198 EXTRACTS FROM HIS WORKS [ch. vii. 
waters. Ought not he to whom Providence has 
allotted all this to be happy ? The scene is mine 
and thine; but happiness comes not from without. 
Yet, 0 Invercauld 1 thou hast a patrimony of 
beauty. May it long be enjoyed by thee and thine. 
I see nothing wanting but scattered homes of 
happy tenants, and little patches of yellow corn, 
and cows feeding by the river, and sheep on the 
hills .—Natural History of Deeside, p. 56. 
26.— Object of the Study of Nature. 
Our objects in examining the stone, the rock, the 
lichen, the moss, the flower, the fruit, the insect, the 
bird, or the quadruped, is to exercise our faculties 
by learning how beautifully, and with what wisdom 
all things have been constructed, how wonderfully 
they are formed with relation to each other, and 
how manifestly they display a power of which we 
could form no conception were we not to attend to 
its working as exhibited by them. It is true, we 
cannot fully comprehend the complicated relations 
of the most common objects, much less understand 
the ordination of the universe, or even of our own 
world ; but we labour in hope ; we are studying— 
some of us, no doubt, very superficially, others 
more profoundly—the works of the Deity ; and the 
more progress we make, the more we glorify Him 
by an intelligent, not a vague, admiration. There 
are some who aim at the knowledge of general 
laws, some who seek simple facts. Both parties 
