UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 OF" 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, 1894. 
 ^Accessions No.Jt{S'7 ... Class No. 
 
 UBRARY 
 
LECTURES 
 
 ON 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 CHADBOURNE. 
 
LECTURES 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY: 
 
 ITS KELATIONS 
 
 TO 
 
 INTELLECT, TASTE, WEALTH, AND 
 RELIGION. 
 
 BY 
 
 P. A. CHADBOURNE, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN WILLIAMS COLLEGE, 
 
 AND 
 
 PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY AND CHEMISTRY 
 IN BOWDOm COLLEGE. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 A. S. BARNES & BURR, 51 & 53 JOHN-STREET. 
 1860. 
 
 arTm"**^ 
 falUVBRSITYj 
 
' I 
 
 BIOLOGY 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, 
 
 BY A. S. BARNKS A BURR, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Uniteo States for tbi 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 RENNIE, SHEA A LINDSAY, 
 
 STIKKOTYPKHS *KD ELKCTROTYFBB*, OEO. W. WOOD, PRINTER, 
 
 81, 83 & 85 CENTRE-STREET, No. 2 Dutch-st., N. Y. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IT is a characteristic of the American peo- 
 ple, to test every thing, by its money value 
 alone. The brief discussion of the Relations 
 of Natural History in the following Lectures, 
 was entered upon with the hope of doing 
 something to show that this department of 
 study is by no means to be estimated by its 
 direct return of dollars and cents. Simply to 
 impart information, is a small part of the teach- 
 er's work. This is not to be neglected ; but 
 training the mind, so that it shall move on, a 
 living, expanding power through life, is edu- 
 cation. As the living tree gathers with its 
 thousands of rootlets nutriment from the earth 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 beneath, while its leaves are drawing in the 
 gases from every breeze that moves them, to 
 build up the fabric so the mind must be 
 trained to gather food from every field of 
 thought, and change, by its vital power, to an 
 element of strength, the mental accumulations 
 which to many become a burden to the mem- 
 ory alone. Many students, enjoying a high 
 reputation for accuracy, leave college with a 
 knowledge of the text-books indeed, but, we 
 might almost say, unfitted for future acquisi- 
 tions by those already made. That studies in 
 an educational course should be selected for 
 their educating power, would seem to be 
 evident. But the truth is, information is mis- 
 taken for education. And Natural History has 
 in general been valued simply for the informa- 
 tion it furnishes, rather than as an educating 
 power. It is in this light that it is generally 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 matched against the Dead Languages. We 
 wish to put it in the place of no other study, 
 certainly not in the place of the Ancient Lan- 
 guages or Mathematics, without both of which 
 its profitable study is almost hopeless. We 
 simply wish to claim for it a higher rank than 
 has thus far been assigned to it, by showing its 
 varied relations to man. 
 
 The study of a single term, or a brief course 
 of lectures, has generally been considered suf- 
 ficient for the great book of Nature, while 
 two or three years are required on ancient 
 languages before commencing the collegiate 
 course. So that while almost every graduate 
 considers himself competent to teach Latin, 
 Greek, or Mathematics, probably not one in 
 ten would offer himself as qualified to instruct 
 in Natural History. 
 
 The Lectures are printed as prepared for 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 delivery, either as a course or separately, al- 
 though this makes repetition unavoidable. 
 Nothing, perhaps, would be gained by at- 
 tempting to avoid this. It is hoped that they 
 may at least prove acceptable to those who 
 have listened to them, and to those who hon- 
 estly ask the question, " What is the use of the 
 Naturalist's work ?" 
 
 BOWDOIN COLLEGE, 1860, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 RELATIONS OF NATURAL HISTORY TO INTELLECT 11 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 RELATIONS OF NATURAL HISTORY TO TASTE 52 
 
 LECTURE III. 
 RELATIONS OF NATURAL HISTORY TO WEALTH 91 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 RELATIONS OF NATURAL HISTORY TO RELIGION 126 
 
THE RELATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 LECTUKE I. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 
 
 ON the banks of the Tigris there is the palace of 
 a king who has no successor among the living mon- 
 archs, and his subjects have long since ceased to be 
 reckoned among the powers of the world. For 
 more than two thousand years earth and rubbish 
 have covered its ruined walls, and filled its winding 
 galleries that once echoed to the tread of busy life. 
 Its site even became unknown to those who pitched 
 their tents by its side, or buried their dead in the 
 mound that inclosed its foundations. But this 
 burying-place of former grandeur, and of the pass- 
 
12 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 ing generations, has not been left undisturbed. 
 From their resting-places have been brought up the 
 slabs that in a measure reveal the thought of this 
 ancient people. The king 'has engraven his name 
 on the back of the slabs that form a part of his pal- 
 ace, while upon their fronts his mighty acts are 
 chiseled in the cuneiform characters of his nation. 
 Even the clay tile has stamped upon it some name 
 or story. "Why is it that those huge blocks of stone 
 are sawn asunder, floated down the Tigris or trans- 
 ported on camels' backs, and then borne across the 
 ocean to take their places in our museums ? Do we 
 expect, like their makers, that these old divinities 
 will give fruits to the field, and victory in war? 
 We do not believe they have power to save or to 
 destroy. "Why do scholars bend with wearied eye 
 and throbbing brain over these old mutilated in- 
 scriptions ? Do they expect to find in them lessons 
 of wisdom which they have never read in other lan- 
 guages? or to make, by such labor, discoveries in 
 art and science, which shall lengthen human life, 
 alleviate its ills, or add to its comforts ? None of 
 these things are expected. The old deities are to us 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 13 
 
 mere stone brittle slabs of mingled clay and gyp- 
 sum ; their mystic cones meaningless, their carving 
 uncouth, their inscriptions some idle vaunt of vain- 
 glorious kings, only equaled by the senseless self- 
 laudations of the " Brother of the Sun." But in 
 every line upon those old marbles there is the 
 record of a thought ; and whatever its value or 
 worthlessness, we wish to throw its light on the 
 great background of human history. It is the 
 search for thought that dignifies the labor among 
 the mounds of Nineveh, that redeems it from the 
 charge of childish folly, and makes each new dis- 
 covery a matter of universal interest. It is not the 
 value of the new stone, nor the value of its inscrip- 
 tion in bringing to light new views in morals or 
 philosophy, nor new facts in science ; but there is 
 there another thought, collected rays of thought in 
 the figure, the position of the marble, and in its in- 
 scription, that can together throw light on the great 
 historic perspective where the converging pillars are 
 lost in darkness. It is thus, and for this reason, that 
 we seek to gather from the mounds of our own 
 country the relics of a lost people. We gather their 
 
 0? 
 
 [UITI7BRSITY 
 
14 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 rude implements ; even the broken pottery is a treas- 
 ure : and all this to pierce the curtain of mystery 
 that hangs over their origin and history to catch a 
 glimpse, if possible, of some broken shaft in that 
 long gallery of history, which fell so long before 
 Columbus lived, that not a single arch has been 
 borne to us on the bosom of Indian tradition to aid 
 us in its reconstruction. 
 
 This is natural to man. "Whatever gives evidence 
 of thought, he wishes to investigate. The field of 
 thought is the home of a thinking being, the home 
 of man ; and whatever manifests thought, without, 
 evil associations, is never by him to be regarded as 
 useless. He never can thus regard it, for the very 
 law of his intellectual being forbids it. He may 
 not have so far analyzed his intellectual forces as to 
 know why he is impelled to this or that investiga- 
 tion. He may not be able to give a satisfactory 
 answer to the one who demands the use. But, he 
 knows there is a use, as he knows that food strength- 
 ens his body, although he may be in happy igno- 
 rance of such an organ as a stomach, and have no 
 notion of the peculiar office of carbon and nitrogen 
 
AS BELATED TO INTELLECT. 15 
 
 compounds. He can not tell how the food acts, but 
 he goes on eating, for his appetite demands it. In 
 satisfying its cravings, the good of the body is cared 
 for. It was given to guide men, before science 
 could help them. It led them in the right direction 
 as surely before the days of Hunter and Liebig, as it 
 does now with all the light of modern science. So 
 this intellectual appetite, that has led men to dig 
 among ruins, to wipe the dust from the ancient in- 
 scription, to gather as a pearl every monument of 
 human thought, to scan every form of matter as it 
 exists in nature the crystal and the flower the 
 animal, from the largest to the animalcule those 
 now living and those sleeping in their beds of stone 
 this intellectual appetite has led men in the right 
 direction. It has led them to labor, though unable 
 to defend themselves from sneers, and unable to 
 frame arguments in favor of what they knew must 
 be right. 
 
 It is this fact in Natural History its manifesta- 
 tions of thought that has enchained so many bril- 
 liant intellects in its pursuit, from the days of Aris- 
 totle till the present time. This was the charm that 
 
16 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 bound them to their work, and cheered them in 
 their investigations. The power of this element has 
 never been more fully recognized than in the late 
 work of the great master in Zoology, who sums up 
 each of his thirty-three first chapters as expressions 
 of thoughts of the Creator. He does not, like the 
 Alchemist, claim that he has made the gold which 
 he holds up to our admiring view. He presents the 
 gleaming ore, and says, Here I found it, where it 
 was poured in all its purity by God himself. 
 
 "We have now laid open broad veins by centu- 
 ries of patient search ; but it was the shining 
 particles of the same true ore, the thought of God, 
 that led on the early searchers, though they found 
 it in grains so small and scattered, while walking 
 upon the edge of the placer, that the multitude 
 could see nothing. "We have drawn on to richer 
 fields, and Natural History has assumed such an 
 importance so many are engaged in its pursuits 
 it is coming to take such a place in our courses of 
 instruction that we may well inquire its relations 
 to man as an intellectual, emotional, physical, and 
 religious being ; or, in other words, the relation of 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. IT 
 
 Natural History to INTELLECT, TASTE, WEALTH, AND 
 RELIGION. 
 
 Its relations to wealth are most generally consid- 
 ered by the common people, and even by those who 
 are clamorous that it should take the place of other 
 subjects in our courses of study. Its study is not 
 demanded by them because they believe it better 
 fitted than Euclid, or Horace, or Thucydides, as a 
 discipline to the mind, but they see that this may 
 be a road to wealth in a country like ours, abound- 
 ing in mineral riches. That its money value, on 
 short time, is the ground of their estimation, is ap- 
 parent from the fact that they are eager for so 
 much of the study as relates to mines, while it 
 seems as ridiculous to them as ever that men 
 should dissect fishes, catch bugs and butterflies, or 
 worse still, write whole books on turtles' eggs. 
 From the selection they are sure to make from the 
 departments of Natural History, we have a key by 
 which to translate their common question, " What 
 is the use of it?" It is simply this, how much 
 ready-money will it bring? "Will it bring in more 
 money than bank-stock or government five-per- 
 
18 NAT URAL HISTORY 
 
 cents? "I wish," argues the prudent father, "to 
 give my son one thousand dollars ; it must be safely 
 invested, so that it will bring in sixty dollars an- 
 nually. Shall I put it into the vault of the sav- 
 ings-bank, or into my son's head in the shape of 
 Natural History ?" It is with him a mere matter 
 of judicious investment. The son's head is balanced 
 against the stone vault, or a wooden box, as a safe 
 place for depositing money. If the box is surest to 
 bring semi-annual dividends, the money goes there, 
 and the apartments in the son's head are still empty. 
 
 The argument from design is so obvious, and has 
 been so well presented, that a certain relation of 
 Natural History to religion is acknowledged by 
 those who have given the least thought to this great 
 revelation. That it has other and more important 
 bearings than these special arguments thus far pre- 
 sented, it would not be difficult to show. 
 
 But two important departments still remain In- 
 tellect and Taste that have not yet been properly 
 connected with Natural History, so that it should 
 be seen to have high claims in reference to them 
 alone. On the first of these, the relation of Natural 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 19 
 
 History to Intellect, I propose to speak at this time. 
 And we trust it will appear that in this view alone, 
 it fully justifies the enthusiasm and the labor of nat- 
 uralists in all ages, and will justify their continued 
 labor, until every object in nature is searched out, 
 and the thought in it revealed. 
 
 I need not stop here to prove that the intellect is 
 to man more than money that money can be only 
 a means of accomplishing good, while the cultivated 
 intellect is not only a means, but is itself an end, 
 a positive good; because, by its exercise, man rises 
 constantly to greater capacities for enjoyment by the 
 very act of enjoying. Its revenue is unalloyed with 
 the anxieties that wealth necessarily brings. By 
 the intellect men may rise so high, that neither 
 wealth nor station can add any thing to their influ- 
 ence, and poverty can take nothing from it, nor 
 lessen the respect in which they are held. We 
 never think of wealth in connection with Newton, 
 Cuvier, nor Humboldt. They are in a sphere so 
 high, that neither riches nor poverty are. known or 
 recognized there. Official station could not lend 
 them dignity. Nothing but immorality could shake 
 
20 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 the intellectual thrones which they occupied. One 
 of them studied the heavens ; another brought liv- 
 ing forms from the dead bones of Montmartre ; the 
 other has scanned the various aspects of nature in 
 every clime, and still lives a companion of kings, 
 and an honor to the race.* They were not wholly 
 made what they were by the study of nature, but 
 the giant intellects which God gave them, found 
 in the study of nature adequate employment and 
 means of perpetual growth. They walked with na- 
 ture, as the scholar walks with the great master, list- 
 ening as he unfolds his thoughts, and deferentially 
 propounding questions in every case of doubt. It 
 was because in nature there was thought embodied 
 the constant unfolding of a plan drawn by infinite 
 wisdom, and written out on every star and mountain 
 in all the tribes of land and water in the expand- 
 ing flower and glittering grain of sand that they 
 never tired of her comrnunings, never grew wiser 
 than their teacher, but felt themselves to be children 
 to the last. 
 
 * Deceased since this was written. 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 21 
 
 The lives of such men men never to be spoken 
 of but with admiration would be enough, one 
 might think, to insure the study of nature from neg- 
 lect. But this general assent which their commen- 
 dation might imply, is still withheld from a multi- 
 tude of objects on which naturalists spend their 
 lives. Newton, we may be told, was an astronomer, 
 and that walking among the stars is a very different 
 thing from groping in mud and water for the puny 
 objects of Natural History. It is true, Newton 
 seems to us, now, always surrounded with a halo of 
 stellar light ; but when on earth he excited the com- 
 passion of his neighbors by his, to them, senseless 
 employment of blowing soap-bubbles. How that 
 act has become dignified in the opinion of men by 
 the results which have flowed from it ! It was to 
 Newton then, more than it can be to them now. 
 He saw in the prismatic colors of the trembling bub- 
 ble, laws of matter wonderful in their possible 
 results with all the charm of novelty, if we can 
 apply this tame expression novelty to that happy 
 emotion which calls pleasure from every fiber of the 
 intellectual being when a new relation, or law of 
 
22 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 nature, flashes upon the mind. The time will come, 
 when the humblest work of the Natural Historian 
 will, like the soap-bubble of Newton, vindicate 
 itself. We are sure this is so ; for in every created 
 object in the myriad forms thrown up by every 
 wave in the beetle that fills with drowsy hum the 
 evening air in the worm that crawls in the moss 
 and mildew there is a thought of God. We are 
 sure, that what it was not beneath the dignity of 
 God to create, is riot beneath the dignity of man to 
 study that it can not fail to vindicate fully its claim 
 to our attention. We simply wish to do something 
 to hasten that time. 
 
 Natural History is the study of the earth as one 
 mass, and of every object upon its surface and with- 
 in its crust. We ask you, then, to enter the portals 
 of this great temple, and read the thought of the 
 Builder in every separate stone, and its joining. 
 Nothing is superfluous nothing is wanting. Every 
 line, seemingly useless in the separate stones, serves 
 to show their true place in the arch or dome. And 
 not a single tint could be lost without marring the 
 grand picture which the pieces all conspire to form. 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 23 
 
 They are like the colored glass of some grand old 
 cathedral window forming a picture unseen by 
 those who pass on the outer side of the temple, but 
 to those within, giving gorgeous tints and celestial 
 groups. 
 
 "We spend clays and nights in our libraries, com- 
 muning with the great of the past ages and we do 
 well. It gives strength and beauty to the mind to 
 drink in the thoughts of those who towered up as 
 beacon-lights to the world. We make long journeys 
 to see the works of the great masters ; but in this 
 temple of nature, which opens her portals to us in 
 every land, we commune with Him who "by wis- 
 dom hath founded the earth." 
 
 WQ step first into the lowest vestibule of this tem- 
 ple the mineral kingdom. And here, as will subse- 
 quently appear in the higher departments, we may 
 examine each object independently, or we may 
 direct our attention to the grouping of the whole 
 the relation of each object to others, or the relation 
 of the whole to higher departments. In this exami- 
 nation it will be impossible to keep entirely clear 
 of related sciences, as Chemistry and Meteorology. 
 
 UHI7BRSIT7 
 
24: NAT URAL HISTORY 
 
 All the natural sciences are so joined that no one 
 of them can be properly considered without some 
 aid from others ; or, at least, by so far introducing 
 them as to show the line of junction, as adjacent ter- 
 ritory is generally drawn in outline around any por- 
 tion of the earth that we wish to map with precision. 
 We have learned by the aid of Chemistry that 
 there are sixty-two kinds of matter. All of these 
 elements occurring in a simple state, and the com- 
 pounds of the whole number existing as natural 
 products, belong to this one lowest department of 
 Natural History Mineralogy. It is the same matter 
 indeed as is found in the higher departments, but 
 it is combined and controlled by inferior forces ; 
 chemical affinity being the highest force ever mani- 
 fested in a mineral. We have here hundreds of 
 substances making up the earth's crust, mingled in 
 seeming confusion, and many of them of- protean 
 form. These are to be sought out, and their true 
 nature discovered under their various disguises. 
 Were there no plan nor law in their structure, the 
 task would be hopeless. For where there is no re- 
 lationship, the study of one object can give no aid 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 25 
 
 in understanding another. Any arrangement not 
 founded upon like nature is only an arbitrary placing, 
 which is no sign of progress in any department. 
 But these have each a definite plan, and each a 
 relationship to some other. And upon them are 
 stamped the characters by which their nature may 
 be known, by those who look with patient study. 
 There is engraven within their very structure a 
 story, an autobiography that unrolls the more the 
 longer we gaze upon it. It is perfect, for the writing 
 is a transcript, by their maker, of the nature He has 
 given them ; not like the daguerreotype, the very 
 shadow, but the very thing itself. It is the nature 
 given by God, manifested in all those sensible signs 
 by which the thing is known. 
 
