both the Bible and Nature really did say; and I can
trust that the same process will go on for ever, and that God's
earth and God's word will never contradict each other. I have found
the average of scientific men, not less, but more, godly and
righteous men than the average of their neighbours; and I can trust
that this will be more and more the case as science deepens and
widens. And therefore I can trust that every patient, truthful, and
healthful mind will, the more it contemplates the works of God, re-
echo St. Paul's great declaration that the Invisible things of God
are clearly seen from the foundation of the world, being understood
by the things which are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.
And so trusting, I pass on to a lower view of the subject, and yet
not an unnecessary one.

In an industrial country like this, the practical utility of any
study must needs be always thrown into the scale; and natural
history seems at first sight somewhat unpractical. What money will
it earn for a man in after life?--is a question which will be asked;
and which it is folly to despise. For if the only answer be: "None
at all," a man has a right to rejoin: "Then let me take up some
pursuit which will train and refresh my mind as much as this one,
and yet be of pecuniary benefit to me some day." If you can find
such a study, by all means follow it: but I say that this study too
may be of great practical benefit in after life. How much money
have I, young as I am, seen wasted for want of a little knowledge of
botany, geology, or chemistry. How many a clever man becomes the
dupe of empirics for want of a little science. How many a mine is
sought for where no mine could be; or crop attempted to be grown,
where no such crop could grow. How many a hidden treasure, on the
other hand, do men walk over unheeding. How many a new material,
how many an improved process in manufacture is possible, yet is
passed over, for want of a little science. And for the man who
emigrates, and comes in contact with rude nature teeming with
unsuspected wealth, of what incalculable advantage to have if it be
but the rudiments of those sciences, which will tell him the
properties, and therefore the value, of the plants, the animals, the
minerals, the climates with which he meets? True--home-learnt
natural history will not altogether teach him about these things,
because most of them must needs be new: but it will teach him to
compa