98 NO WASTE IN NATURE. 



We speak of the waste and the wilderness ; but, in 

 truth, there are none such in nature : the only de- 

 serts in creation are human senses which do not 

 observe, and a human mind which cannot compare 

 and think. Thus, if we complain that we are de- 

 serted and solitary, our complaining is unjust : 

 nature never forsakes us and leaves us alone, it 

 is we who are insensible of and neglect nature. 

 And when we do so, we violate our own nature as 

 much as we belie and libel the rest of nature 

 around us ; for our natural bent, our natural 

 pleasure, is to observe every thing, be it what it 

 may, which comes within the 'range of our obser- 

 vation ; and if we refrain from doing so, we are 

 degraded from our proper rank in the creation, 

 and the degradation is our own fault. And the 

 punishment of shame and inferiority, and the misery 

 of a useless and ungratified mind, which are upon 

 us, are of our own bringing, and brought by us 

 against every inducement to an opposite course ; 

 so that, even though there were any one to pity us, 

 we merit not pity, but ridicule ; because our eyes 

 are open and all our senses fitted for the percep- 

 tion of something better ; and we, from mere lazi- 

 ness, and not only that, but by stifling with labour, 

 and often with hard labour, the powers which 

 have been given us, knowingly remain ignorant 

 when we might more easily be informed, and take 

 the crooked path of error when we well know that 

 the straight road of truth is both shorter and more 

 easy. 



Those two which have been mentioned, toge- 

 ther with some ramifications into which they may 

 branch, are perhaps the most stubborn obstacles in 

 the way of the successful observation of nature ; 



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