1>i;ksii)i;\t s audkkss. ix 



endlessly interlinked, wliicli draw him out of the naiTow sphere of 

 self-interest and self-ploasinti; into a pure and wholesome region 

 of joy and wonder." And the more the student of natural 

 history knows of the wonders of creation, the more truly devout 

 he must needs become. As Herbert Spencer has said, 

 " Devotion to science is a tacit worship — a tacit recognition of 

 worth in the things studied, and by implication in their Cause. 

 It is not a mere lip-homage, but a homage expressed inactions — 

 not a mere professed respect, but a respect proved by the 

 sacrifice of time, thought, and labour."- To which let me add 

 the eloquent words of Charles Kingsley, fi'om his description of 

 the "perfect naturalist": — " He must be of a reverent turn of 

 mind also ; not r;ishly discrediting any reports, however vague 

 and fragmentary ; giving man credit always for sjome germ of 

 truth, and giving nature credit for an inexhaustible fertility and 

 variety, which will keep him his life long always reverent, yet 

 never superstitious ; wondering at the commonest, but not siur- 

 prised by the most strange ; free from the idols of size and 

 sensuous loveliness ; able to see grandeur in the minutest 

 objects, beauty in the most ungainly ; estimating each thing, 

 not carnally, as the vulgar do, by its size, or its pleasantness to 

 the senses, but spiritually, by the amount of divine thought 

 revealed to him therein ; holding eveiy phenomenon worth the 

 noting down ; believing that every pebble holds a treasm'e, 

 every bud a revelation ; making it a point of conscience to pass 

 over nothing through laziness or hastiness, lest the vision once 

 ofifered and depised should be withdrawn ; and looking at every 

 object as if he were never to behold it again." t 



Of the infinite and varied delights to the student of 

 Natural History himself supplied by his studies 1 might say 

 much more ; but what need is there for me to do so ? Those who 

 wish to know what a true naturalist can say on the subject have 

 only to reach down Charles Kingsley' s " Glaucus " fi'om their 

 bookshelves, and they w^ill find the delights and fascinations of 



* Education, by Herbert Speucer, p. 51, 1861 oiitioii. 

 I Glaucus, by Charles Kiugsley, p. 38, 1858 edition. 



