24- EXCURSIONS ROUND LONDON. 



their father, and preceptor, resumed their in- 

 structions in the following terms: 



I have endeavoured to impress on jour 

 minds, my young friends, how necessary it 

 is to join the study of man to the study of 

 nature, partly to fill up that vacuum which 

 the ignorance of ourselves alwavs leaves in 



o ./ 



the heart. Of what use are the natural 

 sciences, if, while our eyes are open to all 

 the productions which surround us, they 

 continually remain shut to that which it is 

 of the in-eatest consequence for us to know ? 



O A 



What advantage can we derive from this 

 knowledge, of which we are so vain, if it 

 only lead us to classify and arrange, with 

 more or less ability, the different productions 

 of nature? Our memory, it is true, would 

 be stored with words: but words are insuffi- 

 cient to supplv the mind with ideas which 

 have" a direct relation to man himself. 



Penetrated with these considerations, and 

 arrived at an age when we begin to inquire 

 into the reason of our existence, I formed 



t 



