BY JAMES L. DRUMMOND, M.D. PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY IN THE BELFAST ACADEMICAL INSTITUTION; PRESIDENT OF THE BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF NORTHUMBERLAND, DURHAM, AND NEWCASTLE, &c. &c. "Could mankind be prevailed upon to read a few lessons from the great book of Nature, so amply spread out before them, they would clearly see the hand of Providence in every page; and would they consider the faculty of reason as the distinguishing gift to the human race, and use it as the guide of their lives, they would find their reward in a cheerful resignation of mind, in peace and happiness, under the conscious perBEWICK. suasion, that a good naturalist cannot be a bad man." LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1831. LETTERS ΤΟ Α YOUNG NATURALIST. May, 1830. MY YOUNG FRIEND, A WELL-DIRECTED attention to the works of nature tends in an incalculable degree to elevate our conceptions of the omnipotence and unerring wisdom of the Almighty, and is congenial to every innocent and amiable propensity of the human mind. It is to be regretted, however, that comparatively few persons have distinct or enlarged ideas of the world around them. The objects which have been familiar to their eyes from infancy, are considered only as matters of course; and while every thing that appears in the vast page of creation is, one should think, tempting them to a perusal of its origin and history, the general bias, unfortunately, is to |