11 . 
seize the occasion to follow up the advantage gained, by 
exhibiting the intrinsic value, merits and characters of 
the several subjects embraced in this delightful study. 
Amongst other things which are required in the 
present day to he set forth, there is one, not merely of 
importance, hut absolutely essential to the vital interests 
of science—one moreover which a great number of men, 
passing under the name of naturalists, yet need to be 
brought to the contemplation of; this is, that variation 
in the face of Nature, and those forms of difference in 
natural objects, and in their actions and economies, in 
ivhich localities and different situations are ever rife. 
Certain authors, forgetful of these truths, have too long 
held out to the multitude whom they guided and deceived, 
a vast variety of axioms applicable only to their own cir¬ 
cumscribed knowledge. But, since nothing can be an 
axiom or a law, which does not apply to every subject of 
that class which it was intended to embrace; every one 
of these rules, so proved to he partial, must be condemned 
as utopian and worthless. 
It is a most important and pleasing department of 
the human intellect, to employ itself in seeking out the 
laws and designs of nature relative to her productions, and 
to solace itself moreover in framing generalizations of a 
more or less artificial kind, relating to such portions of 
Creation as may from time to time be examined by it. 
Indeed this power of concentration and generalization is 
applied extensively in all kinds of human learning ; the 
mind greatly delights in it, and it is so far a natural mental 
process, that our most common thoughts and speculations 
are oftentimes found to have been insensibly directed to 
. V 
