FRANCIS WILI.UGHBY. 
145 
as a class of men for their longevity. It may 
be pursued as a study or an amusement, at a 
very small expense ; it is unlimited in its resources, 
and so calculated to improve the moral character, 
that it is asserted by an eminent writer, that less 
evil has been chargeable, in proportion, upon the 
naturalists, than upon any other order of students. 
In addition to these advantages, the examina- 
tion of nature tends peculiarly to produce and 
establish a serene and happy state of mind. It 
is hardly possible to read the lives of naturalists 
without making the reflection, how considerable 
a share of happiness they must have enjoyed. 
They have been compared, in this respect, to 
the father of mankind yet unfallen, when engaged 
in the happy garden in giving names to the 
cattle, fowls of the air, and beasts of the field. 
How silent, how peaceful, must have been the 
meditations of these priests of nature — how pure, 
aow healthy their perceptions — how free, how 
full of joy the action of their intellect — when 
communing with the denizens of air, and earth, 
and ocean ! 
What superiority to the envies of courts, and 
the tumults of camps and senates, and even the 
competitions of the dull distant city, which they 
have descried in their far off wanderings, and 
whose fumes and blackness are but the too exact 
emblems of their agitations and crimes 1 
Nor may it be forgotten that the pursuits of 
the naturalist are peculiarly calculated to remind 
him of the clearest natural argument for his own 
K 
