36 THE YFAH. 



matters which no art can submit either to the mea- 

 suring line or the scale exists, is far more marvellous 

 than the mightiest of man's doings, and is a part, though 

 a small part, of the book of general knowledge. But 

 view it in which way soever one will, the economy of a 

 planet must be far more instructive than the economy 

 of a beetle, and a beautiful world much more ennobling 

 to the mind than a beautiful leaf or a beautiful but- 

 terfly. It is true that the one is at the door, in our 

 reach, but shut up in its silken cocoon ; and the other 

 is in a great book, shut up in the more tough and 

 tangled casing of technical language and diagram. 

 Assuredly, however, it is not in itself nearly so difficult. 

 Difficulty in the acquisition of knowledge is not diffi- 

 culty of performance, it is difficulty of will, that is, 

 the absence of stimulus ; and so far from there being 

 any -want of stimulus to the study of the grand of nature, 

 it is that which first forces itself upon man's attention. 

 Astronomy, as a matter of wonder, or a means of in- 

 struction, is the elder born of the sciences ; and that 

 the celestial bodies exert an influence upon the earth, 

 is a matter so plain and striking, that if there be not the 

 information of truth respecting it, there is sure to be 

 the error of superstition and credulity. Now, though 

 the whole range of natural history should be studied, 

 it must be conceded, that the first attention is due to 

 that about which, if there be not truth, there must be 

 error ; the more so when, as in the case of the natural 

 history of the year, superstition will take possession, if 

 knowledge be not beforehand to keep it out. 



But the subject is the one that comes most im- 



