INTRODUCTION. XXi 
has since changed the whole science of mineralogy, it is not necessary 
here, to give the inferior details. 
Such is the “field of realities,” as M. Lamarck terms it, which the 
study of Nature offers to the intelligent mind. Life, in all its aspects, 
is exhibited in countless forms, and the regular succession of organized 
beings, present the creation in the attractive features of perennial 
youth. Without herbivorous races, the vegetable kingdom would 
soon encumber the surface of the globe ; without carnivorous animals, 
the others would multiply beyond their means of support; and provi- 
sion is made in those tribes, whose food is decomposing substances, to 
free the earth from dead animal remains. By no conceivable means, 
could the same amount of existence and happiness be attained , and 
the whole system is so wonderfully arranged, that among the number- 
less existences which people the earth, the air, and the waters, there 
is a constant harmony between the means of existence and the existing 
beings. While animals, useful to others, are produced in amazing 
numbers, the fecundity of others, whose physical powers might other- 
wise give them a superiority, are limited, and species apparently the 
most defenceless, are provided with means of protection, which insure 
their perpetuity. To Man alone, as the intelligent head of the whole, 
is given the dominion over the inferior creatures; his reason has 
enabled him to apply to his use the whole of the organized and 
inorganic bodies around him, and left him, within certain limits, the 
accountable Master of the creation. 
On the utility of a knowledge of the objects of Nature, to a being 
depending on her productions for the supply of all his conveniences 
and wants, it is scarcely necessary to insist. No species of human 
learning is so well calculated to form habits of attention and correct 
observation, as the study of the different branches of Natural History ; 
and none is more admirably adapted to the feelings and capacities 
of the young. Besides the improvement of the intellectual powers, 
which the examination of the structure and habits of any class of 
organized beings is calculated to produce, and the associations likely 
to be thereby awakened, there is something in the study of Nature 
which approaches to philosophy of a higher kind—something that, 
_ while it teaches man his place in this Creation of Wonders, infallibly 
leads him to admire the wisdom, and power, and goodness, displayed 
by its Great Author. } 
