111 . 
this end. But in the study of Nature is it more especially 
applied, and it brings with it satisfaction of the purest 
and most refined description. Most happily then are we 
thus endowed with this noble power, and most reasonable 
is it that we should make our enquiries centre in this 
object of grand importance. 
In our search however after these great truths, we 
speedily discover that to arrive at them we must apply 
ourselves to the whole range of our knowledge;—we learn 
that to secure these desiderata firmly in our grasp, we 
must first engage in inquiries both intricate and abstruse, 
and devote as large a portion of attention to the lower 
portions of Creation as to its higher members ;—we find 
at intervals, to our astonishment, that subjects which had 
been but little noticed by us, or been quite neglected, 
suddenly contribute most influential matter to our deliber¬ 
ations whilst occupied in the absorbing scrutiny. Amongst 
this latter class of collateral aids, rank those portions of 
knowledge gathered from localities before imagined to 
yield nothing different from what had been already re¬ 
cognised and learnt. One circumstance alone cheers the 
path, and diminishes the labour of the investigators ; in 
our examination of the structure and functions of living 
beings, we necessarily find the operations of several natural 
laws extended to each of them ; by attention and careful 
consideration we ascertain the phenomena induced by 
each separate law, and note the connexions in the charact¬ 
ers of these results ; carrying these data and conclusions 
with us, we finally learn to anticipate and expect laws in 
any new subjects of examination from an observation of 
their structures and functions ; the functions of living 
A 2 