 A celebrated mineralogist was once asked how he 
 knew that a certain body had fallen from the heav- 
 ens, which he was giving thousands of dollars for, to 
 enrich his collections of meteorites. His answer was, 
 " I see the finger-marks of the Almighty stamped 
 upon every part of it." This might seem a bold 
 expression, or as indicating some wonderful property 
 
 in those bodies that fall from the heavens. But if 
 
 3 
 
26 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 sucli language could be applied to a meteorite, it 13 
 equally true of every pebble beneath our feet. To 
 translate these marks, to read this language of the 
 mineral kingdom, we have in kind the highest con- 
 ditions for mental activity. Other departments may 
 give us higher degrees. "We have here a multitude 
 of forms each form perfectly defined sensible 
 properties varied without limit all combined form- 
 ing labels for every species in the mineral kingdom, 
 as perfect as the works of God ever are, and yet only 
 to be read by the keenest mental insight, and by 
 calling into active exercise every sense. The nature 
 of this language we have already indicated ; but we 
 will examine it more in detail, because it is that in 
 which the whole book of nature is written. And he 
 who would in after-life read the inscriptions on her 
 grand old arches the poems in her grottoes must 
 not despise the alphabet which, meaningless by it- 
 self, is the only key to unlock those well-springs of 
 knowledge which the multitude never enjoy ; hardly 
 knowing of their existence, though walking for life 
 among them. And, like all others, it is a 
 of signs. 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 27 
 
 We can present it only so far as it lias been trans- 
 lated, which will be enough for our present purpose. 
 These signs are the characteristics by which minerals 
 are known. They constitute, then, the language 
 which students of this department of nature have 
 been for ages enlarging and enriching, by discover- 
 ing new minerals, and studying with more care those 
 already known. I need but mention these signs to 
 have it seen that they tax every sense draw out the 
 mind by every avenue pour in knowledge by every 
 channel, and thus offer the conditions of rapid, well- 
 balanced mental development. 
 
 These signs are, first, the crystalline form. 
 
 And what a brilliant language is here introducer. 
 We have been delighted with the beauty of its char- 
 acters, even while unable to translate a single wor-J. 
 and perhaps even ignorant that they were signs of a 
 language old as creation, sure as the divine oracles, 
 and varied as the changing figures of the kaleido- 
 scope. It sparkles from every grain of sand, glitters 
 from every well-filled cabinet, and streams forth in 
 joyous, gushing beams from the " Mountain of 
 Light." These gems, like the stars, have in all ages 
 
28 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 delighted men by their brilliancy ; but it is in the 
 study of their angles the planes of cleavage and 
 the position of their axes, that the ablest minds have 
 found a life employment, and seen the deepest beau- 
 ties of the mineral kingdom. 
 
 It is interesting to trace the progress of mind 
 verging toward truth peering into the myriad of 
 crystalline forms coining nearer and nearer to the 
 true translation sometimes reading a sentence cor- 
 rectly, without daring to vouch for its truth or to 
 join others to complete the story, until Haiiy, by the 
 fortunate crushing of a crystal, found in its broken 
 fragments the primitive form, the first intelligible 
 word in this hitherto unknown language. Minds 
 that had been groping in darkness now saw light. 
 Then was called in the power of Mathematics, that 
 ever-ready instrument of progress in science. Whole 
 volumes were filled with geometrical problems re- 
 lating to this department of Nature. But the won- 
 der is, that in the varied forms into which she molds 
 the outer surface, as if to hide and protect from 
 mortal eye her secret charm, the primitive form 
 within, men should have looked beneath the cunning 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 29 
 
 disguise so as to discover the thirteen fundamental 
 forms from which all others can be derived, and of 
 which they are modifications. As an example of 
 these modifications, we need mention but a single 
 substance Calcareous Spar, of which Count Brun- 
 non described seven hundred derivative forms. As 
 an aid to mathematical research in reducing these 
 multifarious forms, the light was made to flash the 
 angles by "Wollaston's goniometer ; and when the 
 forms were determined, the same ray searched many 
 of these crystals through, and by the delicate test of 
 its own polarity, acknowledged the truth of the 
 mathematical deductions. Here, then, on a single 
 characteristic of the mineral kingdom, the crystal- 
 line form, have been drawn out the best thoughts of 
 a multitude of laborers among them De Lisle and 
 Haiiy, Phillips and "Wollaston. There is no road to 
 the full richness of the mineral kingdom but the one 
 they have opened. To follow that track, even where 
 they have thrown light upon every place of darkness, 
 and placed finger-boards at every doubtful corner, 
 is one of the most severe and accurate processes of 
 
 discipline to which the mind can be subjected. It 
 
 8* 
 
30 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 is the study of Geometry in material forms it is the 
 discovery of truth amid a thousand sources of error. 
 The consciousness of being able in such investiga- 
 tions to walk on to truth without failure, in spite of 
 all disturbing causes, is one of the most essential 
 requisites to encourage the student, and prepare his 
 mind for original investigations, and the source of 
 the highest pleasure to those possessing it. 
 
 I have dwelt at length on this one sign of the 
 mineral language, because its relation to intellect 
 has appeared in all the progress of this science. It 
 has elicited more thought, its discovery is a greater 
 triumph of mind, and it still taxes the higher intel- 
 lectual powers more than all other characteristics of 
 the mineral kingdom combined. Yet they, obvious 
 as they are, have their use they are the easy part 
 which is first learned ; but when carefully studied, 
 as by some of the old mineralogists, like Werner, 
 they are wonderful in the accuracy of their results. 
 The more important are : Lustre, with all its various 
 play of light and degree of intensify Color, with all 
 its possible hues the Degree of Transparency Re- 
 fraction and Phosphorescence Electricity and Mag- 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 31 
 
 netism Specific Gravity in all its possible varia- 
 tions Hardness of every degree the State of Ag- 
 gregation the Surface, when broken, or scratched, 
 or reduced to powder the Taste and Odor ; and if 
 allowed to step beyond the pure Natural History 
 properties, we might add the numberless changes 
 produced by Chemical Beagents. To enumerate the 
 gradations of these various characteristics would 
 burden the memory to little profit It is seen at a 
 glance that they tax every sense. Determinations 
 depend upon shades of difference so slight, that no 
 language can describe them ; but they are read in 
 the mineral, by that keenness of the senses, which 
 they always acquire when rightly exercised. Thus 
 then, in the mineral kingdom alone, we have a Ian- 
 
 Jj 
 
 guage that is never doubtful in its meaning, to the 
 experienced, but a language to be learned and read 
 only by the constant use of every sense, and the 
 keenest activity of the reasoning powers. What 
 subject, then, among all the studies of a liberal 
 education, gives better conditions of mental growth 
 and activity than this lowest department of nature ? 
 But we must pass to the Kingdom of Life. We 
 
32 NATURAL HISTOKY 
 
 lose here our geometrical forms, bounded by planes 
 and lines, but we have the unfolding of a new force, 
 that uses chiefly four elements, and molds them into 
 more forms than are known to the whole mineral 
 kingdom. The vital force gives relations and devel- 
 opments entirely unlike those in the lower depart- 
 ment, not even suggested by any thing found there, 
 as the relation of parent and offspring, by which 
 matter is molded into a continued series of identical 
 forms, by a force, not in it, but above it the devel- 
 opment of vegetable and animal growth, in which 
 the perfection and beauty depends upon the con- 
 stant change of matter, while in the crystal they 
 depend upon its permanence. "We have not here 
 stepped beyond the limit of mathematical law, but 
 it is obscured by more deviations than in the most 
 complicated crystal. What myriad forms start up 
 on every side! There is the plant of a single cell, 
 cradled in the northern snow, his kindred lurking in 
 every pool the Fungus, scavenger among plants, 
 feeding on decaying fiber the Lichen and Moss, 
 picturing the broad rock with fairy groves and rings 
 the Grasses, wearing their carpets of green, and 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 33 
 
 yielding their riches in almost every portion of the 
 earth the Fir, and lowly Birch, and Willow, 
 braving the mountain storms, or creeping almost to 
 eternal snows the Pine, whispering its sad moan- 
 ings in dark and gloomy forests the Oak, spreading 
 its arms in strength the Orange and Citron, loading 
 the air with perfume the broad Palm, lifting its 
 feathery leaves in quiet grandeur to the sky the 
 Algae, binding the ocean with one eternal fringe of 
 rich and varied hues. Mingled among all these are 
 thousands of other objects, that make up every 
 landscape, as rich in product, as curious in struc- 
 ture, and as varied in form. And these all are 
 ministering to a higher form of life the animal 
 kingdom, that, starting from the plant to an opposite 
 polarity, by a gradation so nice that we can not 
 draw the dividing line, bursts into a wealth of forms 
 with sensitive life ; ending in man, endowed with 
 thought and reason, able to understand this chain of 
 beings, as he is their appointed lord, and their con- 
 necting link with the Maker of them all. 
 
 Among these we know the Polyp, that with 
 radiate masonry builds its walls and mounds strong 
 
34: NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 enough to shut back the ocean, and broad enough 
 for nations to dwell upon. The waters teem with 
 Fishes and" Shells the air with Birds and Insects 
 the fields and forests with their higher tribes the 
 rocks with the casts and figures of those which have 
 passed away. We have more than one hundred 
 thousand species of plants ; more than two hundred 
 and fifty thousand in the animal kingdom, besides 
 the multitude belonging to geologic time. A single 
 species is sometimes represented by more than one 
 thousand distinct forms, known as varieties. It is 
 in this field, among these countless hosts of the 
 kingdom of life, that the human mind has made 
 some of its greatest triumphs. This is a matter of 
 history ; but the vastness of the work and the power 
 of mind required, and the growth of mind marked 
 by the progress of succeeding generations, can be 
 fully understood only by those who linger in this 
 higher portion of the temple of nature till they see 
 the objects as grouped by the great masters. It 
 may be said they have only discovered the plan and 
 the grouping which nature had already made. The 
 question is not altered. Nature never arranges. 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 35 
 
 She does indeed put her symbolic language on 
 every stone in her temple. But though the build- 
 ing is perfect to the eye of the great Architect, it is 
 a perfection of relation, and not of position. It 
 seems chaos to man until that relation is perceived, 
 as it existed in the divine Mind, and is manifested 
 in his works. The blocks are scattered where they 
 were fashioned by the Creator on every continent, 
 the islands of the sea, and beneath the waters. 
 Their true place is written in their structure : it is 
 repeated in every change, from the unfolding of the 
 germ to the perfect being. But it is the gathering 
 up of these scattered fragments, so that they shall be 
 perfect to man, as they formed a perfect whole to 
 the Omnipresent eye in the first creation it is this 
 entering in to the thought of God by the army of 
 naturalists, that is the great triumph of intellect. 
 And that this has been done, in the main, in the 
 present natural systems of classification, w r e have no 
 more doubt than we have that the sun is the center 
 of the solar system, and that the true order of the 
 planets is now known. It is this search, this grad- 
 ual unfolding of the great Master's thought, that has 
 
36 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 quickened the senses and strengthened the powers 
 of Aristotle, Linnaeus, and Cuvier, and the long 
 list of the dead and living naturalists almost equally 
 worthy of mention. The record of single straggles 
 and single triumphs, had we time to recount them, 
 would prove to us the intensity of thought, the 
 taxing of the senses, and the broad generalizations 
 through which each of the great naturalists has 
 passed, each being in some points successful, and 
 in others at fault, because life was not long enough 
 to read every sign * correctly, or because he attempt- 
 ed to form an arch from the materials at hand, 
 while the key-stone perhaps w^as fashioned on an- 
 other continent, reserved as a discovery for some 
 more fortunate workman. This language of signs, 
 by which they are compelled to carry on their work, 
 is the same in kind as already referred to in the 
 mineral kingdom, but with rhetorical figures and a 
 more hidden meaning. No other study has de- 
 manded of men such bodily toil and exposure. ~No 
 worldly good but gold, has ever sent men on such 
 long and perilous journeys. It so enchains the mind 
 that ease is forgotten, and money despised except as 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 37 
 
 a means : it is not valued for a moment against 
 progress in this pursuit. 
 
 Agassiz expressed the feeling of every true natu- 
 ralist, when he said "he could not spend his time 
 making money." Linnaeus not only roused his 
 mind and body to the work, so that weariness and 
 disease were almost forgotten, but his pupils were 
 fired with an enthusiasm which sent them round the 
 world, to gather for their teacher and themselves 
 new lines in this book of nature. 
 
 There is one department, embracing the whole 
 range of Natural History, whose most brilliant 
 triumphs were reserved for our day, and where the 
 human mind has yet its grandest problems to solve 
 in the material world. Slowly from the mountain 
 and the valley did light break in upon the mind, 
 and the great truth become established, that in the 
 bosom of the earth, that volume of stony leaves, 
 there were strange inscriptions, the record of un- 
 numbered nations ; that her true history was writ- 
 ten there, and that in this apparent chaos there was 
 perfect order. 
 
 The student of antiquities has no lexicon for read- 
 
38 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 ing tlie strange inscriptions on the bricks and slabs 
 of those ancient buried cities. Their engravers, 
 and those who wrote and spoke the languages, are 
 gone: not a single letter will ever be added to 
 those already written ; from them alone, unchang- 
 ing and unchangeable, must a key be found by 
 which the world can unlock their meaning. Not so 
 of the inscriptions in the rocks of the earth. The 
 language engraven there, God is repeating every 
 
 year in the sunshine and storm, and in the varied 
 
 
 
 forms of animals and plants that live and die. This 
 language the students of nature already knew. As 
 they opened the leaves of stone, the forms were 
 strange indeed and antiquated, like the characters in 
 the old black-letter volumes of our libraries, but the 
 language was still the same, it had been the mother 
 tongue of naturalists for generations. The intel- 
 lectual triumphs in this field are too recent to need 
 mention here. The ablest leaders have still their 
 armor on. But for fifty years there has been no 
 such field of thought as Geology no study to which 
 the universal mind has so turned none that has 
 dispelled more prejudice none that has thrown up 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 39 
 
 such a background where the thought can rest, or 
 run back through the ages and there is none that 
 gives more strength of mind by its pursuit. 
 
 We have thus far referred to the struggles of 
 mind in unfolding the plan of nature ; but has the 
 mission of Natural History been accomplished in 
 its influence upon the great men who have passed 
 away, or is its effect upon mind but beginning to 
 manifest its power? The men already mentioned 
 would have been great in any pursuit. They were 
 lights, though doubtless having greater brilliancy 
 from their peculiar study. Are their works still 
 to quicken and strengthen the mental powers of 
 those who are to come after them ; or has the work 
 been done once for all, and is there nothing left for 
 us but to admire the deeds of those giants, without 
 drinking in strength from the same fountain that 
 gave mental vigor to them ? 
 
 If we mistake not, Natural History is but in the 
 morning twilight of its day of influence. Cast the 
 eye along the shelves of any well-filled library, and 
 see the volumes that have been written to record 
 the labors thus far accomplished. There are Pliny, 
 
4:0 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 and Linnaeus, and Kirby, and Audubon, and Lyell, 
 and Murcliison, and Agassiz, and others, the titles 
 of whose books would fill volumes. In what de- 
 partment will you find deeper problems for thought, 
 or more attractive subjects for every period of life? 
 "We might go further, and say that no class of books 
 is more eagerly sought for, or more generally 
 studied. For the man of general intelligence, or 
 for the scholar, the literature of Natural History is 
 unsurpassed. "What more charming descriptions 
 than in Audubon and Wilson? What more inspir- 
 ing than the works of Miller ? What authors re- 
 quire deeper thought and the exercise of higher 
 mental powers than the writers on classification ? 
 What works encourage more self-reliance and bold- 
 ness of views than those of the late geologists ? 
 
 But the important relation of Natural History to 
 intellect as an educating power, is apparent from its 
 modes of investigation- from the objects it presents 
 from the powers it exercises from the accuracy 
 of its processes and the grandeur of its results. 
 
 It calls men to the field, and teaches them to treat 
 of real things, and not of mere names, " terms of 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 41 
 
 ignorance and of superficial contemplation," as Lord 
 Bacon calls them. It thus joins action of mind and 
 body ; gives vigor to the former by its pleasant con- 
 trast to mere book-studies, and by giving tone and 
 strength to the latter. Its study is the true method 
 of economizing time in education, for when other 
 books must be closed the book of nature is open ; 
 and its subjects of thought meet the eye in our 
 strolls of pleasure, in our hurried walks, and as we 
 rest by the wayside. The swiftness of the car is 
 hardly able to confuse their clustering forms along 
 the way. Our knowledge thus grows in odd mo- 
 ments; and a large portion of life is saved from 
 waste, and made like flower-beds in nooks and bor- 
 ders of gardens, more beautiful because found in 
 places so often neglected. 
 
 "We shall find no spot on this earth where there is 
 not some alcove of nature's library, with volumes 
 enough to employ us for life. The investigations are 
 always original. The species may be described in 
 the book in our hand, but the particular individual 
 which we are to examine is still to be studied in 
 
 every characteristic. The description must be seen 
 
 4* 
 
4:2 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 to apply ; and tins, in the ever-varying forms of life, 
 can be done by no mechanical process ; it must be 
 by an effort of the mind, apprehending at the mo- 
 ment the entire combination of properties and rela- 
 tions. The first step in wrong theorizing is checked 
 by reference to the real thing, as the calculated dis- 
 tances and angles of the engineer are tested by 
 measurement of the base-line. It thus differs from 
 pure metaphysical investigations, by bringing into 
 constant action the perceptive faculties, as a check 
 to groundless speculations. While Mathematics 
 forces the mind along a given course by the iron 
 rail of necessity, in the relations of geometric 
 figures and algebraic symbols, Natural History 
 compels the mind to direct itself. It must here dis- 
 cover the track, before it can move, and keep itself 
 in place, not by the iron flanges of the car-wheel, 
 but by the quick eye and accurate balancing of the 
 equilibrist. While, then, it allows freedom of move- 
 ment, it demands accuracy, and corrects error by its 
 constant tests. It does not consist in the dreams of 
 any master's mind, who pities our want of rational 
 insight when we can not understand him,' or, under- 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 43 
 
 standing him, fail to appreciate him ; but it deals 
 with things that have an outward existence, objects 
 that can be perceived and studied by all blessed 
 with five senses. They can be collected in cabinets, 
 so that we may examine the same plant which 
 Linnaeus described the same bone that Cuvier 
 studied. 
 
 Natural History demands high qualifications in 
 other departments of education, and constantly in- 
 creases our knowledge of kindred studies in amount 
 and accuracy, by bringing them into daily use. In 
 the nomenclature, there is needed an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the power of words and the laws 
 of their combinations. In considering the geologic 
 forces, the laws of form and position of parts, we 
 gain a clear comprehension only by the aid of 
 Mathematics. In the higher problems of classifica- 
 tion, there is a field for metaphysical speculation, 
 applied to no imaginary creations nor abstract terms, 
 but to material forms. The delicate tests of Chem- 
 istry, and the almost magic power of Optics, are in 
 constant requisition. Men have become naturalists, 
 it is true, though they neglected other studies ; but 
 
4:4: NATURAL HI STORY 
 
 such of them as became distinguished succeeded in 
 spite of their mistake ; and in this respect they are 
 no more to be followed by the student, than the mis- 
 takes of Franklin's boyhood are to be copied be- 
 cause he became a statesman and philosopher. 
 
