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    men ; their crude technicalities , < evasive meanings nothings of much sound / and their frivolous minutiae of details , which too often disgust the naturalist , and induce him to turn away his footsteps from the paths of science ; yet is this to be lamented , inasmuch as our knowledge of the geological formation of a

    mountain or a chain of hills ^ —our ability to recognise the influence of volcanic agency in determining the character of a coast or continent , —our understanding the physiological principles on which the phenomena of animal or vegetable life are dependent , must multiply our associations , and increase , rather than diminish the pleasure and interest of observation ; nay , the majesty of a mountain is not less imposing because we know the position of the strata of which it is composed , nor is the plumage of a bird less beautiful because we understand the curious structure of its

    feathers . With sufficient information , then , to appreciate more highly all that we see or hear in nature , let us to the woods the flowers at our feet now claim not our notice , albeit we love them , and avoid crushing them beneath our steps ; it is the voice of that sweet , and to us unknown bird which , * like an angel ' s song , now bids the heavens be mute . ' It is not the voice of tho nightingale , for that darling of the poet ' s heart sings not in the

    budding month of March ; nor is it that of the lark ;—would that we were more familiar with the feathered tribes ; for in their very appearance there is an innocence so touching to humanity , and in their song a spirituality often so affecting , that we readily comprehend the feelings of the poor prisoner of Chillon , who , beholding a bird which had alighted familiarly on his prison-window ; expresses thus pathetically his apprehensions : 4 I sometimes deemed that it might be

    My brother ' s soul come down to mej But then at last away it flew , And then ' twas mortal well I knew . ' If nature , whether in affliction or in joy , be thus contemplated with an eye of sensibility , how many associations , consoling and elevating , will reflection constantly suggest ; yet this disposition and tone of mind which every naturalist should possess , is not , we

    apprehend , to be acquired by education ; despite all that Locke and Condillac , and other metaphysicians in their school , have written , we believe it to be in a great measure innate , developing itself in the very earliest years of boyhood . Hence Audubon , — the benevolent and enterprising Audubon , who has lived more immediately in communion with nature than perhaps any other naturalist , even in his youth , confesses that he was happy only when engaged in studying the habits of the innumerable birds which frequent the shores , mountains , and trackless forests of America . * When removed / says he , ' from the woods , the prairies , and the brooks , or shut up from the view of the wide

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    The 8 tu 4 y qf Birch . 8 ?|

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1835, page 271, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2644/page/47/