THE WONDERS OF THE SHOUE. 43 



new zoophyte, or the classification of a moorland 

 crag. 



And it is these qualities, however imperfectly 

 ihey may be realized in any individual instance, 

 which make our scientific men, as a class, the 

 wholcsoraest and pleasantest of companions 

 abroad, and at home the most blameless, simple, 

 and cheerful, in all domestic relations ; men for 

 the most part of manful heads, and yet of child- 

 like hearts, who have turned to quiet study, in 

 these late piping times of peace, an intellectual 

 health and courage which might have made them, 

 in more fierce and troublous times, capable of 

 doing good service with very different instru- 

 ments than the scalpel and the microscope. 



I liavc been sketching an ideal : but one 

 whicli I seriously recommend to the consid- 

 eration of all parents ; for, thougli it be im- 

 possil)lc and absurd to wisli that every young 

 man should grow up a naturalist by profession, 

 yet this age offers no more wholesome training, 

 both moral atid intellectual, llian that wliich is 

 given by in-tilling into the young an early taste 

 for out-door physical science. The education of 

 our cliildrcn is. now more than ever a puzzling 

 problem, if by education we mean the develop- 



