INTRODUCTION. 



Still, however, these are but professional men, na- 

 turalists by trade, and like other tradesmen, perfecting 

 their work in consequence of the division of labour. 

 But the use to the public is of another kind : it lies 

 in the contemplation of the entife fabric, in finding 

 out that wherever knowledge can go, from the widest 

 sweep of the telescope, to the microscope's minutest 

 atom, there is a connexion, a unity of purpose, one 

 creation, and by necessary consequence, ONE CREATOR. 

 The lamb that wantons on the lawn, the rill that 

 trickles down the rock, the brook that winds through 

 the meadows, the tree that overshadows its course, 

 the insect that curls the leaves, the bird that sings 

 and nestles in the spray, the dew-drop that gems, 

 and the breeze that fans the whole, these, and all 

 that the largest catalogue of things living or moving 

 can add to them, are all in some degree connected 

 with, and attendant upon yonder sun, which beams 

 life and beauty upon the whole, athwart a space of 

 about one hundred millions of miles ; and unless we 

 extend our contemplations to the same distance, and 

 take in the great phenomena as well as the small, the 

 season as well as the seasonal plant or animal, we 

 must err in our opinions, and be cheated out of our 

 enjoyment. 



It was for the want of this greater information, 

 those golden cords that really do bind together the 

 heavens and the earth, that the human race wandered 

 so long in error, wasting upon fancied schemes of their 

 own creation as much ingenuity as would have enabled 

 them to understand the true nature and working of 

 the system. Though they wanted our artificial means 



