NATURAL HISTORY. 13 



bilities of enjoyment, deriving support from the 

 various productions which surround them, and 

 conferring life, grace and dignity upon the other 

 parts of the picture ; and when among these, 

 we discover man, the wonder of the creation, weak 

 indeed comparatively in physical powers, but in 

 divine attributes only inferior to the great Archi- 

 tect himself; and that while each portion of the 

 creation has thus its own peculiar laws and move- 

 ments to answer some individual purpose, it is 

 rendered subservient to the general harmony and 

 usefulness of the whole; conviction then would 

 be brought home to our minds of the design and 

 ends for which the universe was contemplated: 

 and while we with all due humbleness acknow- 

 ledge the wisdom of the measure, and the bene- 

 volence by which it was dictated, our curiosity 

 would irresistibly be awakened to examine more 

 minutely those different appearances which had 

 at first excited our admiration to enquire into 

 the laws and economy by which they are regu- 

 lated and to ascertain, if practicable, the uses 

 and purposes for which each particular substance 

 was created. This then is what constitutes 

 in our view of the subject, the study of natural 

 history: a pursuit, perhaps, the most noble, 

 instructive, and useful of any, to which the human 

 mind can be directed. Noble in so far as it 

 teaches us, in language the most convincing, the 

 works of our Creator, and the existence of a 



