" - : ' 



2 EXCURSIONS ROUND LONDON. 



by which certain- plants and animals are 

 distinguished from each other if it only 

 rendered us more sensible of those errors and 

 imperfections which are evident in the no- 

 menclature, and classification, of the most 

 able naturalists such studies would not af- 

 ford a sufficient compensation for the labor 

 and trouble bestowed on them. Science, 

 when it leads only to a knowledge of names 



*/ O 



and systems, limits the powers of the ima- 

 gination : the study of mere terms, how- 

 ever it may load the memory, can never satis- 

 fy the mind. 



Such, my beloved young friends, was the 

 impression made on my mind, when, at the 

 age of adolescence, I opened, for the first 

 time, a work on natural history. Never 



'*/ 



ran I forget rriy sensations on that occasion. 

 The difficulties and painful feelings I at 

 first experienced, the happiness which I 

 afterwards enjoyed in my progress, display 

 i contrast which cannot fail to interest you. 

 ] was in the country, environed by objects-' 



not 