 There is no tiring amid the variety of the objects 
 which Natural History presents, and they cannot be 
 exhausted. The land and water still abound in un- 
 studied forms, and the scalpel and microscope reveal 
 new wonders in those that are old. They are gen- 
 erally beautiful in themselves, always beautiful in 
 their relations, so that the mind is constantly re- 
 lieved by new points of interest, and thus dwells 
 upon them without weariness. They daily meet the 
 eye, and invite us to review. Other studies may be 
 forgotten because the books are closed and gathering 
 dust on the shelves, but the flowers and the trees 
 can not thus be put away. They press themselves 
 upon the attention every day, and the insects and 
 the birds will have a hearing. If the cold of winter 
 drive them away for a season, they make up for the 
 loss when they return in the spring, tilling every tree 
 and bush with their melody. Whoever heard of a 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 45 
 
 naturalist forgetting or losing liis interest in his 
 studies ? Those who have contented themselves with 
 learning a catalogue of hard names, supposing this 
 to be Natural History because it often passes for it, 
 must expect to lose this, with most other knowledge 
 held by memory alone. Men may name whole 
 cabinets, and have no more claim to be called nat- 
 uralists, than a man who has simply learned a hun- 
 dred words from a Greek Lexicon to be called a 
 linguist. Such knowledge costs more than it is 
 worth to keep it. The best thing that can be said 
 of it is, that it seldom troubles its possessor long. 
 But he who has once seen the true plan and relation- 
 ship of natural objects is a Naturalist, though walk- 
 ing among animals and plants that have never yet 
 received a name; and the knowledge of that plan 
 and relationship can never be forgotten, but will be 
 increased by every new object which meets his eye. 
 "When the mind would mark the nice distinctions 
 drawn by Nature, she must call to her aid every 
 sense. She must read the cells in the bone and the 
 glimmering lines of the scale the veining of the 
 leaf and the angle of the crystal. By being thus 
 
46 NAT URAL HISTORY 
 
 drafted to constant labor, the senses are so changed 
 in degree that they seem almost new in kind. Dis- 
 tinctions are marked, threads of truth gathered up, 
 which unpractised senses can not perceive, nor minds 
 untrained to like studies appreciate. 
 
 This accounts for the common undervaluing of 
 the most important labors of the Naturalist. What 
 need of blinding one's self in studying microscopic 
 organisms and the mere impressions in the rocks ? 
 Because they are links in the chain tints in the 
 grand picture. As well might the linguist neglect 
 the breathings and accents of his Greek language, 
 the astronomer his fractions of a second, as the nat- 
 uralist these minute and seemingly useless object. 
 As well might men sneer at the painter for giving 
 those fine touches that mark the works of masters, 
 or at the sculptor, as his chisel brings out, by its 
 fine cutting, the desired expression, as at the natur 
 alist when studying these minute shadings on the 
 great canvas of nature. It is by these intershadin;rs 
 alone that the parts are seen to form an harmonic as 
 whole, in the contemplation of which the mind is 
 both delighted and truly educated. 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 47 
 
 In educating the mind, accuracy is one of the 
 most desirable traits to be developed. Yolumes 
 have been written that are worthless for lack of this 
 element. We feel no safety in consulting them. 
 Fine intellectual powers have yielded no valuable 
 results in the labors of a lifetime, because not di- 
 rected by habits of accuracy in every undertaking. 
 A mind that rests on suppositions is never to be 
 trusted by others, and can never satisfy its possessor, 
 if he have keenness enough to understand his own 
 defect. We all feel the power of this in every pur- 
 suit. We wish to trust life and fortune with the 
 accurate men. And if we would give to those whom 
 we educate the highest mental culture, they must be 
 taught to scan every relation, and mark the minutest 
 bearing of every subject brought under their con- 
 sideration. This may be a natural gift to a favored 
 few, but to the majority of men it comes only by 
 careful training. In every branch of study chosen 
 for its educating power, this characteristic of securing 
 accuracy in every mental process is considered of the 
 highest importance. And from the whole range of 
 studies in the most liberal course, we challenge the 
 
48 NATURALHISTORY 
 
 selection of one that demands accuracy, and secures 
 it more fully, than Natural History, as now studied. 
 Look at the Botanist, as he marks every hair, and 
 line, and cell, when with microscopic power he looks 
 into the secret laboratory of life, and traces the join- 
 ing of the tissues and the structure of the minutest 
 organ. And in this respect the Zoologist is wholly 
 his equal. He studies thousands of microscopic 
 forms the wavy line of the scale, and the cell of the 
 bone the cells, and lines, and tissues of the egg, 
 from the first crimson tinge of life, till every change 
 has been completed. The power and accuracy which 
 this gives are seen in the restored forms of vegetable 
 and animal life from the scattered fragments in the 
 rocks. This power and this habit, as a part of edu- 
 cation, appear in every vocation of life. 
 
 Another requirement of a study is, that it shall 
 give broad views, and make men liberal towards 
 other pursuits. Accuracy is dearly bought if it nar- 
 rows the mind, so that it can see no good in any 
 thing beyond its own particular province. Natural 
 History calls into daily requisition almost all other 
 departments of human knowledge. It does this in 
 
AS RELATED TO INTELLECT. 4:9 
 
 so marked a degree, that their true place can never 
 be lost sight of, nor their value underrated. 
 
 In the grandeur of its results, Geology is, accord- 
 ing to Sir John Herschel himself, second only to 
 his own favorite study, Astronomy. Humboldt, 
 whose range of knowledge is certainly equal to that 
 of any man who ever lived, and knows well what 
 studies are requisite to breadth and completeness of 
 view, has placed the study of an humbler branch of 
 Natural History on equality with the sublime 
 study of the heavens, for securing accuracy and in- 
 tellectual power. 
 
 " The Astronomer," says he, " who by the aid of 
 the heliometer, or a double-refracting prism, deter- 
 mines the diameter of planetary bodies, who meas- 
 ures patiently, year after year, the meridian altitude 
 and the relative distances of stars, or who seeks a 
 telescopic comet in a group of nebulae, does not feel 
 his imagination more excited and this is the very 
 guarantee of the precision of his labors than the 
 botanist who counts the divisions of the calyx, or 
 the number of stamens in a flower, or examines the 
 connected or the separate teeth of the peristoma 
 
50 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 'surrounding the capsule of a moss. Yet the multi- 
 plied angular measurements on the one hand, and 
 the detail of organic relations on the other, alike aid 
 in preparing the way for the attainment of higher 
 views of the laws of the universe." 
 
 It is with such views of the benefits of Natural 
 History that we would have its study entered upon 
 by the young. It may not bring money to them, 
 but it will open new sources of pleasure. Nature 
 will become an exhaustless volume, read with de- 
 light ; and not simply a series of pictures which they 
 can admire indeed, but only as children do their 
 primers, without a thought of the story, or at least 
 without the ability to read it. Thousands have ad- 
 mired the beauties of the moss covering the earth 
 with an elastic carpet of green ; but how is that 
 beauty heightened to a Humboldt, when he sees in 
 the microscopic points in its nodding capsule a 
 new note in the harmony of the universe ! 
 
 If we look then at the long catalogue of honored 
 names, whose whole lives have been given to the 
 study of Natural History if we look at the vol- 
 umes and cabinets which now record their labors 
 
AS BELATED TO INTELLECT. 51 
 
 if we look at the power of this study to develop 
 the perceptive faculties if we look at the accuracy 
 of its processes, and the grandeur of its results and 
 above all, if we look at these varied forms, as the 
 material expression of the thought of God it comes 
 to us with a force that needs no special plea to sus- 
 tain it, that Natural History is deserving all the 
 labor men have ever bestowed upon it, as a means 
 of training the intellectual powers, and as one of the 
 most delightful fields for their exercise. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LECTUEE II. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY AS RELATED TO TASTE. 
 
 ALL created things are a series of dependencies. 
 They are more than a simple series ; for, if studied 
 in groups, like the stones of an arch, each group is 
 found to have not only its own conditions of exist- 
 ence, but to be conditional for another. This is cer- 
 tainly true of all material forms of organic or inor- 
 ganic combinations. So far-reaching is this idea of 
 relative dependence, that we can not by reasoning 
 reach an absolute in time, space, matter, or force. 
 Go far as we may in either direction, the mind still 
 seeks for a more remote cause, a still lower condi- 
 tion. But by allowing the mind to rest on a single 
 view and to consider a single condition, this view or 
 condition becomes magnified ; and though it can 
 never become to us the absolute, it may assume an 
 undue importance, and seem to us to be the very 
 atlas upon which the world rests. All members of 
 the series are stones in a perfect arch. The stone 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 53 
 
 we delight in, we see to be necessary to the very 
 existence of the structure, and we forget that this is 
 true of every other in the sweep of the all-embracing 
 curve. This tendency to consider every object of 
 our interest or study as a condition for other good, 
 rather than as itself equally depending upon others, 
 is seen in every pursuit ; and probably no man is so 
 liberal in his education as to be entirely free from 
 this tendency. The study of nature is thus judged 
 of and directed according to the stand-point of the 
 observer. Each one has his own measure of utility, 
 and nature is to him valuable as she seems to expand 
 when he applies this test. The mere man of busi- 
 ness sees in money the hope of the world the main- 
 spring of progress, and the price of every thing de- 
 sirable. "What are the laws of Mechanics to him, 
 but that his warehouses may be strong and his 
 machinery fitted for its work? What use of Astron- 
 omy, but for the guiding of ships, to shorten the 
 passage and reduce the insurance? What good in 
 Natural History, but that the earth may be made to 
 yield more abundant products from her soil, unlock 
 her mines of coal, and become a grand specie-paying 
 
54: NAT URAL HISTORY 
 
 bank, always discounting freely, but never demand- 
 ing pay ? The mere student inquires its relation to 
 the Intellect, and his scale of worth measures its 
 power of exercising and developing the faculties of 
 the mind. The artist rises higher still, and, above 
 all notions of wealth, above the pure conceptions of 
 intellect, he ranks the emotional nature the love 
 and enjoyment of the beautiful for its own sake. 
 Nature to him has value as the Cosmos, revealing a 
 mind, and speaking to the mind, in its varied lan- 
 guage of order, proportion, and grandeur ; thus 
 awakening the emotions of beauty and sublimity. 
 These may, indeed, arise from very general views, 
 hardly to be ranked as the study of Natural History ; 
 it is, however, the study of each particular part that 
 brings out the keener enjoyment of the soul, as the 
 fine tones in music add deliciousness and richness to 
 the harmony. But, rising higher still than all per- 
 ceptions of material beauty, all enjoyment from the 
 possible combinations of matter, is the spiritual 
 nature and sense of moral beauty. To this all other 
 sources of happiness must be inferior, if not condi- 
 tional, for it is in this direction that man approaches 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 55 
 
 nearest the Maker of all, in whose likeness he was 
 formed. To those considering alone this higher 
 spiritual and moral nature of man, the material 
 world becomes simply a divine revelation. This is 
 to them not only its highest worth, but, in contrast, 
 all other purposes are underrated, if not despised. 
 It may be well for the world that men should, thus 
 view truth from different stand-points, and become 
 so enamored with a single side as to gaze at it for 
 life. But it is never well for the individual. A 
 thousand minds, fixed on a thousand different points 
 of the same object, must in the aggregate learn more 
 than one possibly could by passing from point to 
 point. A thousand men, content thus to rivet their 
 attention till the smallest object filled their entire 
 vision, would make greater progress for the world, 
 but it would be at the sacrifice of individual ad- 
 vancement. The broader the views, the more cor- 
 rect. And that mind is alone well balanced that 
 can glance through the whole range of relations, 
 
 o o o 
 
 and give to every faculty of mind and department 
 of nature its true position. For the arch is beautiful 
 and perfect only when the key-stone rests in its 
 
56 NATURAL HIS TORY 
 
 highest point. In the study of Natural History, its 
 entire relation to man is to be considered. The 
 Intellect, as we have already shown, finds here a 
 soil adapted to its growth. Like a sturdy tree, it 
 may here strike its roots deep, and send up the 
 heavy trunk, and broad branches, and load them 
 with golden fruits. Here, too, Taste may flourish 
 under the same favoring influence, as pure intellec- 
 tual culture ; like the vine or prairie-rose upon the 
 oak, twining in graceful folds, and spreading over 
 the broad, firm branches of intellectual growth an 
 eternal adorning of indescribable beauty. 
 
 It is on the relation of Natural History to Taste 
 that I wish to speak at this time. 
 
 There is in man a love of the beautiful. And by 
 the beautiful we mean that which delights by sim- 
 ple contemplation that which we admire without 
 the thought of utility, and without the ability, 
 perhaps, to explain the cause of our admiration. 
 The emotions excited by beauty and grandeur may 
 be pronounced simple or complex, in our analysis of 
 the emotional nature, but " they are," says Allison, 
 "distinguishable from every other pleasure of our 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 57 
 
 nature." "The qualities that produce these emo- 
 tions are to be found in almost every class of human 
 knowledge, and the emotions themselves afford one 
 of the most extensive sources of human delight. 
 They occur to us amid every variety of external 
 scenery, and among many diversities of disposition 
 and affection in the mind of man. 
 
 " The most pleasing arts of human invention are 
 altogether directed to their pursuit. And even the 
 necessary arts are exalted into dignity by the genius 
 that can unite beauty with use. From the earliest 
 period of society to its last stage of improvement, 
 they afford an innocent and elegant amusement to 
 private life, at the same time that they increase the 
 splendor of national character ; and in the progress 
 of nations, as well as individuals, while they attract 
 attention from the pleasures they bestow, they serve 
 to exalt the human mind from the corporeal to in- 
 tellectual pursuits." 
 
 The faculty or constitution of our minds by which 
 we perceive these qualities, and enjoy these emo- 
 tions of beauty and sublimity, is Taste. It is itself 
 a plant of beauty in the garden of mind, but 
 
58 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 crushed and despised in the hurry of this utilitarian 
 age. It has too often been neglected by the scholar, 
 and mourned over as a vile weed of depravity by 
 the Christian. 
 
 The pleasures of this faculty are to the individual 
 ever fresh and delicious. But while every emotion 
 of beauty thrills the soul with delight, it rolls in 
 hurrying ripples, and leaves only for its possessor 
 conscious evidence of its value and elevating power. 
 There is, therefore, in respect to this faculty, an 
 individual growth and revenue of pleasure, which 
 no one can calculate for another. "We can take no 
 inventory of these higher riches, though in respect 
 to them, men undoubtedly differ more than they do 
 in material wealth. But there is for the race an 
 outward expression of the power of Taste, and a 
 permanent record of its progress, in the Fine Arts. 
 If they are not the creations of Taste, they are, some 
 of them at least, the creations of Genius to supply 
 her demand ; and the highest aim of Genius is but 
 to receive her approbation. To the bidding of this 
 goddess he yields the tribute of all his powers, and 
 plumes his wings for his highest flights with the de- 
 
AS BELATED TO TASTE. 59 
 
 votion of a knight in the days of chivalry. By her 
 demands, some arts are made to minister more to 
 her gratification than to bodily wants, and these we 
 raise from the rank of the simply useful to the fine. 
 The intellect simply demands of language that it 
 express the thought with clearness and precision, 
 but at the bidding of Taste, Genius weaves it into the 
 gorgeous web of poetry, gleaming with threads of 
 gold, and covered with the most brilliant hues that 
 fancy can paint the most pleasing forms that 
 imagination can combine. And even the language 
 of common thought it has adorned with gems and 
 flowers. Her mandate has changed music from 
 the harsh and grating sounds of savage instruments 
 to the richness of cathedral organs, and the magic 
 bow of Ole Bull. Painting and Sculpture, for her 
 delight, have enlisted the pencil of Eaphael, and the 
 chisel of Michael Angelo. For her, Architecture 
 raises the fluted column, places the molding, and 
 spans the arch. The landscape, for the thorn brings 
 up the fir-tree, and for the brier the myrtle-tree, 
 and becomes a place of enchanting views under the 
 genius of a Downing. 
 
60 NATUKALHISTOKY 
 
 These arts, in their lowest forms, alone minister 
 directly to the physical wants of man. It is in 
 obedience to the commands of this higher power of 
 mind, to which their beauty is addressed, that 
 Genius has brought them to their present degree of 
 perfection. Whatever they have of beauty or 
 sublimity, has been given to them to meet the 
 demands of Taste. To them we may look to see 
 what drafts have been made from Natural History. 
 While Genius has explored the field of thought, his 
 work was not done till he added to these immaterial 
 beauties the crystal and flower and forms of sensi- 
 tive life beautiful in themselves, and symbolic of 
 those higher beauties beyond the reach of the 
 senses. By marking the road along which Taste 
 has led her votaries, we may learn where her 
 onward path must lie, and how far Natural History 
 can furnish material for building or adorning the 
 beautiful structures which she demands. 
 
 The adorning of thought, by language not needed 
 for its mere expression that portion created at the 
 demand of Taste is one of the highest works of 
 genius, and for this alone natural objects would be 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 61 
 
 worthy of more study than they receive. Not only 
 do they themselves awaken every emotion related 
 to Taste, but it is by them alone that we express 
 the higher moral beauties and relations of thought 
 which it is in our power to conceive. Even God 
 himself gives the precepts of his revealed will, and 
 sets forth the glories of his Church, by the use of 
 these very objects; and, so far as we can see, there 
 was no other way in which it could so w T ell be done, 
 if at all. Glance for a moment at your favorite 
 authors, the poet, whose sweet song charms and 
 gives enjoyment by its very refining power; the 
 orator, whose words enchained every listener with 
 their beauty, and see how much they are indebted 
 to symbols drawn from nature. Their words may 
 be joined by the rules of grammar and logic they 
 may convince the Intellect by the force of the 
 reasoning, they may arouse the will by the plea of 
 interest but when they would charm with beauty, 
 they must reach forth for the gems and flowers of 
 Nature. 
 
 There is indeed much borrowed from Nature to 
 beautify language, that is not strictly Natural His- 
 
62 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 tory. The stars glitter in literature almost as they 
 do in the heavens. The bands of Orion and the 
 sweet influence of the Pleiades, and all the famous 
 constellations, have beautified almost every lan- 
 guage. To these the Naturalist can lay no claim. 
 And it may be said that the writers who borrow 
 their illustrations most largely and successfully 
 from the objects of Nature, are not Natural Histo- 
 rians. They may not study books to learn those 
 natural objects they have never seen they may be 
 ignorant of the terms of Linnaeus, and the divisions 
 of Jussieu. They may not be able to give a single 
 scientific name, and yet every writer that pleases us 
 most, looks with the eye of science, and describes 
 with the accuracy of a Naturalist. Their vivid and 
 minute descriptions show the skill and strength of 
 the observing power. The effect of this is seen 
 even in the savage, before brutalized by the white 
 man's vices. He puts to blush the best-trained ob- 
 server of the schools, and marks with the naked eye 
 nice distinctions, which even the microscope can 
 hardly reveal to some of us. These forms of Nature 
 give him not only the graceful model of his canoe, 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 63 
 
 and the delicate tracery of bead-work without a pat- 
 tern, but also the symbols of his expressive lan- 
 guage. His words are of leaves for number, the 
 rose and violet for beauty, the eagle for swiftness, 
 the fawn for gentleness, and the snake for stealth. 
 There is beauty in his language, and it is borrowed 
 from natural objects, and every thing written re- 
 specting him draws necessarily its beauty from the 
 same source. 
 
 When the poet would sing of the Indian's legends 
 and traditions, he repeats them " as he heard them 
 from the lips of Nawadaha, as he found them 
 
 " In the birdVnest of the forest, 
 In the lodges of the beaver, 
 In the hoof-prints of the bison, 
 In the eyry of the eagle." 
 
 The Indian's allegory of "Winter and Spring beau- 
 tifully illustrates their use of the bright images of 
 Nature. 
 
 " When I shake my hoary tresses, 
 Said the old man, darkly frowning, 
 All the land with snow is cover'd, 
 All the leaves from all the branches 
 
64 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Fall and fade and die and wither ; 
 For I breathe, and lo, they are not ! 
 From the waters and the marshes 
 Rise the wild-goose and the heron 
 Fly away to distant regions." 
 
 ****** 
 
 " When I shake my flowing ringlets, 
 Said the young man, softly laughing, 
 Showers of rain fall warm and welcome, 
 Plants lift up their heads rejoicing ; 
 Back unto their lakes and marshes 
 Come the wild-goose and the heron, 
 Homeward shoots the arrowy swallow, 
 Sing the blue-bird and the robin. 
 And wher'er my footsteps wander, 
 All the meadows wave with blossoms, 
 All the woodlands ring with music, 
 All the trees are dark with foliage. 
 
