314 NATURAL HISTORY, AS KNOWLEDGE, DISCIPLINE, AND POWER 



perseverance, and self-denial than they have easily at command ; and 

 if they do not rise up from the attempt, in utter astonishment at the 

 habitual laxity and inaccuracy of their mental processes, and in some 

 dismay at the pertinacious manner in which their subjective concep- 

 tions and hasty preconceived notions interfere with their forming a 

 truthful conception of objective fact. There is not one person in fifty 

 ■whose habits of mind are sufficiently accurate to enable him to give a 

 truthful description of the exterior of a rose. 



Finally, the poiut:r of natural history was illustrated by examples 

 of recent applications of that science in opening up sources of 

 industrial wealth. 



