12 
the natural and indwelling love of truth which predominates 
over every other impression on the heart and mind. 
Are there not however other attractions, besides those 
emphasised by utilitarian argument, capable of luring us to 
such an enlightened species of amusement, to the devotion of 
a portion of that leisure left after the performance of our 
sterner duties to prepare us for the perception of a more 
refined description of intellectual recreation than we have 
had hitherto within our reach. It is too common to treat 
science as ascetic and austere, and deny to her the ability of 
unbending to animate and to please. You recollect the 
enthusiastic apostrophe of the poet, who exclaims with a 
greater generosity, to which I hope I hear an echo— 
“ How charming is divine Philosophy! 
Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose, 
But musical as is Apollo’s lute, 
And a perpetual feast of ncctar’d sweets, 
"Wlierc no crude surfeit reigns.” 
CoMUS. 
Who then is so impassive as not to feel delight in dwelling 
on the vast design of nature, the order and beauty with which 
it is maintained, and yearn for an insight into its great 
arcana;—whether we survey .the celestial scheme which pre¬ 
scribes to planets and their satellites stated revolutions, and 
upholds all without dislocation of the marvellous mechanism^ 
producing in the infinitely-diversified movements of its mem¬ 
bers, by an all-wise counteraction of discordant discord, such 
surprising harmony ; or whether we behold the terrific ■won¬ 
ders of the atmosphere, torn by devastating hurricanes or 
agitated by conflicting currents., laden^vith pestilence, dealing 
death around; or its soothing airs breathing life and health;— 
whether we study the structure of the solid globe and the 
alterations it constantly undergoes by the agency of heat or 
magnetism, or those suhtU powers which generate the volcanic 
shock, and work the perpetual transmutation of its compact 
ingredients;—or the properties of elementary substances, 
their union and reciprocal action ; or the structure, develop¬ 
ment and admirable adaptation of the vegetable and animal 