 " Then the old man's tongue was speechless, 
 And the air grew warm and pleasant, 
 And upon the wigwam sweetly 
 Sang the blue-bird and the robin ; 
 And the streams began to murmur, 
 And a scent of growing grasses 
 Through the lodge was gently wafted ; 
 And Segwun, the youthful stranger, 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 65 
 
 More distinctly in the daylight 
 
 Saw the icy face before him 
 
 It was Peboan, the Winter. 
 
 From his eyes the tears were flowing, 
 
 As from melting lakes the streamlets, 
 
 And his body shrunk and dwindled 
 
 As the shouting sun ascended, 
 
 Till into the air it faded, 
 
 Till into the ground it vanish'd, 
 
 And the young man saw before him, 
 
 On the hearthstone of the wigwam, 
 
 Where the fire had smoked and smolder'd, 
 
 Saw the earliest flower of Spring-time, 
 
 Saw the beauty of the Spring-time, 
 
 Saw the Miskodeed in blossom." 
 
 Along the whole stream of ancient song, the ob- 
 jects of Natural History are set in thick and sweet 
 profusion not gathered into clusters, but adorning 
 the richness of the poetic imagery as flowers deck 
 the meadows ; and the soft numbers seem to flow 
 like pearly streams reflecting the nodding verdure on 
 their grassy banks. How beautifully are they 
 braided into song, as a chaplet for the tomb of 
 
 the Grecian poet! 
 
 6* 
 
66 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 " Ye evergreens, around the tomb 
 Of Sophocles, your osiers braid, 
 And, ivy, spread thy pensive gloom, 
 To form above the bard a shade. 
 
 " And intertwine the blushing rose, 
 And gentle vine your leaves among, 
 Thus, gemm'd with beauties, shall your boughs 
 Prove emblems of his graceful song." 
 
 In the Pastorals of Theocritus, and the morning 
 song of Moschus, the flowers bloom and the trees 
 whisper. "What lent the charm to much of Yirgil's 
 poetry the Bucolics and the Georgics ? His 
 sweetest strains are mingled with the hum of bees, 
 and the song of birds. 
 
 " Behold ! yon bordering fence of sallow trees 
 Is fraught with flowers, the flowers are fraught with bees. 
 The busy bees, with a soft murmuring strain, 
 Invite to gentle sleep the laboring swain ; 
 While from the leafy elm the turtle-dove 
 Tells in soft notes the story of its love." 
 
 Thus through that wonderful poem, written at the 
 command of his sovereign, has lie presented a pic- 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 67 
 
 ture of nature, such as the Naturalist delights to 
 contemplate. Not indeed accurate in all respects 
 we have in many points the ignorance of the times, 
 and absurd theories ; but mingled with this, the ac- 
 curate description, and the fresh painting of natu- 
 ral objects, which made the work a blessing to Italy 
 and the delight of every age. 
 
 But poems in our own language are not only 
 quite equal in this respect to the Greek and Latin, 
 but surpass them. Thompson sings of the seasons ; 
 but they are the grand moving panorama, that 
 would be blank canvas, but for the objects of nature 
 which follow in quick succession. He paints with a 
 master's hand, and the charm that envelops the 
 whole is the picturing, so true to nature that you 
 seem in the mine where crystals shine, and by 
 brooks where the flowers blossom. In his tribute to 
 the sun, the gems seem to glisten as though set in a 
 coronet of beauty. 
 
 " The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays, 
 Collected light, compact, .... 
 At thee the ruby lights its deepening glow, 
 And with a waving radiance inward flames ; 
 
68 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 From thee the sapphire, solid ether, takes 
 Its hue cerulean ; and of evening tinct 
 The purple-streaming amethyst is thine. 
 With thy own smile the yellow topaz burns, 
 Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of spring, 
 When first she gives it to the southern gale, 
 Than the green emerald shows. But all combined, 
 Thick through the whitening opal plays thy beam." 
 
 This reminds us at once of the beautiful descrip- 
 tion of the Russian jewels by Bayard Taylor, whose 
 language seems rich and brilliant as though gilded 
 with the light of the gems it describes. 
 
 " The splendor of their tints is a delicious intoxi- 
 cation to the eye. The soul of all the fiery roses of 
 Persia lives in these rubies, the freshness of all vel- 
 vet sward, whether in Alpine valley or English 
 lawn, in these emeralds ; the bloom of all southern 
 seas in these sapphires, and the essence of a thou- 
 sand harvest-moons in these necklaces of pearl." 
 
 We might thus follow our own poets through this 
 same path, as they not only adorn their language 
 by introducing objects of Natural History, but have 
 so faithfully described the various objects in all its 
 kingdoms, that they teach as well as delight us. In 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 69 
 
 Bryant's poems the beauties are truly the beauty of 
 Nature. The flowers blossom, and the birds sing. 
 The grove is filled with life, and every object is 
 drawn with a master's pencil, that gives Nature's 
 own form and color to the streak of jet on the vio- 
 let's lip. To meet the demand of Taste, these sons of 
 genius and of song go forth into Nature's ample 
 field to select their subjects and their illustrations. 
 Heroic verse might flourish in an earlier age, when 
 heroes were demi-gods; but for the beauty of our 
 English verse, we have no more propitious muses 
 than the birds and flowers, no loftier Parnassus than 
 the hill of science. 
 
 If we needed higher illustration of the power of 
 natural objects to adorn language and gratify Taste 
 than we have in the poets, we should appeal at once 
 to the Bible. Those most opposed to its teachings 
 have acknowledged its beauty, and this is due 
 mainly to the exquisite use of Natural History ob- 
 jects for illustration. It does indeed draw from 
 every field. But when the emotional nature was to 
 be appealed to, the reference was at once to natural 
 objects, and throughout all its books, the objects of 
 
TO NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Natural History are prominent as illustrations of 
 the beauties of religion, and the glories of the 
 Church. 
 
 How could the most refined taste be more highly 
 gratified, than by some of these beautiful illustra- 
 tions of prophecy ? 
 
 "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
 glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blos- 
 som as the rose." 
 
 "The mountains and the hills shall break forth 
 before you into singing, and all the trees of the 
 field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn 
 shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier 
 shall come up the myrtle-tree." 
 
 "We know that it was no mere lover of Nature in 
 the general, but the royal student of Natural His- 
 tory, who knew plants, from the cedar of Lebanon 
 to the Hyssop in the wall, who penned that picture 
 of nature which never can be surpassed for its 
 beauty. 
 
 " For lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over and 
 gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of 
 the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 71 
 
 turtle is heard in our land ; the fig-tree putteth forth 
 her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes 
 give a good smell." 
 
 The power and beauty of these same objects ap- 
 pear in the Saviour's teachings. The fig and the 
 olive, the sparrow, and the lily of the field, give a 
 peculiar force and beauty to the great truths they 
 were used to illustrate. 
 
 The glories of the holy city in the Apocalyptic vis- 
 ion could only be set forth in the symbols of gems. 
 Its foundations were of sapphire and emerald, of 
 topaz and amethyst. And every several gate was 
 of one pearl. 
 
 Thus, then, in all adorning of common language, 
 in the beauty of poetry, and in the vivid pictures of 
 divine inspiration, the sweetest note that strikes the 
 ear comes from the landscape, the brightest picture 
 is the landscape itself. All that Taste has ever de- 
 manded for her gratification, Genius has here found, 
 and as God is the author of both nature and mind, 
 here among the crystals, flowers, and sensitive life, 
 must the emotional nature of man find its highest 
 earthly gratification. 
 
72 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 In painting and sculpture, the human mind is 
 striving for the same that appears in poetry, and the 
 adorning of common language. That love of the 
 beautiful must not only be gratified with descrip- 
 tions upon which the thought can dwell, but we 
 would look into the minds of others and see the 
 pictures into which imagination weaves these ob- 
 jects for them. It is only as they can present to the 
 the eye, by the pencil and chisel, the subjects of 
 their thoughts, that we can compare our imaginary 
 scenes with theirs, and learn what different emotions 
 the same words and the same objects awaken in 
 different minds. 
 
 As nature is the storehouse from which wri- 
 ters draw, and the pattern according to which 
 they must work, so must this also be true of the 
 painter and sculptor, who would trace upon the 
 canvas, and chisel from cold marble, figures that 
 shall glow forever with the warm expression of 
 life. 
 
 There is a mathematical law of development, and 
 a constancy of expression in the minute markings of 
 species that nature never omits, which can never be 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 73 
 
 neglected by the artist, if he would meet the 
 demands of that true taste which delights in the 
 truthfulness of works of art, rather than in the glare 
 of colors, or the grotesque in form. 
 
 Poetry, painting, and sculpture have moved on 
 together in all ages. " The whole compass of 
 ancient poetry was in fact reshaped in the marble of 
 the Grecian sculptors, and delineated anew on the 
 canvas of the painters." Perhaps this union of the 
 three is not so strongly marked in our time, but 
 though diverging more, they are still like triple 
 stars of complementary colors, all forming one sys- 
 tem, and all needed for the expression of the 
 emotions of Taste, and each moving in an orbit 
 varied by the others. While one is in the heathen 
 heaven, among the gods and goddesses, the others 
 are there also, and when one returns to earth, the 
 others bear her company. On the canvas and in 
 the marble, are the sensible expressions which 
 poetry created, though the poet's brain, and the 
 painter's and sculptor's cunning, have sometimes 
 been the possession of a single man. He is the 
 true genius, and we know what in his creations 
 
74 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 gives us most delight; it is the truthfulness of 
 nature which they present a truthfulness becoming 
 more apparent as they are longer studied. We do 
 not expect in his productions the serrate mountains 
 of granite, where nature has covered the hills with 
 the smooth belts of slate and softer stone. 
 
 "We may not be able to point out every fault in a 
 work of art from our defective education we may 
 even praise such works when faulty ; but it is a law 
 as established as the courses of the stars, that works 
 of art live only as they have the beauty and truth 
 which accurate study of natural objects can alone 
 give them. 
 
 This is the ground of Ruskin's criticism of the 
 famous statue of Laocoon. We may remember 
 that all the circumstances were out of the ordinary 
 course, and thus be carried along by the power of 
 the poet and the skill of the sculptor; but in 
 ordinary pieces, snakes must not feed like wolves, 
 but, true to their nature, only crush by their tight- 
 ening folds. 
 
 The need of accurate study of nature is proved by 
 the practice of the best masters. The painter and 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. T5 
 
 sculptor study every bone and muscle with the 
 accuracy of the naturalist or the professional anato- 
 mist. The statue which seems like an enchanted 
 form of Arabian tales, ready to start into life at the 
 first blast of the trumpet, and the charger with 
 expanded nostril and rearing form, so life-like that 
 he seems bounding from his granite pedestal, were 
 no creations of mere casual study. But days and 
 weeks, the points of living expression were fixed by 
 the same study that must be given by the Audu- 
 bons and Agassiz of Natural History. 
 
 "With painting arid sculpture, in ancient times, 
 architecture was intimately connected. Though 
 this relation can never be broken, it is not now so 
 marked. With us, architecture, so far as it relates 
 to adorning and beauty of expression and in these 
 respects alone can it be denominated a fine art is 
 intimately connected with landscape gardening. 
 This may not be true of public buildings they still 
 must borrow their ornaments from ancient patterns ; 
 but so far as architecture can be applied to the 
 homes of the people, it is united with gardening, 
 which has been raised from the rank of the useful 
 
76 NAT URAL HISTORY 
 
 arts, to one of the most effective means of minister- 
 ing to Taste. 
 
 "We might repeat in reference to ancient architec- 
 ture, what we have already said of the necessity of 
 the study of nature ; for it speaks from the broken 
 master-pieces chiseled under the eye, if not by the 
 hand of Phidias. The very form and peculiar 
 ornaments of some of the orders the acanthus of 
 the Corinthian capital, the points and arches of the 
 tree-formed Gothic only have their full expression, 
 and the expression its full appreciation, from a care- 
 ful study of nature. 
 
 But for our homes, we have exchanged the forms 
 that were the offsprings of mythology and supersti- 
 tious reverence of the gods in high places, for the 
 rustic beauty of varied forms more pleasing to the 
 rural deities, which are the only ones our fancy can 
 still perceive lurking in our glens and among the 
 groves yet spared by that avaricious Vandalism 
 which has stripped of their ornaments so many hill- 
 sides. 
 
 Home architecture and landscape gardening are 
 necessary complements of each other together they 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 77 
 
 must grow, becoming more beautiful at the demand 
 of Taste ; culling every flower, twining every vine 
 as in its own native thicket inviting even the 
 birds, until home itself shall seem to have sprung 
 from the earth, at the touch of some magician, 
 whose whole soul had drunk in the beauties of the 
 river, plain, and mountain. In this department of 
 the fine arts our country has most to hope, for the 
 poorest man can enjoy it as well as the rich. 
 Money is not wanted, as in the purchase of costly 
 pictures and fine statuary, but nature offers the 
 beauties all we need is the eye to perceive and the 
 power to combine the materials which she furnishes. 
 These constitute the democratic division of the fine 
 arts, equal to the best, and yet within the reach of 
 all. There are true, elevating, and unfailing sources 
 of enjoyment, which the poorest laborer can enjoy 
 as free as the air of heaven. They are in the field 
 he tills, along the road he travels, in the ocean 
 he navigates ; everywhere he looks he might see 
 more beautiful objects than adorn the galleries of 
 the richest nobleman. But to see them he must be 
 
 taught to observe. He must study every object till 
 
 7* 
 
78 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 he perceives its beauty, "for be sure it is there." 
 Perhaps some general admirer of nature may im- 
 agine he at least has seen and perceived for there 
 is a vast difference between them all the possible 
 beauties of nature. He believes this beauty to be 
 found only in the general effect, and not in the 
 single objects as studied by the Natural Historian. 
 Does not the general effect of the picture depend 
 upon single lines ? If you think you have by this 
 general survey discovered all the beauties of nature, 
 walk into your own fields with the Mineralogist, and 
 you may see crystals gleam where you never sus- 
 pected their existence ; go with the Botanist, and 
 new flowers will seem to spring up along your path, 
 and new beauties appear in those known to you 
 before ; the Entomologist will drag from his lurking 
 place "the beetle, panoplied with gems and gold ;" 
 the Ornithologist will point out new birds which 
 have been seeking your acquaintance since childhood. 
 "We have seen this effect in young persons in a 
 course of education. They professed to admire Na- 
 ture, and to be able to perceive her beauties. Let 
 now the study of Natural History demand of them 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 79 
 
 accurate and systematic study, and it seems almost 
 to implant within them a new sense. What ex- 
 clamations of surprise and admiration break forth 
 from them in their excursions ! What new flowers 
 they now discover ! they have been treading upon 
 them unheeding their beauties all their lives. What 
 strange birds ! they have been flitting above their 
 heads for twenty summers. And now, by this sim- 
 ple process, there is awakened the power of perceiv- 
 ing and appreciating the beautiful, that seems like 
 the richness and music of spring compared with the 
 death of winter. When carried farther, there comes 
 the power of combining these objects so as to repro- 
 duce, when we please, the same sweet scenes which 
 nature plans in some far-off hill or glen. To pro- 
 duce this general effect, it may be thought that 
 only general notions are needed. This is undoubt- 
 edly true, if we refer to the emotion of grandeur, in 
 producing which magnitude is more powerful than 
 form. But for the emotion of "beauty ^ we must have 
 these objects arranged as he only can arrange them 
 who has studied their minutest marking, every form, 
 and every tint. 
 
80 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 This power of combining to produce the effect of 
 nature, like a simple style of writing, seems easy to 
 all, but is hard to acquire. And one who com- 
 mences it supposing he shall succeed because he has 
 been a general admirer of nature, will have occasion 
 to blush for his mistakes, and will find it hard to be 
 natural unless he takes long and patient lessons of 
 the only teacher, Nature herself fixing his eye 
 upon every object till its last touch is stamped upon 
 the mind. Then it can be used, then it is a posses- 
 sion, and " a joy forever." The power which this 
 study gives is well illustrated in the mounting of 
 birds, which some think ought to be reckoned 
 among the fine arts. The learner may become skill- 
 ful in the manual part. Every feather may be in 
 its place as pure and unruffled as in life the eye of 
 glass may rival the real eye in brilliancy, and still 
 there is death. One touch from the master's hand, 
 and you almost start back from the living bird. 
 The power of life lights the eye and seems to reach 
 the tip of every feather. "Whence came the magic 
 power ? It came from the careful study of the bird, 
 till every varying change of life was daguerreotyped 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 81 
 
 in the mind. If the common mind is to be trained 
 to the love of the beautiful, it must be in the great 
 gallery of nature, and by gazing like students be- 
 fore the works of the great masters, till every line 
 and tint are fastened in the mind, and beauty is liv- 
 ing in the soul. 
 
 Lord Kames tells us that " those who depend for 
 food on bodily labor are totally void of taste, of 
 such a taste indeed as can be of use in the fine arts." 
 He would hardly have written that in our day. 
 We seem to see Hugh Miller come up from the 
 hard work of Scotland's stone quarries, with a soul 
 as noble, a taste as refined, with the highest emo- 
 tions as keen as he looked away upon the varied 
 landscape, with the eye of a naturalist and the soul 
 of a poet, as the wealthiest lord ever possessed when 
 walking among the works of art that only princely 
 wealth could purchase. No other language can 
 equal his own glowing description, as he thus re- 
 cords the experience of his second day as stone 
 quarryman. " I was as light of heart next morning 
 as any of my brother workmen. There had been a 
 smart frost during the night, and the rime lay white 
 
 4* 
 
82 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 on the grass as we passed onward through the 
 fields ; but the sun rose in a clear atmosphere, and 
 the day mellowed, as it advanced, into one of those 
 delightful days of early spring, which give so pleas- 
 ing an earnest of whatsoever is mild and genial in 
 the better half of the year. All the workmen rested 
 at mid-day, and I went to enjoy my half-hour alone 
 on a mossy knoll in the neighboring wood, which 
 commands through the trees a wide prospect of the 
 bay and the opposite shore. There was not a wrin- 
 kle on the water, not a cloud in the sky, and the 
 branches were as moveless in the calm as if they 
 had been traced on canvas. From a wooded 
 promontory that stretches half way across the frith, 
 there ascended a thin column of smoke. It rose 
 straight as the line of a plummet for more than a 
 thousand yards, and then on reaching a thinner 
 stratum of air, spread out equally on every side, like 
 the foliage of a stately tree. Ben Nevis rose to the 
 west, white with the yet unwasted snows of winter, 
 and as sharply denned in the clear atmosphere, as if 
 all its sunny slopes and blue retiring hollows had 
 been chiseled in marble." .... 
 
AS BELATED TO TASTE. 83 
 
 " I returned to the quarry, convinced that a very 
 exquisite pleasure may be a very cheap one, and 
 that the busiest employments may afford leisure 
 enough to enjoy it." 
 
 There is a growing Taste among our people it is 
 sad indeed that its growth is so slow which proves 
 that honest toil does not destroy nor dwarf the ca- 
 pacity of enjoying the beautiful. It can not, how- 
 ever, be fostered by galleries of art, for they are rare 
 among us. It is upon Nature we must depend ; and 
 Landscape Gardening, by the genius of Downing, is 
 gathering scenes of tasteful beauty around many a 
 humble home. His works were to America, what 
 the Georgics were for ancient Italy. The vine and 
 the apple, the flower and the hedge, the velvet lawn 
 and stately tree, all that beautifies the landscape, 
 were objects of his care. Through his influence, 
 many places are pleasant to the eye and refining to 
 the taste, which but for him would have remained 
 rugged and neglected. 
 
