advice, or render your good offices in any shape to your less fortunate brethren of the human race, you should act on the pure and unadulterated principle of doing good for its own sake, and from a sympathy of feeling for the privations and misfortunes of your fellow-men. An action, however good or charitable it may be in its effects, if it be performed either from a hope of reward, or through a fear of punishment, let us call it what we will, is not an act of virtue.

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LETTER XIX.

My chief object in the preceding letters has been to impress upon your mind the importance of studying the works of Nature with a continual reference to the great and Almighty God, whose offspring they are: and though the observations contained in what has thus far formed our correspondence are not very extensive, yet they are still, I hope, of sufficient variety and value to stamp a deep conviction on your mind that Natural Religion is a subject of the highest moment to an intelligent being; that it should not be neglected; that it forms a source of the purest contemplation; and that it gives us the most exalted conceptions of the power, wisdom, and beneficence of the Deity. But if this be so, why is it, as respects the great mass of mankind, almost a dead letter? That it is So, cannot be denied. Where is it taught to them? From what chair is its study recommended? Is it considered by the learned, in general, as worthy of consideration? or is it in any way given to

those who would, from their sincere love of truth, consider it as invaluable ?

It may be said, indeed, that there have always been writers on Natural Theology. Cicero, for example; and, in England, Ray, Derham, Paley, and others. This is very true; and I wish the number of writers on it had been tenfold greater than it has; but, still, natural theology never has been taught to the people in any country, nor pains been taken to raise it to the elevation it deserves; on the contrary, indeed, superstition, ignorance, and motives of self-interest, are ever active in disparaging and suppressing To children, especially, I consider that we act with the greatest injustice; for they almost all are eager for a knowledge of the productions of nature; and the fund of information which might be imparted to them, combined with impressive illustrations of the power and goodness of their God, could not fail, whatever religious tenets they might be brought up in, to have a beneficial effect on all their future life.

it.

For communicating a knowledge of natural history to youth, much might be accomplished by attaching to seminaries of education, collections of specimens from the different kingdoms of nature, and employing works on natural history among the regular school books. The

Menageries, Insect Architecture, Insect Transformations, Vegetable Substances, and those volumes on similar subjects, in the "Library of Entertaining Knowledge,” are admirably adapted for somewhat advanced scholars, whether boys or girls. A microscope also, as has been recommended by the highly talented editor of the Magazine of Natural History, &c. Mr. Loudon, should form an indispensable requisite of every boarding school; and the scholars, not mere children, should each possess a magnifying glass for examining small objects, especially minute flowers. One great object, however, in all these places, would be, that the teachers should cultivate in themselves a taste for natural history, as that would give them the means of imparting a knowledge of it in many ways to their pupils. But now comes the bugbear question, which is so often the fertile source of hinderance to improvement" Will it not take them off their other concerns?" I answer, No. My friend, the Reverend R. J. Bryce, principal of the Belfast Academy, and his brother, James Bryce, Esq., who for some time have had a collection attached to their excellent place of education, have satisfactorily proved this, by showing how the thing works in actual practice; as the following letter, which, at my request, those gentlemen

have been kind enough to furnish me with, will

fully explain :

"Belfast, 30th August, 1830.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"I have great pleasure in giving you, according to your request, a statement of the circumstances connected with the introduction of natural history as a regular part of the course of elementary education given in this seminary.

“The academy, as you are aware, consists of а number of distinct schools, each superintended by a master, who gives his whole attention to his own department, and receives the whole of the profits arising from it; and it is the duty of the principal to see that each master conducts his school with diligence, and on a judicious plan. Several attempts had been made to introduce the physical sciences into the mathematical school, but with little success. A few of the advanced pupils were occasionally taught the elements of natural philosophy and of chemistry, but there was very little demand for such instruction. At length, in the summer of 1828, my brother, who, on my appointment to the head of the academy in 1826, had succeeded me in the charge of the mathematical school, fortunately thought of adding mineralogy and