Emerson.] 216 [Jan. 7, 



of animal structure, he saw such wonderful consistency in 

 every part, that he never for a moment doubted that all were 

 parts of one vast plan, the work of one infinite, all-compre- 

 hending Thinker. He saw no place for accident, none for 

 blind, unthinking, brute or vegetable selection. Though he 

 was a man of the rarest intellect, he was never ashamed to 

 look upwards and recognize an infinitely higher and more 

 comprehensive Intellect above him. 



In his earliest years and through childhood, he was sur- 

 rounded by animals, — fishes, birds and other creatures, — 

 which he delighted to study, and with whose habits and 

 forms he thus became perfectly familiar. His education, in 

 all respects, was very generous and thorough. He spent his 

 early years in some of the most distinguished schools and 

 colleges in Germany; and he had the good fortune to be 

 made early a student of the two great languages of ancient 

 times. He became familiar, by reading them in their native 

 Greek, with the high thought and reasoned truth and grace- 

 ful style of Plato, and the accurate observations and descrip- 

 tions of Aristotle, the nicest observer of ancient times, and 

 justly considered the father of natural history. Probably no 

 work has been more suggestive to him than Aristotle's History 

 of Animals ; and probably his own breadth of conception and 

 largeness of thought, upon the highest subjects, were due, in 

 no inconsiderable degree, to his early familiarity with Plato. 

 He also read some of the best Latin authors, and wrote the 

 language with great ease. 



No one who, early, has the time and opportunity, and who 

 desires to become a thorough naturalist, or a thinker on any 

 subject, should neglect the study of these two languages. 

 From them we borrow nearly all the peculiar terms of nat- 



