PREFACE. Vll 



Wherever I go, or whatever I meet, I cannot be 

 satisfied with the mere knowledge that it is there, 

 or that its form, texture, and composition are thus 

 or thus ; I want to find out how it came there, 

 and what purpose it serves ; because, as all the 

 practical knowledge upon which the arts of civi- 

 lization are founded has come in this way, I too 

 may haply glean a little. Nor is that all : won- 

 derful as man's inventions are, I connect myself 

 with something more wonderful and more lasting ; 

 and thus I have a hope and stay, whether the 

 world goes well or ill ; and the very feeling of 

 that, makes me better able to bear its ills. 

 When I find that the barren mountain is a source 

 of fertility, that the cold snow is a protecting 

 mantle, and that the all-devouring sea is a fabri- 

 cator of new lands, and an easy pathway round 

 the globe, I cannot help thinking that that, which 

 first seems only an annoyance to myself, must 

 ultimately involve a greater good. 



This was the application given to Natural His- 

 tory in the good old days of the Derhams and the 

 Rays ; and they were the men that breathed the 

 spirit of natural science over the country. But 

 the science and the spirit have been separated ; 

 and though the learned have gone on with per- 

 haps more vigour than ever, the people have 

 fallen back. They see the very entrance of know- 

 ledge guarded by a hostile language, which must 

 be vanquished in single combat before they can 



