enjoyed from the earliest recollection, has proved to me an 

 inestimable blessing. To its influence I owe all the brighter 

 hours of my life; whether, in the full enjoyment of health and 

 happiness, I have trod the green fields, in the joyous spring, 

 delighted with the early flowers, and the first song of the 

 Sky Lark ; or have wandered as a school-boy through the 

 woods, " to pull the flower so gay ;" or in the autumn of the 

 year have traversed the heathery mountains, purpled o'er 

 with blossoms, to watch the flight of the Moor Bird, and 

 listen to the busy hum of a thousand bees; that taste has 

 brightened every beautiful object in nature, and added a zest 

 to every pleasure. 



If, on the other hand, any of the ills of life have been my 

 lot; if [I have been "afflicted with any sorrow," then, in- 

 deed, have I felt its influence alleviating every cause of un- 

 happiness. 



It is with a satisfaction unalloyed by any unpleasant feel- 

 ings, that the lover of nature looks back upon and retraces in 

 his momory the many happy hours which he has spent in the 

 pursuit of his favourite object. Never shall I forget the first 

 dawning of a love for nature upon my mind, as its various 

 beautiful objects came crowding upon my notice — " wonders 

 yet to me ;" nor that strange feeling of delight which I have 

 experienced from the capture of some long-chased butterfly, 

 or the discovery of the nest of some then unknown bird. 



However unimportant in itself the branch of Natural His- 

 tory which I have attempted to imitate, the beautiful and 

 varied objects which compose it, are amongst the first to ex- 

 cite the imagination, and call forth in boyhood those feelings, 



