INTRODUCTION. 11 



truth to believe, must place their faith somewhere, and 

 necessarily, or at least naturally, place it in the idol 

 that is most in vogue at the time. 



Out of these circumstances, and many other analo- 

 gous ones which might be enumerated, there arises a 

 farther evil, which, in its effects, is probably the most 

 baneful of all : the wonders, that is, the novelties and 

 rarities in nature, are those that are shown and written 

 about. They who avoid the mouse or the spider, whose 

 characters and habits they might be studying during 

 many an hour which is spent in idleness and gossipping, 

 throng to the exhibitions of learned cats and sapient 

 pigs. A calf with two heads, or an ox of double the 

 ordinary obesity, will attract the gaze of hundreds, who 

 care nothing for either animal in its natural form and 

 condition. Curiosity is a valuable feeling, and ought 

 not to be repressed ; but there is no feeling that stands 

 more in need of being guided ; for if it ever be de- 

 bauched by following after rarities that are of no use, 

 it can hardly be brought to regard common objects, 

 however valuable they may be. 



There is a pretty strong natural tendency to this love 

 of marvels, and to pay much more attention to the de- 

 viations of nature from her ordinary mode of working, 

 than to study the laws of common occurrences ; as if 

 there were more both of pleasure and of wisdom in 

 criticising the supposed faults and blunders of nature, 

 than in contemplating her beauties. Even when at- 

 tempts are made to render the study of natural objects 

 amusing and attractive, the attention is not directed to 

 the general course, but to the deviations. If it is a 

 plant, its common habits, by the study of which alone 



