182 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



different from my present state ; but the lapse of thirty 

 years has not diminished my enthusiasm, nor in the least 

 impaired my faculties, physical or mental. Natural 

 History qfDeeside, p. 99. 



29. OBJECT OF THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



Our objects in examining the stone, the rock, the 

 lichen, the moss, the flower, the fruit, the insect, the 

 bird, or the quadruped, is to exercise our faculties by 

 learning how beautifully, and with what wisdom all 

 things have been constructed, how wonderfully they are 

 formed with relation to each other, and how manifestly 

 they display a power of which we could form no con- 

 ception were we not to attend to its working as 

 exhibited by them. It is true, we cannot fully com- 

 prehend the complicated relations of the most common 

 objects, much less understand the ordination of the 

 universe, or even of our own world ; but we labour in 

 hope ; we are studying some of us, no doubt, very 

 superficially, others more profoundly the works of the 

 Deity ; and the more progress we make, the more we 

 glorify Him by an intelligent, not a vague, admiration. 

 There are some who aim at the knowledge of general 

 laws, some who seek simple facts. Both parties will 

 find enough to engage their faculties, and neither will 

 do the work of the other efficiently. There is no reason 

 why one should despise the other. Contempt of any- 

 thing but vice indicates an unsound mind, a defective 



