48 ON THE STUDY OP 



forth, before he should participate in all those 

 gratifications, sensual and refined, which in the 

 natural world have been prepared for his especial 

 accommodation. Providence, therefore, has wise- 

 ly ordained that he should commence his career 

 in ignorance and helplessness; and that it should 

 be only by the slow march of time and experience 

 that he should become acquainted with those 

 powers which qualify him to partake of, and to 

 command the best gifts of nature. 



To prepare him for the task, curiosity is nearly 

 the first propensity which is developed in his 

 infant mind. Every object, and those of nature 

 more frequently than any other, upon the first 

 dawn of observation, awaken in him a desire to 

 know their names and properties; and thus from 

 the cradle he more or less becomes acquainted 

 with created substances, and the common appear- 

 ances of nature. From learning first their external 

 character, he gradually finds out some use to 

 which they can be applied ;" and his inventive 

 faculties being ultimately called into action, he is 

 furnished with a variety of occupations and pftr- 

 suits that give a new turn to his ideas and cha- 

 racter, such as in the earlier part of his life he 

 had never contemplated. 



Thus with natural history as a basis, are pro- 

 duced the arts and sciences in all their compre- 

 hensiveness and varieties, and every thing that is 

 useful, ornamental, and honourable to man ; arid 



