NATURAL HISTORY. 15 



The physician would practice empirically and 

 with danger, did he not make himself acquainted 

 with the minute properties and capabilities of the 

 various substances to which he must have re- 

 course for the removal of diseases. The manufac- 

 turer would make no progress in his arts without 

 a similar knowledge. Nor would the mechanic 

 bring to perfection his very useful labours, were 

 he ignorant of the external character and common 

 properties of the materials to be worked by his 

 hands. "The objects of nature form a leading 

 feature of reference for the painter and the poet;" 

 and to the philosopher and the divine, afford 

 some of the finest illustrations to which they can 

 have recourse. In a few words, natural history 

 is the basis upon which alone the arts and sciences 

 and all human knowledge are founded." It forms 

 the more or less every day business of life; and 

 while it proves a never- failing source of the most 

 rational amusement, it teaches us by lessons the 

 most instructive and conclusive, the divine origin 

 of our nature, excites in our minds the most 

 exalted sentiments of benevolence and devotion, 

 and gradually prepares us for that more elevated 

 condition, when the attributes of the Deity in all 

 their glory and comprehensiveness shall be 

 opened to our understandings, and secure to us 

 that felicity to which, in this probationary world, 

 we can only look forward in perspective. Na- 

 tural history, therefore, cannot be too compre- 