 The homes in cold, rugged New England, in the 
 sunny South, and on the western prairies, will have 
 more beauty, and the children reared there will be 
 
84 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 men and women of more refinement, because Down- 
 ing was a lover of Nature. 
 
 It is meet that his monument should stand upon 
 our national grounds at "Washington, not only be- 
 cause they were beautified by his hand, and because 
 his influence was national, but that every American 
 might read the words he penned while living, now 
 engraven on the stone. 
 
 " The taste of an individual as well as a nation 
 will "be in direct proportion to the profound sensibil- 
 ity with which he perceives the beautiful in natural 
 scenery" 
 
 Thus has Natural History ever been the field 
 where the objects of taste have been gathered in the 
 greatest abundance, and it must ever be the great 
 source of the pure and beautiful images which the 
 progress of the Fine Arts demands. The cultivation 
 of Taste is sneered at by those who talk wisely of 
 utility, but its value can not be over-estimated ; and 
 its progress must move on necessarily with the 
 study of Nature, especially with that more accurate 
 study which we denominate Natural History. 
 
 The accurate study of this science stores the mind 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 85 
 
 with images of things formed by God himself; they 
 are, then, so far as art is concerned, " the true and 
 the beautiful." This it accomplishes by educating 
 the senses. It also prepares men to receive and 
 cherish every form of beauty, by carrying the 
 thoughts up to the divine source of all created 
 things, thus developing the higher spiritual nature 
 and purifying the soul. In a polluted soul, no 
 perfect image of beauty can dwell it can not be 
 formed there; like a distorted mirror, the clearest 
 light may fall upon it and the most beautiful 
 objects may pass before it, but the images formed 
 will be changed in proportion or relation. The 
 beautiful will be reflected as hideously deformed, 
 while the loathsome and horrid may be thrown 
 back distorted into the perfect. But to the mind 
 and soul capable of perceiving, nature offers stand- 
 ards in color, form, relation, and proportion, set by 
 Him who is the author of mind as He is also of the 
 external world, and therefore they must be correct. 
 " He that formed the eye, shall he not see ?" and 
 He that formed the mind, shall He not understand 
 its wants and provide for the demands of Taste as 
 
86 NATURAL HIS TORY 
 
 perfectly as He lias for every other want of our 
 
 \ 
 
 being ? 
 
 The whole history of the Fine Arts shows that 
 God has here established immutable relations, and 
 those works alone have stood the test of time that 
 approach the patterns which He has given. The 
 voice of the Most High speaks to the artist as to 
 Moses in the building of the Tabernacle "And 
 look that thou make them after their pattern which 
 was showed thee in the Mount." 
 
 The study of nature is within the reach of all, and 
 if studied as it ought to be, the many may become 
 judges of the objects of taste, rather than the few. 
 The effect of this on the Fine Arts would be marked. 
 It is said that the most illiterate shopman of Rome 
 is a better judge of pictures and statuary, than those 
 of the most refined education in London, which 
 certainly has many advantages over most American 
 cities. In such a place as Home, a poor work of 
 art could hardly be produced certainly could 
 never be praised for excellence. We have no such 
 means for creating a correct taste for these works, 
 because galleries of art are rare, and in our hurry 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 87 
 
 we might not find leisure to study them. But we 
 have a noble and neglected substitute the beauti- 
 ful objects of nature, which might delight us even in 
 hours of hardest toil. 
 
 In the effects produced by objects of Natural 
 History, we have referred almost exclusively to the 
 emotion of beauty but they certainly offer for 
 contemplation the grand and sublime. What grand- 
 er field for the imagination than is offered by the 
 revelations of Geology? The object presented may 
 of itself be insignificant to a common mind, not 
 perhaps perceived, or if noticed it does not awaken 
 a single emotion. How very different the same 
 mark or pebble may become to the student ! For 
 him, a single line across the granite of the moun- 
 tains carries the mind back to the time when 
 Neptune made war against the hills, and hurled 
 against them his whole enginery of waves and ice. 
 A single vein in the rock summons up the scenes of 
 the Plutonic dynasty, whose records are the ever- 
 lasting hills and the dykes that divide the broken 
 strata. As he unfolds the stony leaves of the earth, 
 a thing of beauty, a single fossil, may tell to his 
 
88 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 instructed mind a story of grandeur and sublimity 
 It may repeople the earth with wondrous forms, 
 pour the oceans upon the sinking land, and move 
 the hills like watery billows. 
 
 The fancy roams through all the beauties and 
 grandeur of the early earth. If we have never had 
 the privilege of studying one of Nature's galleries of 
 ancient art, we can not do better than to hear Buck- 
 land describe the richness of the Bohemian coal 
 mines. 
 
 "The most elaborate imitations of living foliage 
 upon the painted ceilings of Italian palaces, bear no 
 comparison with the beauteous profusion of extinct 
 vegetable forms with which the galleries of these 
 instructive coal mines are overhung. The roof is 
 covered as with a canopy of gorgeous tapestry, 
 enriched with festoons of most graceful foliage, 
 flung in wild, irregular profusion over every portion 
 of its surface. The effect is heightened by the 
 contrast of the coal-black color of the vegetables 
 with the light ground-work of the rock to which 
 they are attached. The spectator feels himself 
 transported, as if by enchantment, into the forests of 
 
AS RELATED TO TASTE. 89 
 
 another world ; he beholds trees of forms and char- 
 acters now unknown upon the surface of the earth, 
 presented to his senses almost in the beauty and 
 vigor of their primeval life; their scaly stems and 
 bending branches, with their delicate apparatus 
 of foliage, are all spread forth before him, little 
 impaired by the lapse of countless ages, and bearing 
 faithful records of extinct systems of vegetation 
 which began and terminated in times of which 
 these relics are the infallible historians." 
 
 But we are told that the Naturalist loses all the 
 poetry of Nature. There is no greater mistake than 
 this. He has become so accustomed to the beauties 
 of nature that he is not ready, like the novice, to 
 utter exclamations of surprise. Bring into a fine 
 gallery of paintings or of statuary one entirely 
 unaccustomed to such works, and he is constantly 
 manifesting his surprise at the novelties, and is 
 perhaps equally delighted with the coarse daub and 
 the work of the greatest master. Think you he 
 enjoys more than the artist, who stands silently 
 drinking in the beauties for the hundredth time from 
 
 the fine touches which the other never perceives ? 
 
 8 
 
90 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 Burke was undoubtedly a great man, but he 
 made a great mistake when he said that " our 
 ignorance of nature is the cause of. all our admira- 
 tion." If he had said that our ignorance is the 
 cause of all our exclamations, it would have been 
 near the truth. Give to the naturalist his micro- 
 scope, and let him see new beauties in the wing of 
 an insect or the veins of a leaf that he never saw 
 before, and you hear him. exclaiming as others 
 do when they look upon beauties that he has seen 
 hundreds of times. Our exclamations are not signs 
 that we see or appreciate the beauties of nature 
 more than others, but simply that we see them now 
 for the first time. 
 
 Wander, then, through beautiful cabinets, and 
 each day they will become more beautiful ; go out 
 into the fields and study with care every object 
 there, and you will be astonished at the beauties 
 which God has scattered with such a liberal hand, 
 that scarcely a place can be found where some 
 have not fallen, though unperceived by the hurry- 
 ing multitude. 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 91 
 
 LECTUKE III. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 
 
 IT is sometimes pleasant to journey alone, and 
 sometimes we choose the highway where we are 
 sure of companions. In our speculations, we may 
 like to strike out new paths, or at least to travel in 
 those that are unbeaten ; but if we would find ready 
 listeners, we must select those subjects on which all 
 in the main agree, and consider those relations 
 which all can readily understand. If we can open 
 a road to wealth, we are sure that it will never be 
 deserted. The riches may be in the gold-dust scat- 
 tered in the sands of some far-off plain, or in the 
 whale and seal among the icebergs of the northern 
 seas, or in the deep-caverned mines of coal, the 
 way will be crowded. Hundreds may fail, but 
 others rush to take their places, as though this were 
 the great battle of life, and the watchword were 
 "victory or death." No nation in the world is 
 more ardent in the struggle for these prizes of 
 
92 NAT URAL HISTORY 
 
 money value than ours, if we judge by the eagerness 
 with which we devise plans, and our willingness to 
 endure labors. The money value is the one w^e 
 oftenest quote, and when we remember its power 
 we can hardly wonder that we do so. It is a neces- 
 sary means for the growth of the fine arts, as well as 
 the moving power of the useful. It renders possi- 
 ble those gigantic schemes by which progress is 
 hastened, seas covered with commerce, mountains 
 pierced with tunnels, states joined by roads of 
 iron, and nations joined with telegraphic cables. 
 We are not only taking a ground of common inter- 
 est when we consider the bearing of Natural His- 
 tory upon Wealth, but one deservedly so, for it is 
 important. Should we define wealth as some seem 
 to do, with good reason, as any thing which can be 
 enjoyed or purchase enjoyment, we should give it a 
 much wider signification than is usually connect- 
 ed with it; but our work for the present will be 
 more simple if we give it the common meaning, 
 which is money, or something which money rep- 
 resents. 
 The most obvious benefit of Natural History is 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 93 
 
 the development of new resources of wealth. And 
 in this respect Geology and Mineralogy stand pre- 
 eminent. So far as the mineral resources of the 
 earth are concerned, they can not be over-estimated, 
 and they are most readily perceived and most ea- 
 gerly sought for. A portion of the metals and other 
 valuable minerals are so accessible that they have 
 been reached by men in all ages. But the amount 
 thus accidentally found would fall far short of the 
 present wants of man, and those wants will rapidly 
 increase every year. The most valuable often ap- 
 pear under forms that would only be recognized by 
 adepts in mineralogy. Others can be discovered 
 and followed only by an intimate knowledge of the 
 structure of the earth's crust. They must be sought 
 for by the light of science. There is a natural con- 
 nection between certain rocks and valuable deposits, 
 as the salt-beds and brine-springs with the New 
 Red Sandstone. A knowledge of these connections 
 gives certainty in investigations, and this knowledge 
 is the fruit of geological study. And should a 
 mine by accident be discovered, it is only the prin- 
 ciples of this department of Natural History that 
 
91 NAT URAL HISTORY 
 
 can determine its value, and give security in the 
 investment of capital. 
 
 Any other mineral sinks into comparative insig- 
 nificance if valued with coal. The whole history of 
 this valuable substance is an argument in favor of 
 the study of Natural History. In searching for it, 
 millions of dollars have been thrown away in bor- 
 ing rocks in which a pound of it could never be 
 found. In fact, the substance which has misled the 
 majority, is itself a positive proof that no coal is to 
 be expected. 
 
 By the curious, and I might say wonderful revela- 
 tions of Geology, vast beds of this substance have 
 been discovered where no accidental discovery 
 could ever be made. And when discovered, their 
 productiveness and method of working are deter- 
 mined by the principles established by this same de- 
 partment of science. This is of yearly occurrence. 
 No country in the world is richer than ours in this 
 and nearly all other valuable minerals. These con- 
 stitute no small part of our national wealth. And 
 they are destined yearly to become more important 
 because of the increasing demand, the discovery of 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 95 
 
 new deposits, and more efficient and economical 
 methods of working them. Our coal, our iron, lead, 
 and gold are inexhaustible, and must give us im- 
 mense resources when fully developed. 
 
 Look at England, and inquire the sources of her 
 wealth and power. Lock up in her hills and valleys 
 her coal and iron and all her other mineral wealth, 
 and you have taken from her one great element 
 of her power. It is the mineral wealth in that little 
 island, developed by the science of her distinguished 
 men, that enables her to manufacture almost for the 
 world. Her coal moves the thousand looms and 
 ponderous hammers that load her ships with fabrics 
 and swell her revenues. It has been referred to as 
 a striking illustration of the influence of mineral 
 wealth, that fourteen of her large towns, from Exeter 
 to Carlisle, are built along the strike of the New 
 Red Sandstone. To that formation belong the brine- 
 springs and beds of gypsum, and immediately be- 
 neath is found the coal. 
 
 Her scientific men have scanned her soils and 
 cliffs beneath them, and in them they have found 
 the means of civilization and comfort at home, and 
 
96 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 the means of commanding the obedience of some 
 nations, the money and respect of all. We have 
 not been entirely wanting in the work of developing 
 this field of wealth. Enough has been done to 
 show that the United States contains some of the 
 richest mineral districts in the world. We may not 
 abound in gems ; but where in the world do such 
 beds of coal and mountains of iron abound? We 
 see in them the elements of power ; but they must 
 be developed, and the field enlarged by new exami- 
 nations and discoveries. Our general government 
 has not neglected this portion of its possessions. It 
 has sent out its geological surveyors to examine 
 and locate mineral lands ; and they have rendered 
 important service in developing the wealth of the 
 country, as well as in making valuable contributions 
 to science. Our States have also understood the 
 value of these investigations. Large sums have 
 been appropriated by many of them. And in none, 
 so far as I know, has the money failed to yield a 
 full return in kind, besides an immense benefit to 
 the general cause of science. In some, the return in 
 a single year has been a hundred-fold. Such explo- 
 
AS RELATED TOWEALTH. 97 
 
 rations do not produce their best results at all times 
 in the discovery of minerals. It is to this that at- 
 tention is most directed, and success in this is gen- 
 erally the criterion by which they are judged. 
 Other objects receive attention. They point out 
 general characteristics of soil as derived from cer- 
 tain classes of rocks, discover fertilizers, and thus 
 give important aid to agriculture. They point out 
 proper building materials by the discovery of quar- 
 ries, and clays, cements and paints. Such exam- 
 inations in many cases give important hints in en- 
 gineering, the draining of land, the sinking of Ar- 
 tesian wells, and consequently bear upon the health- 
 fulness and habitableness of large tracts of land. 
 In all these incidental methods, Natural History 
 bestows wealth, without receiving credit from those 
 benefited. 
 
 States have generally shown their wisdom when 
 ordering geological surveys, by connecting with 
 them surveys in every other department of Natural 
 History. The plants, the birds, the fishes, the 
 quadrupeds, and insects have each been deemed 
 worthy of study. Many have sneered at the idea of 
 
98 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 voting money for "bugs and hornpouts." Yery 
 many have favored such schemes y hoping that a coal 
 mine, at least, would be discovered on their own 
 farms ; while the birds and fishes were added and 
 carried along by some shrewd managers, as politi- 
 cians would say, " like a passenger under the boot." 
 These departments do not attract attention so 
 readily, because their connection with wealth is not 
 so direct and obvious as the discovery and working 
 of minerals. They are some of them of equal im- 
 portance, and are destined yet to become of the very 
 highest value in an economic point of view. These 
 investigations add to the number of the useful 
 plants, teach us to protect them, and to increase 
 their value. 
 
 The earth produces more than a hundred thou- 
 sand species of plants ; they are directly or indirectly 
 serviceable to man. This is true, at least of the 
 greater portion of them, without doubt. The lovers 
 of Botany, from the days of Solomon till now, have 
 been bringing out the beautiful a>nd the useful in 
 this kingdom of nature. What multitudes of plants 
 now minister to health and luxury, of which we 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 99 
 
 should have known nothing but for the special study 
 of this science of Botany ! There have been brought 
 out those general laws of classification by which 
 the general properties of plants are inferred from 
 their structure, so that we can, as it were, read the 
 labels at a glance which nature has affixed to them, 
 inviting us to enjoy or warning us to beware. The 
 history of this science shows that much of the labor 
 bestowed upon it was simply to classify and name. 
 System after system if some of the earlier attempts 
 could be called systems has been thrown aside ; 
 and to a casual observer the labor seems to have 
 been lost at least so far as wealth is concerned. 
 This is but a superficial view. Those old pioneers 
 were groping toward the true goal their progress 
 helped on those who came after, their mistakes 
 warned them ; they added one after another to the 
 list of useful plants. The work commenced by 
 them has kept its steady course, till now we can 
 hope for but little more in classification, except on 
 some isolated points, or in the minutiae of the de- 
 tails. It remains to perfect local floras to name 
 those plants that may be discovered to turn the at- 
 
100 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 tention more generally to vegetable physiology, to 
 the unfolding of their uses. This will follow neces- 
 sarily when the preliminary work is done of collect- 
 ing and naming. This has been fast progressing by 
 the study and labors of those old Botanists, whom 
 we are apt to think of as remarkable for their zeal 
 alone. 
 
 Enough of each kingdom is accessible to men for 
 the supply of their wants in a primitive, simple state 
 of society. Those portions they have had longer 
 than we can tell. But w T hen science commences, its 
 first work is to classify and give names. When this 
 is done, the nature of the things is more carefully 
 studied for new principles of classification, or to 
 confirm the old. This very process brings out the 
 useful properties of some, and. the noxious char- 
 acter of others. And when this work is completed, 
 the possible new uses are the regular, almost the 
 necessary, subject of study. To that point we are 
 fast coming in the study of the vegetable kingdom. 
 
 The triumphs of this study thus far, and its pro- 
 phetic achievements, are graphically given by the 
 poet: 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 101 
 
 "There be flowers mating glad the desert, and roots 
 
 fattening the soil, .... 
 And uses above and around which man hath not yet 
 
 regarded. 
 Not long to chase away disease hath the crocus yielded 
 
 up its bulb, 
 Nor the willow lent its leaf, nor the night-shade its 
 
 vanquished poison ; 
 Not long hath the twisted leaf, the fragrant gift of 
 
 China, 
 
 Nor that nutritious root, the boon of far Peru 
 Nor the many-colored dahlia, nor the gorgeous flaunting 
 
 cactus, 
 Nor the multitude of fruits and flowers ministered to life 
 
 and luxury ]- : 
 Even so there be virtues yet unknown in the wasted 
 
 foliage of the elm 
 In the sun-dried harebell of the downs, and the hyacinth 
 
 drinking in the meadow 
 In the sycamore's winged fruit, and the facet-cut cones of 
 
 the cedar. 
 And the pansy and bright geranium live not alone for 
 
 beauty ; 
 Nor the waxen flower of the arbute, though it dieth in a 
 
 day; 
 Nor the sculptured crest of the fir, unseen but by the 
 
 stars 
 
 9* 
 
102 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 And the meanest weed of the garden serveth unto many 
 
 uses, 
 The salt tamarask and juicy flag, the freckled orchis and 
 
 the daisy. 
 The world may laugh at famine when forest-trees yield 
 
 bread, 
 When acorns give out fragrant drink, and the sap of the 
 
 linden is as fatness ; 
 
 For every green herb, from the lotus to the darnel, 
 Is rich with delicate aids to help incurious man." 
 
