MB. DONALDSON SELBY's ADDEESS. 269 



be better adapted for youth ? The chief aim of a great part 

 of education is no other than what I have mentioned. To 

 train the youthful mind to thought and observation is, or 

 ought to be, the great object of all education ; and by what 

 process can this be more effectually accomplished than by the 

 study of Natural Philosophy, and the contemplation of the 

 beautiful economy of Nature ? 



In Sweden, Natural History is the study of the schools, by 

 which men rise to preferment, and there are no people with 

 more acute and better regulated minds than the Swedes. 

 That our youth should have their minds so trained and di- 

 rected, at our Schools and great universities, would, in my 

 opinion, be a most desirable addition to the course of study 

 generally pursued at such seats of learning. Such studies 

 are eminently calculated to withdraw the mind from the 

 gratifications of sense, and the inferior objects of human pur- 

 suits, and to invite it to the contemplation of the Supreme 

 and Eternal Cause. 



Although the additions to, and discoveries made by the 

 several members of the Club, in the Natural History of our 

 district, during the year of my Presidency, are neither few 

 nor unimportant, I would impress ujjon them the necessity 

 and propriety of greater exertions in the former, as well as 

 in the department of Archaiology, and the antiquities of 

 Berwickshire and Northumberland, in which latter depart- 

 ment, we have been of late singularly deficient, notwithstand- 

 ing the many opportunities which those counties afford for 

 these researches. 



In conclusion, I would insist upon the great importance of 

 our pursuits and labours, both in a scientific and economical 

 point of view, tending as well to our individual advantage as 

 to that 01 our common country. 



I beg to apologise for the length at which I have thought 

 it my duty to address you, and most respectfully to vacate 

 the office which, by your favour, I have had the honour to 

 hold. 



