18 ELEMENTARY BOOKS. 



it did not bring along with it a more hearty love of 

 nature, and a more ready perception of the practical 

 use of all that nature presents to us. Merely abstract 

 knowledge is of small value here : that which is most 

 desirable, and most easily acquired, and which should, 

 on these accounts, always be presented (and the more 

 rudimental the book is, the necessity is always the 

 more imperious,) is knowledge which, so to speak, 

 should not merely inform the head, but which should 

 tend fully as much to make the heart more kind and 

 the hand more ready. 



This is to be obtained only by making the book 

 which treats of natm-al subjects come as near as 

 possible to the actual observation of nature ; and it is 

 because this is not attended to, that the ordinary 

 books which are accessible by or given to the young 

 and the ignorant, not only fail in imparting that 

 knowledge which is professed to be communicated^ 

 but rob the parties of the desire of obtaining it, and 

 thus in reality defeat the very object which they 

 profess to serve. This species of deception is, un- 

 fortunately not confined to natural history, but runs 

 pretty largely through all the departments of know- 

 ledge; although it is probably worse in the case 

 of natural history, than in that of any of the more 

 abstract sciences which depend less upon observation; 

 yet it is mischievous in every case, as withdrawing 

 the attention from the reality and the practical enjoy- 

 ment and use. 



To investigate the causes of this would be foreign 

 to the purpose of this introduction. It may, in part, 

 arise from carrying the method of induction, — that of 

 arriving at the general subject from the particulars, 

 of which the excess is very disheartening to the 

 student in even the most abstract sciences, — into ua- 



