HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 109 



value is increased by an appendix, containing catalogues of the rarer 

 lepidopterous insects found in Worcestershire, and of the most remark- 

 able and interesting plants indigenous to the county, with their habitats. 

 To these is added a list of the mineral productions of Worcestershire, 

 with an account of their economical uses. 



The museum of the Natural History Society is already enriched with 

 several valuable specimens, the gifts, for the most part, of individuals 

 residing in the city or in the neighbourhood : the specimens are zoological, 

 botanical, geological, and mineralogical, and their number is continually 

 increasing. The formation of a library has been commenced, and com- 

 mittees are already actively engaged in arranging the specimens, and in 

 surveying the botanical and geological characters of the most interesting 

 districts of the county, including the Malvern range, the Pensax coal- 

 field, the lias and oolite series of Bredon hill and its vicinity, and the 

 gravel at Cropthorne, in which remains of the hippopotamus were recently 

 found, which have been presented to the society. Lectures have also 

 been delivered on several subjects, and several communications and 

 papers have been received on different branches of Natural History. 

 Lastly, such liberal donations have been made to the funds of the society 

 as to encourage a reasonable hope that a suitable building will be 

 eventually erected, worthy of the design of the institution, and of the 

 liberal city in which it has been founded. 



The satisfaction with which the progress of such an establishment 

 may be viewed is indeed unmixed. No honour can be greater to a com- 

 munity than that of giving it encouragement, nor any praise more pure 

 and unfading than that merited by advocating its cause with the energy, 

 ability, and eloquence which distinguishes every page of Dr. Hastings's 

 most valuable lecture. 



We have spoken of Natural History with a confident belief in its 

 utility as well as its manifold attractions, and to enforce the opinion at 

 which we have already hinted, that its study is as much a duty as a 

 pleasure, we shall conclude this notice by quoting an authority which in 

 matters of this kind is second to none. 



*' Wherefore, to conclude this part," says Lord Bacon, speaking of the 

 dignity and value of knowledge, ** let it be observed, that there be two 

 principal duties and services, besides ornament and illustration, which 

 philosophy and human learning do perform to faith and religion. The 

 one, because they are an eftectual inducement to the exaltation of the 

 glory of God. For as the psalms and other scriptures do often invite us 

 to consider and magnify the great and wonderful works of God ; so if 

 we should rest only in the contemplation of the exterior of them, as they 

 first offer themselves to our senses, we should do alike injury to the 

 majesty of God, as if we should judge or construe of the store of some 

 excellent jeweller, by that only which is set out toward the street in his 

 shop. The other, because they minister a singular help and preservation 

 against unbelief and error : for our Saviour saith, you err, not knowing 

 the scriptures, nor the power of God : laying before us two books or 

 volumes to study, if we will be secured from error : first, the scriptures, 

 revealing the will of God j and then the creatures, expressing his power : 

 whereof the latter is a key unto the former j not only opening our under- 

 standing to conceive the true sense of the scriptures, by the general 

 notions of reason and rules of speech ; but chiefly opening our belief, in 

 drawing us into a due meditation of the omnipotency of God, which is chiefly 

 signed and engraven on his works." 



NO. II. 



