For natural history stands to man's power over Nature, that is, to
his power of being useful to himself and to mankind, in the same
relation as do geography, grammar, arithmetic, geometry, political
economy; none of them, perhaps, bearing directly on his future
business in life; but all training his mind for his business, all
giving him the rudiments of laws which he will hereafter work out
and apply to his profession. And even at home, be sure that such
studies will bear fruit in after life. The productive wealth of
England is not exhausted, doubt it not; our grandchildren may find
treasures in this our noble island of which we never dreamed, even
as we have found things of which our forefathers dreamed not.
Recollect always that a great market town like this is not merely a
commercial centre; not perhaps even a commercial centre at all: but
that she is an agricultural centre, and one of the most important in
England; that the increase of science here will be sure more or less
to extend itself to the neighbourhood: and then lay to heart this
one fact. A friend of mine, and one whom I am proud to call my
friend, succeeding to an estate, thought good to cultivate it
himself. And being a man of common sense, he thought good to know
something of what he was doing. And he said to himself: The soil,
and the rain, and the air are my raw materials.
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