From Humphry Davy's Discourse 24-26

The study of nature, therefore, in her various operations must be always more or less connected with the love of the beautiful and sublime: and, in consequence of the extent and indefiniteness of the views it presents to us, it is eminently calculated to gratify and to keep alive the more powerful passions and ambitions of the soul; which, delighting in the anticipation of enjoyment is never satisfied with knowledge; and which is, as it were, nourished by futurity, and rendered strong by hope. . . . it may become a source of consolation and happiness, in those moments of solitude when the common actions and passions of the world are considered with indifference. It may destroy diseases of the imagination, owing to too deep a sensibility; and it may attach the affections to objects, permanent, important, and intimately related to the interests of the human species.