390 Natural History in the English Counties. 



Botany. A herbarium of the plants of Great Britain, and a distinct one 

 for a general collection. Specimens of seeds, gums, sections of woods, or 

 of any other miscellaneous articles, fossil as well as recent, which may tend 

 to illustrate the science. As often as possible, the habit of each specimen, 

 distinctly written, and the time at which it was gathered, must accompany it. 



Mineralogy and Geology. The minerals and geological specimens to be 

 methodically arranged ; and, as often as practicable, labelled with their 

 names, and the situations in which they were collected. 



At the first Meeting, an appropriate address, embracing the views of the 

 Society, and pointing out the motives which should stimulate the members 

 to exertion, was eloquently delivered by Mr. R. Detrosier. The interest of 

 the proceedings of the evening was further heightened by a beautiful dis- 

 play of recently cut specimens of plants. 



From the address of Mr. Detrosier, we cannot, though straitened for 

 room, resist the pleasure of making a few extracts. After stating the objects 

 of the Society, viz. mineralogy, geology, botany, and entomology ; and 

 answering the absurd objection that such pursuits are of little practical 

 utility, he exclaims: — 



" How striking is the difference between the man of intellect and the 

 mere sensualist, in the appropriation of their leisure hours ! The one in- 

 creases his means of happiness, and preserves his health, whilst the other 

 wastes his property, and hastens his death. One finds his greatest pleasure 

 * in holding sweet converse with the mighty dead ; ' in tracing over the 

 living sentiments of those mighty minds whose bodies have long since 

 mingled with the dust ; or in learning, with avidity and delight, the impos- 

 ing discoveries of modern times. The other passes over the surface of this 

 beauteous world, with eyes open indeed, but seeing not ; and with a mind 

 that seems incapable of performing any higher office than that of a mere 

 caterer for the body's wants. This difference of taste, which principally, 

 nay, I may say solely, arises from the difference in education, gives birth to 

 the distinguishing opposites,in conduct, of virtue and vice in various degrees. 

 Man, in a state of ignorance, becomes the dupe of artifice, the victim of 

 error, and is destroyed by the operation of those very causes which would, 

 under a proper discipline, become the principal administerers to his happi- 

 ness. His passions and his appetites, which, in a state of ignorance, are the 

 tempests that hurry his deluded bark to destruction, when properly directed 

 become the motives to good and great actions, as they are the true and only 

 sources of human pleasure. They are the elements of life; to destroy which 

 is out of our power, to attempt it criminal. It is perfectly within our 

 power, however, to subject them to the dictates of knowledge and expe- 

 rience, and thus to engage them in the cause of usefulness and virtue. They 

 have long since been engaged in the cause of vice. The ambition of a dog- 

 fighter or a pugilist differs only in its object from that which governed a 

 Caesar, a Cromwell, or a Bonaparte. It is precisely the same in its nature ; 

 and had it been directed to other and more worthy objects, might have 

 produced a Locke, a Milton, or a Franklin. Strong natural powers are the 

 sources of strong natural passions, which seek, as naturally as the eagle 

 seeks the sky, or rests him on the towering and lofty rock, objects calculated 

 to call forth the exertion of their energies, and on which they can rest with 

 self-satisfaction. They are the strong and restless spirits of the age, that 

 must be active in vice or virtue ; and that they have not been engaged in 

 the cause of the latter is the fault of circumstances rather than of them- 

 selves. Were the mental powers of the poor man properly cultivated in 

 youth, were his energies properly directed, and his pride engaged in the 

 love of that distinction which arises from the possession of knowledge, how 

 different would be the conduct of thousands who are lost to a sense of their 

 degraded situation, because they have never been elevated above it." 



Having shown, by a series of'^elucidations which we regret our limits pre- 



