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which led him to the observation of the material world, 

 and of the phenomena of animal and vegetable life. He 

 studied as well as enjoyed he reflected as well as saw. 

 This d isposition is sometimes misunderstood . An inten se 

 hut quiet interest, such as youth of a particular bent of 

 genius possess, often produces an indifference to studies out 

 of a certain range. There is activity of mind enough and 

 power enough, but it is not manifested in the usual way. It 

 has been said of several men of great genius, that they were 

 dull in youth. This we apprehend is a mistake. Such are 

 merely inactive where others are active ; the stream flows, 

 only not in the usual channels, and all the deeper for 

 flowing by itself. That boy is not inactive, a mere idler, 

 who lies upon the ground by the hour, watching the spider 

 spin its web, or the insect wing its flight, or even the 

 worm trail its way on the slime. He is not an idler who 

 follows the bee in its industrious toils, and the birds in 

 their busy pleasures, to learn their ways of life. He is 

 not an idler, who gathers the pebbles and the crystal 

 stones, not as playthings to be admired, but as objects to 

 be arranged, and somehow put into classes. Mr. Norton 

 belonged to this order of minds. He had an original 

 genius for natural science ; he took an absorbing pleasure 

 in the observation of natural objects. We were much 

 interested in an account of his first scientific study, 

 which we received from Theodore Dwight, Esq., of New 



