XIV INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



ed intellect, pays nothing, but leaves unsatisfied 

 the highest claims of our nature, and that na- 

 tural longing after the enjoyment and the diffu- 

 sion of happiness which fills every healthful 

 bosom. 



Such a desire, I do not hesitate to confess, 

 has long haunted me; has mingled itself with 

 my cogitations, and, however trivial may appear 

 the result, has been a principal cause of my 

 putting together this work ; as it must be the 

 desire of every enlightened mind to look round 

 him and consider in what way he can best pro- 

 mote the national welfare. For my own part, 

 reflecting how many are effectively making 

 known the sublime truths of our religion, how 

 many are gloriously labouring in the fair fields 

 of literature, I am rather desirous to turn the 

 eyes of those whose attention I may be so happy 

 as to gain on the loveliness and influence of 

 Nature ; believing, that in so doing, I am sub- 

 serving religion and literature also. In truth. 

 there is no spirit which it is more important to 

 cherish in a commercial people, as we are, than 

 a spirit of attachment to Nature. Were it not 

 that it had been fostered by our inestimable 

 literature — a literature which has caught its 

 noble tone from the Christian faith — there can 

 be no doubt that the calculating spirit of 

 trade would long ago have quenched in the 



