S-1141001_COMPLETO.pdf

INTRODUCTION.
AN instinctive general love of nature, that is, in other words, of the
works of God, has been implanted by Him, the Great Architect of the
universe—the Great Parent of all—in the mind of every man. There
is no one, whether old or young, or of whatever circumstances or rank
in life, who can look without any feeling or emotion on the handiworks
of Creation which surround him—who can behold a rich sunset, a
storm, the sea, a tree, a mountain, a river, a rainbow, a flower, without
some degree of admiration, and some measure of thought. He maj*,
indeed, for the time, or for a moment, be engrossed by some worldly
care, or some other subject—some remembrance of the past, or antici­
pation of the future; but this cannot always be the case, and whenever
the mind is relieved from that overpowering feeling, the spontaneous
thoughts which originate in the love of nature will be sure to arise in
his soul.
Whether indeed in some there is more than a general feeling of this
kind; whether all, if opportunities had been afforded to them, and had
been afforded to them in good time, would have found that especial
delight which others find in the more intimate study of this or that
branch of Natural History; whether it may have been only the pressure
of different and altogether necessary thoughts that has pre-occupied the
mind, and taken away, or, rather, set aside, those which would otherwise
have naturally found favour with it, I will not take upon me to deter­
mine; but thus mueh I can and do say, because I can say it of and
for myself, that with me,, in this sense, the universal includes the
particular—includes every particular that is included under it; for
there is no group of the wide-spread family of nature that I do not
love to study, and to become more and more intimately acquainted
with the members of. They are all the creations of the same wonderful
Being—"the hand that made them is Divine."
And if there be one branch of Natural History which is to me