Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/26

 xx One idea is indeed worthy to mix in the pure contemplation of Nature, the anticipation of the pleasure we may have to bestow in kindred minds with our own, in sharing with them our discoveries and our acquisitions. This is truly an object worthy of a good man, the pleasure of communicating virtuous disinterested pleasure to those who have the same tastes with ourselves; or of guiding young ingenuous minds to worthy pursuits, and facilitating their acquisition of what we have already obtained. If honours and respectful consideration reward such motives, they flow from a pure source. The giver and the receiver are alike invulnerable, as well as inaccessible, to "envy jealousy or rivalship," and may pardon their attacks without an effort.

The natural history of animals, in many respects even more interesting than botany to man as an animated being, and more