2 INTRODUCTION. 



which it is capable to the well-being of His creatures ; but He 

 has made every thing " beautiful in its season," He has so 

 formed the mind of Man that it derives pleasure from the con- 

 templation of the glorious works around him. And it is, there- 

 fore, a worthy employment of our faculties to encourage this 

 pleasure ; and to place it upon a more solid and extended foun- 

 dation, than that afforded by the mere forms and colours of the 

 objects around us, however beautiful these may be. 



One great source of the pleasure derived from the inquiry into 

 the structure and mode of existence of the living beings around 

 us, arises from the beautiful adaptation of their parts to each 

 other, and of the whole to the place it has to occupy, which we 

 can easily trace in every one. The Philosopher who studies the 

 motions of the heavenly bodies, and the station of this earth 

 among them, traces these adaptations no less clearly ; but it re- 

 quires profound and long-continued study to be able to compre- 

 hend them aright. The Naturalist, ho wever, can discern them with 

 far less research, in every plant that grows, in every animal that 

 breathes ; and he meets with a constant variety, which prevents 

 him from growing weary of the pursuit. Yet the young are 

 too frequently kept in ignorance of the wonders and beauties 

 around them ; and, whilst encouraged to learn many languages, 

 and read many books, they remain unacquainted with the bright 

 volume of Creation, the pages of which are daily and hourly 

 unrolled before them, " written," to use the impressive words of 

 Lord Bacon, " in the only language which hath gone forth to the 

 ends of the world, unaffected by the confusion of Babel." But 

 these pages are not to be read without some study : the alphabet 

 and grammar must be learned, in order that their beauties may 

 be rightly comprehended ; and those who are entering upon the 

 inquiry need to be rightly directed by those who are more 

 advanced. 



Natural History has been too generally shunned, as a Science 

 of hard names and intricate classification, by those whose minds 



