Preface, ix 



climate ; no books, no recreations, to turn to excepting the 

 one unknown book of Nature spread out before him, which, 

 however, is about the last he feels.himself capable of perusing. 

 He may know thoroughly the theory and practice of his 

 immediate calling, but not having been taught to seek an 

 acquaintance with any of the collateral sciences beyond his 

 own, he looks on the teeming beauties of the external world 

 with indifference, so that 



" A primrose by the river's brim 

 A yellow primrose is to him, 

 And it is 7iothing more." 



The topography of countries and physical geography of the 

 sea are to him sealed letters. He may be wandering in 

 regions where no physical inquirer ever set foot, and be sur- 

 rounded on all sides by natural objects both inviting and 

 instructive. But his eye had not been trained to an inquisi- 

 tive appreciation of Nature, and it is just as much as he can 

 do to take in a few salient points which, even by comparison 

 with former experiences, fall dead on an understanding 

 already dulled and surfeited by a profusion of much that is 

 grand and beautiful in Creation. It is needless to remark 

 what a panacea for idleness, and its often frightful train of 

 evils, is the study of Nature, and in particular to persons so 

 circumstanced. I am not, however, advocating its cause on 

 the strength of being only a method of keeping one's hand 

 out of a worse turn, but in the belief that the highest and 

 most important object of all human science ought to be 

 mental improvement (using the term in its most comprehen- 

 sive sense), and that when pursued with a different aim its 

 effects are often rather pernicious than beneficial. The study 

 of Nature, in particular field-work, when properly cultivated, 

 is assuredly adapted to invigorate discipline, and develop the 

 mental powers, and thus supply materials for the grandest 

 ultimate truths. It robs the mind of contracted and pigmy 