 To accomplish all we wish and all we expect, in 
 bringing the vegetable world to render its riches 
 more abundantly, we must undoubtedly call to our 
 aid the kindred science of Chemistry. But here is 
 the great storehouse of materials. All our food 
 comes directly or indirectly from the vegetable 
 kingdom. The root, the leaf, the flower, the fruit, 
 the sap, each in turn in various plants, constitute 
 directly the great mass of our sustenance. And the 
 exception, when we use animal food, is only 
 apparent, for every animal used for food, from the 
 oyster to the ox, is directly or indirectly dependent 
 upon plants for his subsistence. All animals, man 
 included, are so constituted that they can not subsist 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 103 
 
 upon inorganic elements. We may analyze our 
 food, determine its exact composition, but it will 
 not enable us to feed on minerals. We may prove, 
 with all the science of a Liebig, that charcoal and 
 air and water contain all we need, but we know 
 they would form poor fare for our tables. We may 
 call in the aid of Chemistry, with all its power to 
 produce transformation give it a magazine of the 
 pure elements and it can not furnish us with a 
 single grain of starch nor crystal of sugar, nor with 
 any thing to be a substitute for them. The plants 
 are the only chemists that can take up these 
 inorganic materials, and in the wonderful laboratory 
 of their living tissues mold them into forms to 
 support animal life. All that I have said of 
 nutritive plants might also be said of those having 
 medicinal properties, and of use in the arts. Our 
 fine fabrics, our brilliant dyes, our most grateful 
 perfumes, come in a large proportion from this 
 kingdom. Here have been found those wonderful 
 modern-discovered substances India-Rubber and 
 Gutta-Percha. How long these and other valuable 
 products remained unknown ! How many more are 
 
104: NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 to be discovered, as the wants of men demand them, 
 and the study of plants is more thoroughly and 
 and generally pursued ! To investigate the laws of 
 that department of nature upon which all animal 
 life depends, is certainly an imperative duty. But 
 more than this, for our present purpose we see this 
 kingdom the channel by which many of the luxuries 
 of life are poured in upon us, and the only source of 
 many materials necessary to the present state of 
 civilization. The fiber which clothes us upon 
 which we print our books the gums that surround 
 our submarine cables and take a thousand forms of 
 usefulness, are already sources of national as well as 
 individual wealth. To increase these products and 
 ward off diseases to which valuable plants are liable, 
 are the direct results of thorough scientific investi- 
 gations in the various departments of Botany. All 
 our knowledge has failed to arrest the blight of the 
 potato; but all feel that the more perfectly we 
 understand vegetable physiology, and all the habits 
 of particular plants, the better we shall be prepared 
 to improve them in quality, to increase their 
 quantity, and protect them from injury. Science 
 
AS BELATED TO WEALTH. 105 
 
 has not failed, but we have failed for the want of 
 science. As we bend our minds to patient study 
 and careful observation, we may be able to arrest 
 disease in plants, improve those already useful to 
 man, and discover valuable properties in thousands 
 now apparently useless. Many of our valuable 
 fruits were once entirely useless or noxious. That 
 they have been brought to perfection, or that all 
 those capable of such improvement have already 
 been pressed into the service of man, we have no 
 reason to believe. In fact, the progress made every 
 year, and especially the progress made the last 
 twenty years, gives great promise for the future. 
 This rapid progress has been made because those 
 engaged in Agriculture and Horticulture have 
 worked by the light of science. When we see 
 beautiful nurseries and gardens, we shall find in 
 the owner or keeper the knowledge of the science 
 for which we are here contending. If they have 
 not the broad principles, we shall find them acting 
 by the rules of some broader mind, who is at home 
 with Decandolle, and Lindley, and Lowdon, and 
 Gray. We can hardly overestimate the advantage 
 
106 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 to our own country, if all our young men who 
 travel, our consuls and missionaries, were so versed 
 in science that they should be able at once to detect 
 the valuable properties of plants and their habits, 
 that all capable of introduction might be secured at 
 once. A single plant might repay for all the time 
 and labor of every American student in this depart- 
 ment. But if men are never trained, they do not 
 observe. And if a strange plant is forced upon 
 their attention, they know so little that they can 
 determine nothing of the prospect of improving its 
 qualities by cultivation, or even of cultivating it all. 
 If all those who labor among plants, and have 
 opportunities of introducing new, were well versed 
 in Botany as it is now understood, this source of 
 wealth would be vastly increased in a single year. 
 The progress would be rapid. The quality would 
 be improved, and the number would be increased. 
 Useful plants would take the place of those useless 
 or noxious. Our forests would be better preserved, 
 and new forests would be springing up on rocky 
 hills and neglected swamps. Millions of acres, bar- 
 ren and dreary, might be gradually supplying our 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 107 
 
 waste of trees, if men would learn that forests can 
 be planted, and were imbued with that spirit of 
 improvement and care for coming generations 
 which science has ever had a tendency to produce. 
 
 It may be said, with truth, that much of the work 
 already done- has been done by those ignorant of 
 science. These results have been the slow accumu- 
 lation of ages ; we wish now more rapid progress. 
 The times demand it. The same is true of every 
 department of human industry and source of wealth. 
 Discoveries in olden time were accidental. The 
 Alchemists in the dark ages, with their alembics 
 and crucibles and chemicals of mystic names, 
 worked by chance, and by chance, from time to 
 time, made some valuable discoveries. But how 
 different is the work of a modern chemist! A thing 
 is to be done, and he is able at once to bring to bear 
 upon the problem all the principles of that wonder- 
 ful science. Every experiment is performed for a 
 definite purpose, and accidental discovery is the 
 exception and not the rule. So in mechanics a 
 result is to be reached, and the problem is attempt- 
 ed by well-established principles. Those wonderful 
 
108 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 looms that ply their iron fingers to weave our 
 carpets were not a chance discovery by Bigelow 
 they were an invention, reached only by long- 
 continued systematic study. So of discoveries and 
 improvements in the vegetable kingdom in our day. 
 They must not be left to chance, but be sought for 
 under the guidance of science, where alone the 
 course is direct, the progress sure and rapid. 
 
 Perhaps Zoology does not give promise of so rich 
 a return as Botany, in material wealth. We do not 
 expect to discover important animals for domestica- 
 tion, nor do we expect to add very many valuable 
 animal products to those now known, by the discov- 
 ery of new animals. So far as their products are 
 rendered more useful or increased in number, we 
 shall probably be indebted to Chemistry, rather than 
 to the pure science of Zoology. But there are im- 
 portant indirect advantages that may result from it. 
 The study of the structure of the whale renders it 
 highly probable that there is an open polar sea. It 
 is, as Professor Agassiz remarks, perfectly convin- 
 cing to the physiologist ; if the whales in winter are 
 not all south of the frozen belt, they must find open 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 109 
 
 water beyond at the north. This opinion of the 
 learned Zoologist will undoubtedly stimulate these 
 explorations until that problem is fully solved. If, 
 then, this surmise proves to be correct, and the 
 whale-fisheries can be carried on successfully in that 
 great northern ice-bound field, it would certainly be 
 a remarkable instance of the indirect benefits of 
 science. We may be asked to wait until the dis- 
 covery is made. We only refer to it as a thing so 
 conclusive that action may reasonably be based 
 upon it, and the grand result may reasonably be 
 expected to follow. "What connection would there 
 seem to be, to one unacquainted with the history 
 and bearings of all science, between the study of 
 a whale and the discovery of a northern sea, and 
 the establishment of productive fisheries ? Whether 
 this may be realized or not, such are the constant 
 results of science, from subjects that in the begin- 
 ning gave promise of nothing but the gratification 
 of curiosity. 
 
 The study of the habits of fish will enable us to 
 protect them, by law, from those methods and times 
 
 of capture which prove destructive to large num- 
 
 10 
 
110 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 bers without any adequate return. It gives us also 
 t)ie prospect of being able to stock our lakes and 
 streams with, valuable fish, as easily as we can sup- 
 ply our farms with flocks, and to much more profit. 
 The time is not far distant, when those who have 
 sneered at the study of " eels and mudpouts," and 
 have made speeches on economy when States have 
 appropriated money for this purpose, may find that 
 there are some things not dreamed of in their phi- 
 losophy, and that money can be made where they 
 never suspected it. 
 
 The study of the beautiful birds and the hideous 
 reptiles has corrected many false notions, and shown 
 that the former, at least, are a flying guard for the 
 protection of our fields and gardens. We are glad 
 to invite their aid, and divide our delicious fruit 
 with them, that we may save the remaining half 
 from the insects. Even the crow, despised and per- 
 secuted as he is, is found to pay w r ell for the few 
 grains of corn he may steal. We come by careful 
 study of all these classes of animals to learn their 
 true place to learn the use we can make of each of 
 them the methods of protecting the useful and of 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. Ill 
 
 guarding against the injurious. The money value 
 that comes from such a knowledge amounts, in our 
 own country, to millions in a year, and what it might 
 be to the whole world is beyond computation. And 
 this knowledge is every year becoming of more im- 
 portance. We can not, perhaps, select a better ex- 
 ample for the perfect illustration of what I mean 
 than insects. Men, who pride themselves upon their 
 wisdom and common-sense, and pecuniary shrewd- 
 ness, generally regard Entomology as a very ridicu- 
 lous subject ; they have never attended to it, in- 
 deed it would be the last thing they would think of 
 doing. To see a man catching bugs and butterflies 
 is, to them, more senseless than studying frogs and 
 sticklebacks, if possible. Let us, however, stop a 
 moment, and inquire what this busy tribe produce 
 and destroy in a single year. Of their productions, 
 we may mention the silks, the wax, the honey, the 
 lac-gums and dyes, the nut-galls and cochineal. 
 How many millions of dollars, think you, would 
 purchase all these products for a single year? To 
 narrow the question, how many millions would buy 
 those imported into this country, and those produced 
 
112 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 here, for a single year ? We should hardly be will- 
 ing to give up our portion of these products. 
 There are many others that we could better spare, 
 so far as comfort and ornament are concerned. 
 They constitute an important item among the ne- 
 cessaries and luxuries of life. Now it can hardly be 
 doubted, that study of this department of nature 
 would tend to increase the quantity of these prod- 
 ucts, and in some cases improve their quality, and 
 that others of importance may be discovered. This 
 view, alone, would certainly remove Entomology 
 from the rank of useless and merely curious studies, 
 to one having important bearing upon comfort and 
 health. 
 
 But insects are also destroyers, and this to an 
 alarming degree, and their ravages in our country 
 are yearly increasing. It was some time since found 
 that their injury to the crops, in this country, 
 amounted to more than twenty millions of dollars a 
 year. I think the same report made the remark^ 
 that, if a foreign nation should injure us the twen- 
 tieth part of this sum, for a single year, our army 
 and navy would be called into requisition to de- 
 
AS BELATED TO WEALTH. 113 
 
 mand and obtain satisfaction. "We should all sus- 
 tain the action but we sneer at bird-laws, allow 
 insectivorous birds to be destroyed for sport, and 
 regard those who study insects as foolishly em- 
 ployed. It is by the labors of Harris, and such ob- 
 servers of this hungry, numerous host, that we can 
 drag them from their lurking-places, know them 
 under all their disguises, destroy the injurious by 
 taking advantage of their own instincts, and spare 
 those that are useful by preying upon others. Birds 
 are our natural protectors from this foe. But the 
 broad acres of cultivation have increased faster than 
 the birds. Our only help is science the study of 
 their whole Natural History. This will save for us 
 millions in a single year. In some parts of our 
 country the struggle is now really a desperate one 
 many choice products are preserved only by con- 
 tinual warfare. And to maintain our ground, we 
 need the aid of every entomologist in the land. 
 The labors of such a man as Harris are worth many 
 fortunes every year. 
 
 "We are all ready to acknowledge that Agricul- 
 ture is the grand source of national wealth. It is 
 
 10* 
 
NATU RAL HISTORY 
 
 an evil day for any country, when this calling falls 
 into disrepute, or is neglected for other more alluring 
 and perhaps quicker sources of wealth. We have 
 already indicated how the study of Natural History 
 lends important aid to this branch of industry, by 
 introducing new plants, and giving more perfect 
 knowledge of their habits, the methods of improv- 
 ing their quality, and of protecting them from 
 injury. But were this all, it could not give it that 
 dignity and success which we believe it now con- 
 fers. It is fashionable to laud farming, but facts 
 seem to indicate that for some years past it has been 
 unfashionable to engage in it, where men must 
 labor with their own hands. It is not the labor that 
 has driven them from the field, for they have left it 
 oftentimes for more laborious and exhausting pur- 
 suits. Go through that large portion of our country 
 where those who live by cultivating the soil must 
 labor with their own hands, and inquire in every 
 family what business they intend for their sons, and 
 you will find farming to be the exception and not 
 the rule. One is intended for some trade, another 
 for the counting-room another for Law or Medi- 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 115 
 
 c i ne another is sent to college, trusting to chance 
 to direct to some subsequent employment. And 
 should he choose to be a farmer, his parents and 
 neighbors would most likely consider his college 
 education as thrown away. By our words, then, we 
 praise Agriculture, and by our practice we condemn 
 it brand it. And for both we think a satisfactory 
 answer can be given. Agriculture ought to be the 
 high, noble, and honorable employment which it is 
 represented as being in our agricultural addresses. 
 It deserves to be, and might be ; but then the 
 question at once arises if it is, why is it that almost 
 all men, even farmers themselves, are so anxious to 
 secure other business for their sons ? "We are 
 constantly affirming that Fanning is as honorable as 
 Law or Medicine, and yet it seems hard to make 
 the world believe what they are constantly assert- 
 ing ; for there are but few farmers who would not 
 rather see their sons eminent doctors and lawyers 
 than good farmers. This ought not so to be for 
 tilling the soil is undoubtedly a natural occupation, 
 and therefore ought to be made desirable. It is 
 well for us to look for the evil, and correct it. The 
 
116 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 low estimate of Agriculture is undoubtedly due to 
 this fact, that less thought and study have thus far 
 been needed in this than in most other pursuits. 
 The prospect of making money will alone induce 
 many to engage in certain pursuits for a time. But 
 look over the pursuits which men engage in for life, 
 and you will find, as a general rule, that the thought 
 required to carry on a pursuit is the measure of its 
 dignity, and the index of the class of persons who 
 will engage in it. Men of learning and thought 
 and refinement, can never be induced to engage in 
 any work that can as well be carried on by men 
 "who never had a dozen thoughts in all their lives." 
 If a railroad is to be built, the engineers will labor 
 hard to make the surveys and measure the grade, 
 because that requires thought; but they will not 
 shovel sand for the same price, because that can be 
 done as well by the unlettered Irishman. 
 
 All labor becomes honorable and dignified just 
 in proportion to the intellect, the thought, and study 
 required to carry it on. These render base things 
 noble. Ci The chemist's and geologist's soiled hands 
 are signs of no base work ; the coarsest work of the 
 
AS BELATED TO WEALTH. 117 
 
 laboratory, the breaking of stones with a hammer, 
 cease to be mechanical or ignoble, because intellec- 
 tual thought and principle govern the mind and 
 guide the hands." According to this principle, to 
 which, we believe, all will assent, every source of 
 study and thought which we can connect with 
 agriculture will give it dignity and attractiveness. 
 And just in proportion as these are wanting will 
 men relinquish it, if possible, as they become 
 intellectual and refined. We have only to make 
 agriculture require as much thought as the learned 
 professions, and men will need no panegyrics from 
 agricultural orators to induce them to forsake the 
 counting-room and office for life in the open air. 
 Nothing can produce this desired result like the 
 study of Natural History. Perhaps we ought to 
 add Chemistry. But this requires such skillful 
 manipulations that it must be confined mainly to a 
 few who make it a profession. But not so with 
 Natural History. Every portion of it can be made 
 practical and of interest. Agriculture is Natural 
 History applied. Geology, Botany, and Zoology 
 are its basis, and in proportion as these are under- 
 
118 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 stood, will there be success. It is because these 
 sciences are the basis of Agriculture that men have 
 theoretically considered it noble ; it is because it has 
 to a great extent ignored these sciences, its true 
 basis, and become a changeless routine, that it has 
 practically been considered base. When the farmer 
 studies the minerals of which his soil is composed, 
 the plants that spring up around him, the insects 
 that destroy when he learns to study all the 
 objects which abound on every hill-side and valley 
 farming will be a science that will daily awaken 
 thought, a pursuit in which mind can develop, and 
 then it will not only be among the most honorable, 
 but the most honored of secular professions. Just 
 in proportion as it takes this place does it rise in 
 dignity, and call men of culture from other pursuits 
 to this. 
 
 So far, then, as we look to the improvement of 
 agriculture in all its departments as a source of 
 wealth, and all acknowledge it to be the most 
 important in fact, the only sure basis, -just so far 
 do we acknowledge the relations of Natural History 
 to wealth, and make apparent the need of study in 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 119 
 
 every department of this division of science. " All 
 men will encourage those departments which will 
 bring money at once. But we see a very dif- 
 ferent thing is needed: it is to make every plant, 
 and bird, and insect, every object of Natural 
 History, a subject of thought that the field may be 
 a place of intellectual as well as of bodily activity. 
 This may be thought impossible, but it is not. "We 
 here see the need of certain kinds of information 
 which some undervalue. When our agricultural 
 reports give the Natural History of an insect, the 
 picture of a bird, or a snake, a grass, or a sedge, it 
 is often a better work than reports on wheat or 
 stock, however valuable they may be. These 
 objects, from the forest and the river, turn the 
 thoughts into a new channel, and waken powers 
 of observation, that, but for them, might ever have 
 remained dormant. Much work of this kind done 
 by our national and state governments, that has 
 been hastily, though undoubtedly honestly con- 
 demned, has its value. What use of describing 
 fossil shells, in boundary surveys ? grasses and birds 
 in astronomical expeditions, or corals in the coast 
 
120 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 survey ? many are ready to ask as though it were 
 a waste of money, or at least a poor return for it. 
 But go through our country, and see such books 
 studied by thousands of the young, who but for 
 them would have never had a thought awakened 
 respecting such objects, and we shall be satisfied 
 that they are no waste no mere gratification of 
 scientific men but the educators of thousands, and 
 will, in the end, not only elevate, but return far 
 more than their money value. 
 
 In this view of the subject which we have pre- 
 sented, that thought dignifies labor, we see why 
 farming was more honorable among the ancients 
 than among the moderns. They honored it practi- 
 cally, while we profess to do so. "We think the reason 
 is at once apparent, and illustrative of our position, 
 when we compare farming with the other pursuits 
 of those times. It came nearer to the learned profes- 
 sions than it now does. When we consider the state 
 of the other sciences, and see also the knowledge 
 of Agriculture displayed in the works of Yirgil 
 and Cato, we find it to be the science of those times. 
 It was not pursued by the learned and brave of those 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 121 
 
 days merely as a matter of profit, but because they 
 found in it the best sphere of refined and intellect- 
 ual pleasures. Thus, when Cicero introduces Cato 
 in his De Senectute, he causes him to say that he 
 cultivates the earth not only as a matter of duty, ' 
 because it is beneficial to the whole human race, 
 but because it is a source of delight. He is de- 
 lighted with that secret power which, from the mi- 
 nute seed brings up the tall trunk and wide-spread 
 branches. The preparation of soils, the pruning 
 and grafting, are to him sources of pleasure, and are 
 deemed honorable employment for kings them- 
 selves. We need only raise the cultivation of the 
 soil to its former comparative position with the 
 learned professions, to make it as highly esteemed. 
 This can never be done by praises at every agricul- 
 tural fair, but it can be done by encouraging every 
 department of Natural History, until they shall 
 make it as fine a field for intellectual enjoyment as 
 either of the learned professions. What is now a 
 mere drudgery might become a delightful employ- 
 ment, and the labor receive a more certain and 
 
 abundant reward. 
 
