Although the above be the inevitable effect of distributing nature into its component parts, it is the indispensable precursor to the study, for the scientific treatment is the only mode whereby, through special study, we can arrive at the comprehension of the great generality. We thus strive to trace the mode in which each emanates from each; and even when this is not absolutely tangible we may discover affinities or analogies by structural resemblances which implicitly lead to physiological inferences, and thence on, higher and higher, all lending us aid to make the larger survey, wherein we behold the concatenation of the many links which harmonize the spiritual with the material. But the study must be thorough, and its details are not to be spread out before us merely as a beautiful picture-book. They all have their place in the great ordinance of nature, which it is for us to find. At first we can only spell the syllables, which the study of species puts together for us, but by degrees we shall trace the words, and read the sentences: a study more abstruse but far more pregnant than that of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and whose attainment is rewarded with a supremer knowledge than is accorded by these, which exhibit merely the legends of dead despots; but here we have a display of the vitality of the wisdom inscribed in gleaming characters upon the leaves of the wonderful book of life, God’s glorious works, made manifest to man. Thus we should aim at the knowledge of final causes, the apparent wisdom of whose adaptations points clearly to the source of all—the first great Cause. A naturalist with such large views has a wide field before him, which with every step expands, and which alone is worthy of engrossing the earnest attention of his intelligence, and is in itself sufficient to absorb the profoundest contemplation. His mind becomes thus filled with great objects, which charm it with their beauty and feed it with the complexity of their intricate combinations, whose earnest development is an affluent stream of perpetual instructive occupation. With Newton we may say: “We everywhere behold simplicity in the means, but an inexhaustible variety in the effects,” resulting all from the luminous wisdom of prearranged design. The humiliation which attends the sentiment of the utter inability and incompetency of the mind to grasp the intricacy and vastness of nature, is consoled by the redundant proofs the contemplation yields of a supreme and benevolent Providence presiding over all things, and thence we derive the comfortable and supporting assurance, in the fickle waywardness and vicissitudes of a harassed and anxious life, that a benevolent eye is ever watchfully awake; for the naturalist everywhere beholds that omnipotently wise and loving Providence in active operation throughout nature.