vii 



the pursuits of a Club of Naturalists. Gentlemen, I stood aghast. 

 I did not think that there had been one of our members so igno- 

 rant of the principles of a Naturalist's Club as not to recognize 

 the fact that even all art is only founded on nature that nature 

 must be the base of operations in art and that, therefore, the 

 studies of a naturalist comprehend all possible studies. 



On this view, forgive me if I touch for a few minutes on those 

 studies which have of late called my attention from the pursuits 

 which more commonly bear the name of nature, but whicn I find 

 so cognate that I constantly trace how the thoughts on the one 

 subject have fitted me for action on the other. 



You, gentlemen, know the work on which I have been engaged, 

 and which I have closely watched for some years. I will not 

 attempt to give you an account of the spread of Reformatory 

 Schools throughout England, (still less of their immediately ex- 

 pected rise in Ireland, Scotland, and Jamaica,) but I will simply 

 state, as a matter, hard indeed to be believed without examination, 

 but of which the hope appears more strong the eloper we search 

 into it, that so fast and so surely is Juvenile Crime decreasing, 

 in all places where the Reformatory System, as it is usually called, 

 has a fair trial, I have great hooe and trust that by Christmas, 

 1859, all, even the large cities of England, with the exception only 

 of London, will be cleared of all regular habitual premeditating 

 thieves under sixteen years of age ; and if this be the case, I have 

 no doubt that three years more will clear London. I grant that 

 this appears so wild a hope as to be classed with impossibilities. 

 What of that ? Is it more impossible than the electric telegraph 

 was twenty years ago ? or than railroads were thirty-five years 

 since ? 



No, my friends when we have completed our studies, when we 

 have worked out all the laws of nature, and can put definite 

 bounds to them all then may we be justified in saying that a 

 thing is impossible but, at present, so far is this from being the 

 case, that the greatest glory and charm of our studies of nature 

 consist in the fact that, deeply as we may search, and far as we 

 may see, any increase of our knowledge only enables us to see 

 more clearly the existence of farther fields beyond us, and thus 

 proves the eternal truth of our studies, by shewing that they are 

 blended with the Infinite. 



