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acquired their knowledge ot nature in the hours that others wasted or 

 worse than waste. 



I often grieve to think of the hundreds of young men and women 

 in tliis city who aimlessly walk our streets because " they have nothing 

 else to do." To all such I say, turn over a new leaf and join the Field 

 Naturalists' Club. You have no idaa how much happier and healtliier 

 you will be if you earnestly devote yourself to the study of some branch 

 of natural history ; and you caiuiot fail to learn one of the nio^t valu- 

 able lessons liow to use your eyes, how to observe and compare. 

 You have no concei)tion of how much of the beauty of this lovely 

 world of ours is lost to you because you don't know how to use your 

 faculties. In conclusion let me quote from an essay on *' How to 

 Study Botany" by our member, Dr. T. J. W. Burgess, F.R.S.C., of 

 London, Ont. In speaking of the study of botany as a means of 

 teaching ns how to observe and compare, he says : " Do this honestly, 

 and you cannot fail to become lovers of nature, and, being lovers of 

 nature, better and hapi)ier men and women, men and women in some 

 degree approaching that illustrious scientist of whom it was said : 



" And Nature, the old nurse, took 

 The child upon her knee. 

 Saying : ' Here is a stoiy book 

 Thv Father has written for Thee.' 



* Come, wander with me,' she said, 



' Into regions yet untroJ, 

 And read what is still unread 



In the manuscripts of God.' 



" And he wandered away and away 

 With Nature, the dear old nurse, 



Who sang to him niglit and day 

 The rhymes of the universe." 



"And whenever the way seemed long, 



Or his heart began to fail. 

 She would sing a more wonderful song 



Or tell a more marvellous tale." 



