APPENDIX. 133 
source of great and inexhaustible happiness throughout life. 
A person whose habits of observation are thus formed, will 
be insensibly led to occupy himself more with the works and 
thoughts of God, than with man’s works and thoughts; and 
he will see and learn a thousand things, which, without these 
habits, would have remained unseen and unknown. ‘To the 
future farmer these habits will be of special use. Every 
farmer ought to be an observer. He cannot otherwise un- 
derstand the management of the earth he tills, or of the veg- 
etables and fruits he cultivates, nor how to provide for his 
friends, the birds, or against his enemies, the insects. The 
American Narura.ist seems to me admirably well adapted 
to form this habit of observation, and to awaken and gratify 
a love of the beautiful. I should be glad to put it within 
the reach of every teacher in all the schools of the state. 
For more than half a century I have had no higher ambi- 
tion than to be a successful teacher. 
Not many years after I came into this town, in 1821, to 
be the first Principal of the English High School, I was one 
of a few, who, meeting first in the office of Dr. Walter 
Channing, united to form the Boston Society of Natural 
History. After a few years I became president of this so- 
ciety, and continued in the office for some time. I did not 
feel as if I were neglecting my chosen work in giving a 
portion of my time to Natural History. Ineeded recreation ; 
and in what more suitable form could I find it than in taking 
long walks with Dr. Charles T. Jackson, or A. A. Gould, 
or D. H. Storer, to Roxbury or Malden Hills, or Chelsea 
Beach, or a drive with Prof. J. L. Russell, to see Wm. 
Oakes at Ipswich, or with Oakes himself, to the Essex 
woods, or to examine the trees in West Cambridge? This 
was recreation in the open air, with an interesting object 
in view. I wish that every teacher, worn with confinement 
and anxious toil, could get refreshment in the same way. 
The subject of suitable exercise and refreshment for the 
teacher is of vital importance. Many of the best and most 
