50 ON THE STUDY OF, &C. 



Such is the study of natural history in its practical 

 applications. 



Taken in a moral sense, it is calculated more 

 than any other subject to occupy and enlarge our 

 minds, and to correct our prejudices; to render 

 us humane and benevolent, and to promote the 

 best virtues of our nature. 



In its religious operation, it affords us proofs, 

 the most convincing, of the omnipotence of the 

 Creator, and of our own divine origin. It teaches 

 us, by admonitions which we cannot mistake, the 

 important duties we have to perform, and by ex- 

 amples daily before our eyes, the mortality to 

 which we are liable. While from analogy, as 

 well as from our own internal conviction, it holds 

 out to us a reasonable hope, that as, by the un- 

 erring law of nature, all organized bodies are 

 doomed to decay ; so we shall in due time be 

 restored, and in the full comprehensiveness of 

 the Deity, partake of those divine attributes, of 

 which in the limited sphere we now move, we 

 at present possess little more than the shadow. 