 11 
 
122 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 We increase wealth, when we change to means of 
 enjoyment what had before been useless. Our hills 
 may be filled with riches, but if we can not recog- 
 nize the precious ore, we are as poor as though it 
 were pebble-stones. The blind man is unmoved by 
 the beauty of his landscapes they might as well be 
 rough and dreary as beautiful. The deaf man is 
 none the happier for sweet sounds, that others 
 would pay lavishly to hear. A cultivated taste dis- 
 covers sources of enjoyment where the unrefined 
 would be like the blind man among pictures, and 
 the deaf among music. The connection of Taste 
 with Natural History we have already discussed. 
 It is able to throw around even the poor man more 
 means of enjoyment than wealth can purchase for 
 the uneducated and unrefined. If every young 
 man would acquire such a taste for these studies, 
 such a love for the beautiful that, by his labor or 
 direction, a single acre of ground should be ren- 
 dered more productive or attractive, what an advan- 
 tage to himself and the world ! It is a great ac- 
 quirement to be able even to rightly appreciate and 
 enjoy the labors of others. The lover of Nature's 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH, 123 
 
 beauties owns property in every landscape that his 
 eye rests upon oftentimes more than he who holds 
 the title-deeds. 
 
 Give to the true lover of Nature a hard, rugged soil, 
 and he will know how to make even that attractive. 
 He studies every object. He knows upon what the 
 pleasing effect depends. It may be a single tree, or 
 a single copse, which the thoughtless world never 
 think of sparing. His home may be poor, but it 
 will have the best location, and it will have expres- 
 sion not a mere roofed box for shedding rain, 
 without proportion, without the first element of 
 beauty, so devoid of taste that every ornament 
 makes it more unpleasing. To most of us, our 
 homes are our wealth. "We seek for money that we 
 may throw around us objects of beauty and make 
 our homes places of enjoyment worthy of a civil- 
 ized and cultivated people. Nothing is plainer than 
 that some people, almost without money, succeed in 
 this, while others, whose checks are readily hon- 
 ored by their bankers, entirely fail. They have the 
 money, but are entirely unable to purchase the 
 same means of enjoyment that the poor man has 
 
124 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 always within his reach, who is able to select the 
 beautiful objects which nature presents, even in 
 the least-favored locality. Look at two homes of 
 men of equal means. One tasteful in form and 
 beautiful in location its shaded walks, and every 
 useful tree, and shrub, and plant, arranged with 
 regard to beauty ; every natural defect of land- 
 scape is softened, every beauty heightened. The 
 other is placed by chance, without symmetry or pro- 
 portion ; no plant of beauty is spared, and in all the 
 surroundings not a single thought displayed that 
 any natural object has beauty. The owner may be 
 conscious that his neighbor has a great advantage, 
 but thinks it his fortune, and no morq thinks that 
 he can secure the same for himself, than that he 
 could dig from the earth hidden coffers of wealth. 
 He knows there is beauty, he hears it repeated by 
 every passer-by ; but he can not put forth his hand 
 and secure it for himself, though the material sur- 
 round him on every side, simply because his mind 
 has never been trained to perceive the beauty of 
 separate natural objects. He is aware of it only 
 when they are grouped by others; and then, per- 
 
AS RELATED TO WEALTH. 125 
 
 haps, he despises them, or at least undervalues them, 
 because he is as blind to their beauty as the eye that 
 never saw light. Who can compare the worth of 
 these homes as places of rational enjoyment, or the 
 capacities of their owners to enjoy ? The man of 
 taste may not have struck a blow harder nor more 
 frequent than his neighbor, but he has had unnum- 
 bered sources of enjoyment the other had no power 
 to avail himself of ; and now the tasteful home 
 finds ready buyers at liberal prices, while on the 
 other land the buildings are considered rather as 
 an incumbrance, and the soil as stripped even of 
 the materials of improvement which Nature almost 
 everywhere scatters on land untouched by man. 
 The worth of our homes must depend mainly upon 
 the beautiful objects of nature that we can throw 
 around them -at least this must be true of those 
 whose wealth is not abundant. These objects can 
 only be selected and appreciated by that training 
 of the senses, and those ideas of the beautiful, which 
 
 Natural History studies alone can fully secure. 
 
 11* 
 
126 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 LECTUKE IV. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 
 
 "WHEN the oak spreads its sturdy branches, and 
 strikes its roots deeper among the cliffs of the moun- 
 tain, there is one work to which all its changes are 
 preparatory, and this is the production of fruit. In 
 the whole vegetable kingdom, with all its varied 
 beauty, every force and every change is subservient 
 to this higher work. The architect also lays his 
 foundation, but it is only that he may build upon it. 
 So God has broken up the crust of this globe, and 
 covered it with a succession of living forms, but it 
 was only that he might thus the better fit it as a 
 dwelling-place for rational man. To man He has 
 given an intellectual and an emotional nature, but 
 it is only as a condition for that higher religious 
 nature, in which man approaches most nearly the 
 perfect image of God. All nature is indeed made to 
 minister to the physical enjoyment of man, but the 
 wonderful plan of its frame-work is a fit counterpart 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 127 
 
 of his intellectual nature. Its beauty of adorning, 
 its grandeur and sublimity, are the visible heaven of 
 his emotional nature. But its highest adaptation, 
 and that to which all others are subservient, is to 
 man as a religious being. So complete is it in this 
 respect so fully is a God, and a God for worship, 
 shown in even the humblest plant that clothes the 
 eartli that, to the sincere inquirer, 
 
 " This world. . . .becomes a temple, 
 And life itself one continued act of adoration." 
 
 On the common argument from special adaptation 
 for the existence of a God it is not necessary to 
 enlarge, because it has been so fully presented by 
 the ablest writers that it is probably familiar to all. 
 So far as we attempt it, of course we shall confine 
 ourselves to Natural History illustrations; and we 
 do not shorten the argument from any want of 
 materials, for they are abundant sufficient to 
 present that argument in its full force. Some have 
 considered this proof from natural objects unsatisfac- 
 tory ; but on this point we may say, that however 
 philosophers may speculate, there is in Natural 
 
128 NATURAL HISTOEY 
 
 History 'a general harmony, such as ancient philoso- 
 phers saw in other departments of nature, and regard- 
 ed as proof of an intelligent author ; and to the com- 
 mon mind the argument from special adaptation 
 will always be convincing far more so than those 
 higher speculations and proofs from our mental 
 constitution. So long as men can observe Mature 
 more easily than they can study their own minds, 
 so long will they be more convinced by the general 
 argument, as presented by Paley, than by the 
 intellectual and moral nature of man, which some 
 consider the only proof of a personal God. There 
 is, to say the least, a charm about the argument, and 
 it seems to us to have force. When we see special 
 adaptations, not occurring once merely, nor in one 
 kingdom, but in hundreds of instances adaptations 
 that we might never have thought of, but acknowl- 
 edge to be worthy of the greatest genius the 
 mind goes up to a personal God. The mental 
 philosopher may stand there and utter his warning, 
 he may say that the whole argument is a begging 
 of the question ; the answer practically will be this 
 "There are in nature adaptations worthy of the 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION". 129 
 
 highest powers that we attribute to a person their 
 number is so great as to preclude the idea of chance 
 there is, therefore, a person a personal God." 
 Take from the animal kingdom a single illustration. 
 The honey-bee, the wasp, and the hornet, build 
 geometrical six-sided cells. This form is best fitted 
 for their purpose they necessarily build them in 
 this way, either compelled to it by their organiza- 
 tion or instinct ; for our argument we care not 
 which. These three tribes go on building the same 
 way forever. Now, how came that geometrical 
 form to be selected for those three insects? By 
 whom was it done? Only one answer can be given 
 by a being capable of considering all possible 
 geometrical forms in the abstract, and of selecting 
 from all possible forms one best fitted for these 
 three tribes of insects. No one will pretend that 
 these insects were from the same stock, and thus 
 account for the common form of their cells. The 
 materials are varied. By the bee the form is 
 produced in wax secreted beneath the rings of the 
 body, by the others in paper, formed of the woody 
 fiber of our fence-posts and door-sills ; but when we 
 
130 NATUEAL HISTORY . 
 
 direct our attention to the form, we see evidence of 
 the highest intellectual power in considering ab- 
 stract geometrical relations. Such arguments can 
 be repeated almost without limit, and if there is 
 failure to convince, it seems to arise from the defect 
 in the method of studying the proof, rather than 
 from its nature. If asked, then, why this argument 
 from adaptation has not been more convincing, we 
 answer, it has not generally been studied in the 
 right way. It has been studied in I}o6ks rather than 
 in the field. The effect of this we shall notice 
 farther on. 
 
 We are inclined to reverse the order of the argu- 
 ment presented by Paley, and give the vegetable 
 kingdom precedence make it the strongest link in 
 the grand chain of proof. He remarks that u a 
 designed and studied mechanism is in general more 
 evident in animals than in plants, and it is unneces- 
 sary to dwell upon a weaker argument when a 
 stronger is at hand." There are many points of the 
 whole subject that have changed their relative 
 importance, in fact their whole bearing, since his 
 day. The unity of plan in the whole vegetable and 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 131 
 
 animal kingdom, so fully brought out since his time, 
 has to many a stronger bearing than all the special 
 adaptations so clearly presented by him. His first 
 sentence, " That if in crossing a heath (suppose) he 
 pitched his foot against a stone, and were asked 
 how it came to be there, he might possibly an- 
 swer that, for any thing he knew to the contrary, it 
 had lain there forever," is a landmark in science, 
 and shows the wonderful changes since his time. 
 That same pebble would bring to the mind now the 
 vast forces that have spent their fury on the crust 
 of our earth all that war of the elements by which 
 the earth was fitted for our dwelling-placeall the 
 movements of that vast plan which has been 
 moving on for countless ages, when no eye but that 
 of God looked upon the scene ; of which no record 
 is left, but that engraven upon the hills, and scat- 
 tered with the pebbles, in Paley's day an un- 
 known language, now rendered vocal by the light of 
 science, as the statue of Memnon gave forth sweet 
 sounds of music when lighted by the rays of the 
 rising sun. 
 
 In the vegetable kingdom we see special adapta- 
 
132 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 tions, prospective contrivances, and yet there is no 
 thought, no instinct even, to guide. The dreaming 
 philosopher might talk of feet becoming webbed by 
 attempts to swim of wonderful changes produced 
 in ages by the law of progressive development. 
 The followers of Oken and Lamark, without the 
 science of their masters, may believe that their 
 ancestors were fish, and that they are not them- 
 selves denizens of the deep because some enter- 
 prising member of the family floundered out of the 
 water and forgot to return ; but even this accomo- 
 dating theory will give no explanation of all the 
 wonderful adaptations of parts by which individual 
 life is carried on, and the species propagated, in the 
 vegetable kingdom. The monad, by its desires, may 
 be fancied to pass through the varying stages of 
 oyster, fish, and ape, up to man himself; but that 
 the one-celled plant of our northern snow, or those 
 that abound in our pools, should suddenly become 
 ambitious, and be satisfied only by spreading like 
 the oak or blooming like the roses, is a far more 
 difficult problem for their accomodating philosophy. 
 Did you ever look into a single flower, the lily 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 133 
 
 or the rose, to see there the wonderful machinery 
 fitted for a specific work, the production of the 
 seed ? In the center of the flower, completely sur- 
 rounded, secured from danger, are the first sketches 
 of seeds now mere points, but each one fitted to 
 receive an independent life. It has not yet come, 
 but the home is prepared for its reception. And 
 now another portion of the flower, the trembling 
 stamens, that seem tipped with golden points to 
 draw down the spark of life from heaven, give out 
 the gathered force locked in the floating, dust-like 
 grains of pollen. They strike the central organ, 
 and, as though drawn by an invisible power, thread 
 their way down long tubes and touch each seed 
 with the fire of independent life. The seed, no 
 longer a mere cell without life, now asserts its dig- 
 nity, and the parent plant, as though conscious of 
 its precious treasures, gathers with every power the 
 materials needed for the future growth of the young, 
 now cradled in the flower. And around that germ 
 of life the tree collects of its richest products the 
 salts, the starch, and the sugar which form the bulk 
 of the fully developed seed, making it a store-house 
 
 12 
 
134 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 of food sufficient for that germ when thrown from 
 the parent stock, till it shall put forth roots and 
 leaves, and be able to compel the earth and air to 
 minister to its wants. And when the acorn drops, 
 or the grape-seed matures, what can you see, with 
 the aid of your keenest scalpel and most perfect 
 glasses, that shall show you that the work is com- 
 pleted, without a single mistake, in all the countless 
 myriads that fall in every valley and on every 
 mountain-side? But in one is a force lodged that 
 shall send up the stout trunk, spread its branches, 
 expand its leaves, and produce its fruit, a perfect 
 oak, and from the other shall come up the leaning 
 stem to climb the oak with loving tendrils, spread 
 its thick foliage among its branches, and mingle its 
 rich clusters of purple with the humble russet of the 
 acorn in its cup. 
 
 Or go with me to the field, and watch the setting 
 of the golden rows of corn. From the shaking tas- 
 sel falls in every breeze a shower of vital dust, and 
 from the center of the husky ear each half-formed 
 kernel throws out its line of silk to catch the float- 
 ing cells of life. And as it gathers in its portion 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 135 
 
 the grain begins to swell, to gather richness from 
 the parent stalk, till it gleams in southern fields 
 with the softness of the pearl, and in the north with 
 the yellow of the topaz and gold. ~No parent, with 
 the wisdom of man, can more perfectly provide for 
 its young, than the trees of our forests and the 
 grasses of our fields for the young plant in every 
 seed they mature. If by chance the grain of pollen 
 fails to reach the seed, no germ of life is there, no 
 food is needed and none is garnered up; the tree 
 never mistakes and collects food where its own 
 young is not present to feed upon it. 
 
 And when the seed is formed there is still 
 another care, that it may find its proper place of 
 growth; the means are fitted to the need of the 
 plant. To one seed are given wings that it may fly 
 away, the crane's-bill scatters its seed with a curi- 
 ous spring, the thistle rises on its fringed balloon, 
 and others cling to every passer-by and thus are 
 scattered over the earth. And when that seed has 
 germinated, every leaf has a thousand mouths to 
 drink in the gases from the air, a thousand points 
 below the surface of the earth to gather materials 
 
136 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 there. Every breeze that moves its leaves feeds it, 
 the rocks crumble beneath to give it strength. And 
 as it rises, every change shows its adaptations to all 
 the forces that surround it. 
 
 Go through our northern forests and look at the 
 broad-leaved trees the maple, oak, and elm. In 
 summer they are filled with foliage, on some of the 
 largest are acres of foliage. Now look at their 
 spreading and dividing limbs. Did they hold their 
 leaves, a single winter's snow would split their 
 branches from the trunks, destroy their beauty, and 
 in the end they must perish. But the first frost of 
 autumn paints the green leaves with gorgeous col- 
 ors, and the autumn winds shake them from the 
 trees, that their naked limbs may be presented to 
 the frosts and ice and winds of winter. In sum- 
 mer, they must have the broad leaves to drink in 
 gases from the air ; in their winter's rest they 
 would prove their destruction, and they shake them 
 off, and not a single broad-leaved tree, in our north- 
 ern climes, holds its foliage in the winter months. 
 Look now at the evergreens, the spruce, and fir, 
 and pine, with needle-leaves, and with trunks that 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 137 
 
 are single shafts that never divide. Every limb is 
 small, and driven, like a pin, toward the center of 
 the tree, so that should it break no harm is done to 
 the general structure. These keep their leaves, and 
 enliven our winter forests by their green. The de- 
 ciduous trees, like mariners fearful of their strength, 
 furl their sails at the first rising of the tempest, 
 while the spruce and the fir, as though conscious of 
 their strength, spread every stitch of canvas and 
 bid defiance to the storm. 
 
 Every tree, we believe, in its special adaptation, 
 shows a personal God. A single seed of the dan- 
 delion, floating on its delicate balloon, would seem 
 to be enough to cut up all atheism by the roots. 
 To some, these proofs may not be satisfactory ; but 
 are those who can not see the proof, sure that they 
 have seen all the beauties and adaptations that 
 every day open to the active naturalist ? Is it not 
 possible that there should exist in Nature some 
 proof of a creative mind, besides the mind of man ? 
 ~No common, casual view of JSTature can justify a 
 negative answer. Things never seen can not con- 
 vince. It is easy for one who has never seen a fos- 
 
 12* 
 
138 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 sil, to believe men mistaken when they talk of 
 splitting fishes from solid rock or to doubt that 
 coal is of vegetable origin, if he has never visited a 
 coal mine. But when he walks among the rocks 
 his skepticism vanishes. And, on the other hand, 
 things always seen cease to have their proper effect. 
 If we admire the striking objects of a foreign land, 
 we shall find those who dwell among them as un- 
 moved as we are by the common objects of our 
 daily life. 
 
 The effect that common things might have, if 
 presented for the first time, is beautifully illustrated 
 in the fragment of Aristotle preserved by Cicero 
 in his JDe Natura Deorum. "If," said he, "there 
 were beings who lived in the depths of the earth, 
 in dwellings adorned with statues, and paintings, 
 and every thing which is possessed in rich abun- 
 dance by those whom we esteem fortunate ; and if 
 these beings could receive tidings of the power and 
 might of the gods, and could then emerge from their 
 hidden dwellings through the open fissures of the 
 earth to the places which we inhabit if they could 
 suddenly behold the earth, and the sea, and the 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 139 
 
 vault of heaven, could recognize the expanse of the 
 cloudy firmanent and the might of the winds of 
 heaven, and admire the sun in its majesty, beauty, 
 and radiant effulgence ; and, lastly, when night 
 vailed the earth in darkness they could behold the 
 starry heavens, the changing moon, and the stars 
 rising and setting in the unvarying course ordained 
 from eternity they would surely exclaim, there are 
 gods, and such great things must be the work of 
 their hands." 
 
 These wonderful works have been ever before us, 
 so that it is hard to realize that there was a time 
 when they were not and harder still to feel the 
 full force of the proof which their mechanism ought 
 to be to us. And the humbler objects of Natural 
 History, not calculated to excite emotions of grand- 
 eur and sublimity, which we daily tread beneath 
 our feet, would, according to the common laws of 
 mind, pass unnoticed, or when noticed fail to con- 
 vince us as they ought. There may be a wonder- 
 ful arrangement of parts, all fitted to produce a 
 certain result j but then we can not see the hand of 
 God tinting the flower, and arranging each part for 
 
140 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 its appropriate work. The plant springs from the 
 ground, and its kind has done so for thousands of 
 generations. If we could but for a moment see the 
 Divine hand apply the rule, weigh the elements, and 
 join the varied cells, how changed the argument 
 would be ! But from the work the builder must 
 be known. As we walk among old ruins, it is hard 
 to realize that the stones were hewn and raised and 
 joined by men. When the American first visits 
 Mount Yernon, how difficult to realize that here 
 really is the home of the great hero whose name he 
 has ever revered. 
 
