42 DR JOHNSTON'S ADDRESS. 



in the gaiety of the infant swayed only by external influences, — in the 

 child's love of the daisy and the enamelled fields, — in the girl's haunt by 

 the primrose bank or rushy brook, — in the school-boy's truant steps by 

 briery brake or flowery shaw, by trouting streams or nutting wood, — in 

 the try sting tree and green lanes of love's age, — in the restless activity 

 that sends us adrift in search of the picturesque, — in the " London-pride" 

 of the citizen, — in the garden of retired leisure, — in the prize-flower 

 that lends its pride and interest to old age ! Yes, there is a preordained 

 and beneficial influence of external nature over the constitution and 

 mind of man which this Club fosters and encourages, and therein lies its 

 usefulness. After the walk of this day you will all, I feel assured, be 

 willing to assent to my conclusion ; for let us have come in whatever 

 mood the mind can assume, — grave or gay, — disposed for good or evil, — 

 I do not doubt the result — we have found good in every thing. The 

 landscape before and around us has been our teacher, and from the lesson 

 there was no escape ; for, doubtless, no cultivated mind could persevere 

 in its moodiness when for hours it has felt the impress of that beauty 

 which wooed it to peace, of that gratification and pleasure that entered 

 in through every sense and through the air we breathed and walked in. 

 Oh no ! we are all the better of these excursions, — they soothe or 

 soften or exhilarate the man, and raise him in his own estimation by 

 keeping awake his best feelings and laying asleep for a season those that 

 are of earth, earthy. May the Club live for ever ! and it seems to me 

 a matter of very little importance, whether we ever add a single item to 

 the account of Science. We are not regular dealers with her ; and any 

 dues she may claim for our birth and institution, we have hitherto an- 

 nually discharged as honest servitors. This year our gift is a good one, 

 for we have added to her Flora of our Island another beautiful plant, 

 the Maianthemum bifolium ; and to her Fauna, the finest species of Star- 

 fish that lives in our seas. 



Our last Anniversary Meeting was held at Lowick, September 28, 

 1842, and was thinly attended on account of some untoward events that 

 otherwise engaged the Members who were nearest the rendezvous ; and 

 this was much to be regretted ; for the address of the President was 

 really a good one, and, I am happy to state, has been favourably men- 

 tioned in those Journals which honour our proceedings with their no- 

 tice. In the ** Phytologist," in particular, large extracts from it have 

 been given ; and I have reason to know that these extracts have raised a 

 wish in other quarters to have clubs similar to our own in object and 

 conduct. The Members present at Lowick were — your President George 



