The philosophical study of nature endeavors, in the the vicissitudes of phenomena, to connect the present with the past.
Nature can be so soothing to the tormented mind
This aspect of animated nature, in which man is nothing, has something in it strange and sad....Here, in a fertile country, adorned with eternal verdure, we seek in vain the traces of the power of man...
I could not possibly have been placed in circumstances more highly favorable for study and exploration than those which I now enjoy. I am free from the distractions constantly arising in civilized lif...