INTRODUCTION. 



9 



tendencies in regard to natural history ; and we firmly be- 

 lieve that these and their resulting attainments require only 

 to be directed into proper channels — to be employed in 

 fertile and remunerative fields, — to be productive ultimately 

 of great good to science. 



The following classes of persons, who command the great 

 requirements of time and opportunities, would in particular 

 secure important advantages by familiarizing themselves 

 with such studies as those to which we have alluded : — the 

 invalid from our large towns, whose delicate mental and 

 physical organization have suffered wreck in the too eager or 

 engrossing pursuit of wealth or fame, and who is now com- 

 pelled for a season to relinquish former habits or studies, 

 and to seek instead the vague objects of change of air and 

 scene in the pure genial atmosphere of the country; the 

 summer lounger at our sea-coasts, whose chief or sole occu- 

 pation is perchance to listen daily to the mournful and un- 

 ceasing wail of the " sad sea waves," or to watch the tides 

 alternately leaving and obliterating their footprints on the 

 shifting sands ; the habitue of our fashionable watering- 

 places, who compels himself daily to drink a certain quan- 

 tity of mineral water, walk a certain number of miles, and 

 read a certain proportion of a novel, so as to occupy or dis- 



