and we must readily allow that it is no 

 unimportant object to be able to secure to our- 

 selves some species of study, which in its pro- 

 gress may continue to afford a rational delight, and 

 in the pursuit of which there can be no fear of 

 soon exhausting the subject. 



I shall here beg leave to introduce the opinion 

 of one of the greatest and most estimable cha- 

 racters that perhaps ever ornamented this or any 

 other nation. I mean the celebrated Ray, whose 

 dignified simplicity of language enforces with 

 peculiar energy the truth of his sentiment. 



" We content ourselves, (says he) with a little 

 skill in philology, history, or antiquity; and we 

 neglect that which appears to me of much greater 

 moment : I mean the study of Nature, and the 

 works of Creation. I do not mean, (he adds,) to 

 derogate from or discommend those other studies ; 

 I only wish that they might not quite jostle out 

 and exclude this; and that men would be so equal 

 and civil as not to vilify or disparage in others 

 those studies they themselves are not conversant in, 

 No knowledge can be more pleasant to the soul 

 than this; none so satisfying, or that doth so feed 

 the mind; in comparison of which the study of 