 It is not strange, then, that this difficulty of real- 
 izing should, in the case of natural objects, some- 
 times end in doubt of a personal God. It is not 
 strange, at least, that it should be so to those who 
 see no more than they saw when children the 
 merest fragments of the common forms that sur- 
 round them. And though the wondrous works of 
 design should be described, it is not he who studies 
 them in books, but he whose eye has seen the living 
 loop and hinge that can understand their power to 
 convince. What knows the man who has merely 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 
 
 read of Mt. Washington, of the sense of power he 
 feels who climbs the titan blocks which form that 
 grand monument of Nature's forces ? What knows 
 the man who has simply read of Niagara, of the 
 emotions of him who looks up to the bending flood, 
 and is deafened by its thunder? It is the real thing, 
 and not its description, that must be relied on to 
 convince. And if we wish to prove the strength of 
 the argument from design, must we look to those 
 wlio have only read and looked upon the same 
 unvarying surface all their lives, or to the naturalist, 
 who has been walking within the temple of Nature 
 all his life, each day opening some alcove filled 
 with new beauties and adaptations? Shall we 
 inquire respecting the landscape in the distance, of 
 him who has always walked upon the plain at the 
 base of the mountain, or of him who daily ascends 
 that mountain, and views that landscape from every 
 possible point? The common observer is like 
 Aristotle's fancied beings in tlie center of the earth 
 remaining there forever, hearing of the gods and 
 their w r orks,- but seeing the whole array of Nature 
 only as delineated in pictures of landscapes, and the 
 
142 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 orreries invented by men to represent the move- 
 ments of the heavenly bodies. 
 
 But the naturalist, with his trained senses for ob- 
 serving, is, as it were, raised from the center to the 
 surface, to look off upon a new world. And with 
 his microscope a new world bursts upon his view 
 every hour, not as a far-off star, threading its way 
 like a point of light through the heavens, so that its 
 motions alone can be determined but in the drop 
 of water, in the grain of slate, in the scale of fish, 
 and every fragment of bone. Think you that 
 argument from design had no force with Cuvier, 
 whose firm belief in final causes led him to such 
 splendid results? His genius called back the per- 
 fect forms from the bony fragments in the Paris 
 basin ; but the firm belief in special adaptation 
 was the guiding light that led him on, and he 
 never once doubted that the plan and form of each 
 organic being were fixed by an intelligent, divine 
 Lawgiver. 
 
 Think you the force of that argument is n6t felt 
 by Agassiz, as a single scale reveals to him the 
 character of the fish? We need not debate the 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 143 
 
 question, but appeal to him, and his answer is 
 given out in his last great work, the ablest volume 
 ever written in proof of the being of a personal 
 God from Nature the arguments all drawn from 
 the animal kingdom. Here, then, is the man 
 whose eye has seen more forms in Natural History 
 than any other that ever lived one of the greatest 
 naturalists in any age, the stamp of whose foot can 
 almost call up the forms from their sleep of ages in 
 their rocky beds, seeing in all the adaptations 
 overwhelming proof of mind. Here, then, we may 
 rest the argument for design, disregarding the at- 
 tacks which dreaming development theorists may 
 make. This argument will need no farther defence 
 till it is attacked by some naturalist of such vast 
 acquirements as to make him a foeman worthy of 
 Agassiz's steel. 
 
 We are perfectly satisfied with the argument 
 from the mental constitution of man. But if the 
 inside of a watch prove design, does not the case, 
 and all the outer works, fitted to protect the inner 
 mechanism, and reveal its movements ? And if the 
 mind of man show design, does not the body, the 
 
NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 home of that mind, and the thousand contrivances 
 in nature for keeping that body with all its 
 complicated machinery in tune? If, then, we grant 
 personality to the mind of man, we may, so far as 
 the argument is concerned, believe with some of the 
 old philosophers, that mind to be eternal, uncreated ; 
 but the fitting of a body to the wants of that mind, 
 would prove personality on the part of the creator 
 of the body. There are those who believe that the 
 Saviour of the world was not man in any true sense, 
 that the divine, eternal, uncreated Mind was united 
 to a human body. There is no absurdity in this 
 view. And if every man were considered the same, 
 the body, in its adaptations to the mind, would 
 still require a creator equal in kind to the mental 
 part provided for. 
 
 But among the rocks of the earth has Natural 
 History laid a foundation for Natural Religion, one 
 that can never be weakened, but is becoming more 
 firm by each new discovery. This it does by carry- 
 ing us back to the beginning of all organic life, and 
 by pointing out, on the rocky chart, where each 
 new form commenced its course. The infidel argu- 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 145 
 
 ment of an infinite series, might be combated by 
 metaphysical argument, but the reply was only an 
 argument of words, and to many minds far from 
 being conclusive. It was a rampart, behind which 
 thousands would vaunt themselves to be safe, and, 
 like all metaphysical ramparts, so long as it was 
 firmly believed in, it was safe. 
 
 But geology has a shorter and more conclusive 
 answer. One blow of her hammer and the rampart 
 of infinite series dissolves as by enchantment. She 
 points her finger back to the granite frame-work of 
 the globe, and reads a chapter in its history, when 
 organic forms were impossible on the molten, glow- 
 ing mass. Then through each of the stony layers, 
 she marks the introduction of each new species 
 the thousand wonderful forms, each a miracle of 
 creation. First she unfolds the varied forms of the 
 Silurian seas, the earliest types of organic existence, 
 the chambered shells, the mountain masses of curi- 
 ous patterns, whose nice finish to the microscopic 
 facet of the trilobite's eye, has for countless ages 
 been preserved for us in this grand cabinet, un- 
 harmed by corroding elements, undisturbed by the 
 
 OF 1KB 
 
 OTIVBRSITtf 
 
146 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 seas that have swept above them, and the forces that 
 have broken and lifted the earth beneath them. 
 
 Then she traces the "footprints of the Creator" 
 in the quarries of the Old Red Sandstone, and 
 again wanders through the luxuriant forests of the 
 carboniferous flora. Mounting one step higher, she 
 splits from the Connecticut Valley the paths of 
 gigantic birds, and forms unknown among living 
 fauna. From the shores and waters of the Oolitic 
 ocean she brings up reptilian life, in form more 
 wonderful, and in armor and strength more ter- 
 rific, than painter or poet ever dreamed of. And 
 once more the earth almost seems to tremble be- 
 neath the tread of Mastodons, whose bones she 
 brings up and places joint to joint in all their vast 
 proportions. And last, above the tribes entombed in 
 rock, she points to man, the crown of all not only 
 the last, but the most perfect being ever formed 
 upon the earth with all the faculties needed by a 
 rational soul, showing, in his physical organization, 
 that he is the last of the long series, and beyond him 
 no progress is possible, according to the plan dimly 
 sketched in the first vertebrate of the Silurian wa- 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 147 
 
 ters, and unfolded through all succeeding geologic 
 ages. 
 
 As beneath the corner-stone of human structures 
 are placed mementoes for coming generations, that 
 they may know more perfectly the works of their 
 fathers who reared the walls, so beneath the founda- 
 tion stones of this earth have been deposited, by the 
 Great Architect, the records of His works, for the 
 study of him who was to be brought last upon the 
 scene, the most perfect work of His hand. 
 
 In treating of the relations of Natural History to 
 Religion, we are not disposed to ignore the fact 
 that, from the progression of the plan of creation, 
 from the simplest organic forms in the lowest rocks 
 to the highest plants and animals of the present era, 
 an argument has been drawn by some against the 
 necessity of a personal God. Misinterpreting the 
 evidence of progression of the plan as new species 
 were introduced, they have applied the law of pro- 
 gression to single species, and thus are led to believe 
 that the forms in the lower rocks have gradually 
 changed, and in consequence of these changes that 
 they present in their upward development all the 
 
148 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 phases of life which Geology has revealed. Such a 
 strange reading of geologic text would yet require a 
 divine power to introduce the first germ of life. 
 But error seldom stops till it has reached the edge 
 of the precipice, and stepped over for its fatal fall. 
 There was a time, however, when Natural History 
 seemed ready to furnish the Atheist and Pantheist 
 with a magazine of missiles, against which the 
 strongest walls Religion has raised were doomed to 
 crumble. But they have been hurled back with a 
 force that has silenced the attacking batteries. The 
 most enticing, the most plausible, and the most dan- 
 gerous was the theory of development, or transmu- 
 tation of species, making the sea, that fruitful field 
 of life, the birthplace of every organic being not in 
 perfect form, but as a mere vital point where water 
 touched the land ; invoking for the original creation 
 no higher power than the electric current. 
 
 This theory of transformation was amusing, rather 
 than mischievous, as dreamed out by Maillet a hun- 
 dred years ago. No serious harm could come from 
 fancying a shoal of frightened fishes floundering 
 among reeds till their fins were split into feathers, 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 149 
 
 and their noses lengthened and hardened into beaks, 
 so that it should be more convenient for them to fly 
 away and light on trees than to return to their na- 
 tive element. But in the hands of the able natu- 
 ralists Oken and Lamark, it assumed a more scien- 
 tific and more dangerous form. But their argu- 
 ments, like boomerangs thrown by unskillful hands, 
 have returned against themselves. The last blow 
 was given by the stone-mason of Scotland. He 
 thus describes the discovery that was to him the 
 grand weapon of defence, and of carrying the war 
 into the enemy's camp. 
 
 " The day was far spent when I reached Strom- 
 ness ; but as I had a fine, bright evening before me, 
 longer, by some three or four degrees of north lati- 
 tude, than the midsummer evenings of the south of 
 Scotland, I set out, hammer in hand, to examine the 
 junction of the granite and the Great Conglomerate, 
 where it has been laid bare by the sea along the 
 low promontory which forms the western boundary 
 of the harbor I traced the formation up- 
 ward, this evening, along the edges of the upturned 
 
 strata, from where the Great Conglomerate leans 
 
 13* 
 
150 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 against the granite, till where it merges into the 
 iehthyolitic flagstones, and then pursued these from 
 older and lower to newer and higher layers, desi- 
 rous of ascertaining at what distance over the base 
 of the system its most ancient organisms first ap- 
 pear, and what their character and kind. And, 
 imbedded in a grayish-colored layer of hard flag, 
 somewhat less than a hundred yards over the granite 
 and about a hundred and sixty feet over the upper 
 stratum of conglomerate, I found what I sought 
 a well-marked bone, in all probability the oldest 
 
 vertebrate remains yet discovered in Orkney 
 
 The amateur geologists of Caithness and Orkney 
 have learned to recognize it as the ' petrified nail.' " 
 
 To a looker-on, it would have seemed a thing of 
 little importance, that evening-stroll of the lone 
 geologist. But it was a memorable evening for 
 science and religion. The blows of that little 
 hammer are still sounding, and that "petrified nail" 
 was more fatal to the development hypothesis than 
 the tent-nail to the temple of Sisera. 
 
 It proved that the earliest fishes were among the 
 highest organized; the order was reversed, the 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 151 
 
 argument from development was broken. And his 
 final language is fully vindicated : " They began to 
 be, through the miracle of creation." Thus, then, 
 from this apparent danger, has the human mind 
 been quickened; and nature, summoned to testify 
 against the existence of a personal God, has from 
 the deep strata given such a response as proves His 
 being to all the ablest geologists of the world. 
 
 In all I have thus far said of the bearing of 
 Natural History upon Religion, I have not once 
 referred to a written Revelation. But the time is 
 past when it is considered out of place to refer with 
 respect to the Bible, even in a temple of science. 
 But how long would it maintain its power in this 
 age, if it could be shown to contradict the teachings 
 of science? It might exert a power in dark ages 
 and among ignorant men, as the sacred books of 
 other religions, the Koran and Vedas, have so long 
 done. But the human mind must change before a 
 book shall hold its sway against the teachings of 
 Nature, as science now unfolds them. There are in 
 science some things at least sure, and they must, 
 and will have their weight. A book is written by 
 
152 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 men, it may therefore be simply a human produc- 
 tion it may be changed, portions lost, and portions 
 added. But no human hand has lifted the hills, 
 no scheming founder of religions has rolled back the 
 strata of the earth, and placed there the fossils to 
 mark the supernatural introduction of life. ]STo 
 company of his followers have set the forests, and 
 filled the waters with their teeming tribes. He that 
 believes in a God, believes in Him first as the 
 creator, and will believe in no book as coming from 
 Him, through the instrumentality of men, that 
 contradicts this revelation of nature, which came 
 direct from the hand of God, before the creation of 
 man, and beyond the power of man to change in a 
 single letter. If the Bible is the message of God, 
 delivered by His embassadors, who were clothed 
 with plenary power to do it, Nature is the auto- 
 graph letter of the great Sovereign ; and now, that 
 men have learned to read it, they demand as condi- 
 tion of belief in the message written by men that it 
 shall not contradict the letter, which they know to 
 be genuine, stamped as it is with the great seal of 
 almighty power which He has committed to the 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 153 
 
 keeping of no created being. The relations of that 
 portion of science called Natural History to the 
 Bible, may appear to some not of a marked and 
 direct character, but only incidental. But even 
 these incidental relations are of the highest value, 
 by throwing light upon obscure portions of the 
 inspired record, leading to more profound study and 
 more liberal views in its interpretation. That 
 religion which is worthy the name, is not secured by 
 simply proving the existence of a God, who might 
 have originated the universe, set it in motion once 
 for all, like a vast machine, and then withdrawn 
 himself forever from its government and special 
 care. It is in the revelation of character as con- 
 tinually guiding and caring for His creatures, that 
 the foundation is laid for rational religion, that 
 shall manifest itself in trust and action. This 
 character is certainly revealed in the creation, and 
 " may be understood by the things that are made." 
 And in all these works, with, the manifestation of 
 intelligence is joined benevolence, so that like bina- 
 ry suns they move on together. The special care 
 manifested through all the geologic ages in fitting 
 
154 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 each new species for the conditions of the globe 
 when it lived, makes it hard for us to believe that 
 this care has now ceased. We have at least the 
 proof that care has been exercised, not once merely, 
 but unnumbered times through the long lapse of 
 ages. If He cared for the fishes of the Silurian seas, 
 will He not care for us ? The thousand miraculous 
 interpositions proved by the introduction of species, 
 and man himself, show that God introduces the 
 supernatural whenever the good of the universe 
 requires it. And now, when we see the careful 
 provision he has made for the wants of every crea- 
 ted thing, it renders us more ready to see in the 
 adaptations of the Bible to the wants of man's 
 higher nature the mark of His hand. 
 
 We thus, from the study of Nature, remove all 
 antecedent probability against the Bible as a revela- 
 tion, and against the miracles by which its divine 
 authority is supported. The supposed disagreement 
 of the two books has led to more careful study, not 
 only of the rocks, but of the Hebrew text, and its 
 influence on Biblical criticism is of the most marked 
 and happy kind. They may never be perfectly 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 155 
 
 reconciled ; nor do we care for that. They move 
 on in the same direction both declaring a personal 
 God, both declaring his miraculous interposition, 
 both declaring his continued care. The intelligent 
 theologian would be hard to find who does not 
 understand that the Bible would lose its force if 
 shown to conflict with science, and who does not 
 know that the Natural History of the earth has 
 destroyed infidel arguments which metaphysics 
 could meet only by words. 
 
 Special adaptations and evidences of a divine 
 interposition in distinct acts of creation, are suffi- 
 cient perhaps for the intellect, but they are hardly 
 of more importance than the adaptation of Nature 
 to the emotions. " Blessed are the pure in heart, for 
 they shall see God." In a lower sense this has its 
 application, for the pure in heart are most ready to 
 see the proof for the existence and attributes of 
 God. If, then, nature is fitted to develop in man a 
 true taste, giving him the types of the beautiful, it 
 must purify and elevate the feelings, and prepare 
 him for communion with the Author of Nature. 
 Such can not fail to be its tendency. 
 
156 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 We necessarily take man as our type of person- 
 ality. Is it possible, then, we ask, to prove that 
 personality from any of his works? If this is 
 denied, then our argument from contrivance is 
 certainly in danger, because we have no acknowl- 
 edged standard. But if it be granted that any work 
 of man, any of the grand material results brought 
 out by the combined w T isdom and skill of the race, 
 proves personality, then we have a recognized 
 standard. Let that be taken, and I care not what 
 it may be, and it can not only be matched in .every 
 particular in the works of Nature, but as far exceed- 
 ed in completeness as in grandeur and beauty. We 
 see one plan or set of plans commenced in the first 
 creation of animal and vegetable life, the grand 
 ideas in those plans preserved till the present 
 moment, for untold ages, not only through thou- 
 sands of generations, but through thousands of new 
 creations. And yet that plan has been modified in 
 its details, to carry out a particular design in each 
 new species. This wisdom and skill are thus seen, 
 not only providing for the exigencies of the day, 
 not only for the things already created, but looking 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 157 
 
 forward through geologic ages of physical change, 
 and providing for the wants of man, in his needs 
 and desires, entirely unlike any thing before crea- 
 ted. It was for man alone that metals were poured 
 into the primary rocks, even before life was intro- 
 duced upon the globe ; it was for his need the coal 
 was garnered up, ages and ages before the earth was 
 fitted for him. "We can hardly see a fold in the 
 strata, or study a new form of matter, that does not 
 seem to have reference to man as a physical or 
 intellectual being. But without going thus far, we 
 can assert that he has been perfectly provided for ; 
 and what short of the wisdom and skill of a per- 
 sonal being could provide for the wants of man, from 
 whom alone we have our idea of personality? 
 "While, then, we know the argument from mind must 
 be satisfactory to the philosopher, we must also 
 believe that the fitting up of a body for that mind, 
 and a world for that body, are equally proofs of 
 personality. For none but a person can under- 
 stand, so as to provide for the wants of personality. 
 The chain then seems to be unbroken. If the 
 
 creation of the mind would prove personality, then 
 
 14 
 
158 NATURAL HISTORY 
 
 the body fitted to that mind and if the body, then 
 every special adaptation by which that body is 
 adjusted to the forces of the natural world. 
 
 We believe this view is sustained by the Apostle. 
 " For the invisible things of him from the creation 
 of the world are clearly seen, being understood ~by the 
 things that are made, even his eternal power and 
 Godhead, so that they are without excuse" Surely 
 it can not be contended that the Apostle supposed 
 any thing less than a personal God was manifested 
 by creation, when he declared that they were with- 
 out excuse for not worshiping him as God. But on 
 the other hand, he denounces them for likening 
 God to corruptible man, and to birds and four- 
 footed leasts and creeping things, as though they 
 could discern in creation no higher marks of wis- 
 dom than instinct, or the imperfect works of sinful 
 man. 
 
 But let it not for a moment be thought that I 
 offer Nature as a substitute for the Bible, or the 
 love of God as the author of the beautiful as the 
 Bum of that love demanded by Him as a righteous 
 moral Governor. Nature is a revelation, and if 
 
AS RELATED TO RELIGION. 159 
 
 rightly studied, so far from satisfying us, will teach 
 us the need of another, higher and plainer. It be- 
 gets the childlike spirit, teachable and pure fitted 
 to receive a full revelation, as the Bible claims to be, 
 and to enter upon that life of faith which the Bible 
 demands and the soul of man craves. 
 
 Nature and the Bible can each be studied alone ; 
 but as God is the author of both, we can never be- 
 lieve that the lowest can be neglected without loss, 
 as we know the highest can not be without ship- 
 wreck of all the nobler objects for which man was 
 created. 
 
 Their relation can not be better expressed than in 
 the language of M'Cosh. " Science," says this able 
 author, " has its foundations, and so has religion ; 
 let them unite their foundations, and the basis will 
 be broader, and they will be two compartments of 
 one great fabric reared to the glory of God. Let 
 one be the outer and the other the inner court. In 
 the one, let all look, and admire, and adore ; and in 
 the other, let those who have faith, kneel, and pray, 
 and praise. Let the one be the sanctuary where 
 human learning may present its richest incense as 
 
160 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 an offering to God ; and the other the holiest of all, 
 separated from it by a vail now rent in twain, and in 
 which, on a blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, we pour out 
 the love of a reconciled heart, and hear the oracles of 
 the living God." 
 
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 Lectures 
 
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