288 



LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 



WORCESTERSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



Lecture "On the Natural History of Man," delivered by Jolm 

 Conolly, M. D., at the Guildhall, Worcester, Tuesday, October 14. 



Dr. Conolly began by saying that the gratification of associating his namej 

 however slightly, vvith a Society which i-eflected much honour on the city of 

 Worcester, . and a deep conviction of the value even of the plainest lessons 

 drawn from the works of the Great Intelligence who had imparted to man the 

 power of observing them, but perhaps more than all the impulses of private 

 friendship with some of the most valued members of the Natural History 

 Society, had induced him to deliver the lecture, in compliance with the request 

 with which the Council had honoured him. He added, that well knowing how 

 many individuals this city could boast of who were better able to command and 

 to reward the attention of such an audience, he should fear being accused of 

 much presumption in appearing before them, if the proofs by which he Was 

 surrounded, drawn from the Museum, of the progress which science was 

 making in this neighbourhood, had not removed such a discouraging feeling ; 

 being, as they were, so many indications of that love of elevated studies which 

 raises the mind above the littleness of unkind criticism. When, he observed, 

 the infancy of the Worcester Museum was considered, and the progress that 

 had been made in it, the collections were calculated to surprise as much as to 

 delight all who saw with satisfaction the means of securing mental pleasures 

 accumulating on every side. These collections included the gifts of several 

 munificent donors, many of whom were not only distinguished by station, but 

 adorned that station by their taste and extensive acquirements. The labours 

 of the officers of the Society, he remarked, were. attested by what had been 

 done ; and he knew that he should need no apology if he said of one of them, 

 (Dr. Hastings,) whose recent Illustrations of the Natural History of Worces- 

 tershire had set such an example to other counties, that it made him, (Dr. C.,) 

 proud of the profession to which he belonged, to see one who so early attained 

 distinction in it, using the influence that distinction had jtistly given him for 

 the continual |)romotion of the most enlightened objects. This was, indeed, 

 what made distinction desirable : it was that power of doing good which was 

 the only true and lawful end of ambition. 



The lecturer introduced the proper subject of his lecture by the following 

 passages. 



*' The subject which I have selected for the present occasion, is one to 

 which my profession has, of course, often drawn my attention ; and it seems 

 to me to possess no small degree of interest for students of every description. 

 We are all more or less students of human habits and character. VVe are all 

 more or less occupied with the never-ending study of our own unfathomable 

 nature. We behold the Avorld peopled with beings diverse in appearance, but 

 acknowledging the same senses, affections, passions, and mental movements as 

 Ourselves ; helpless in childhood, slowly matured, disciplined by events, 

 improved by observation and knowledge, and yet destined to inevitable decay. 

 Links between the past and the future, between the generation which we are 

 following and that which is succeeding us, we have yet time to behold the 

 earth and the sea, and their countless productions ; to measure the distances, 

 motions, and amazing magnitude of some of the stars : we can discover 

 some of the physical laws which govern the things that surround us, and which 

 laws we ourselves obey. But of all that we behold, no object seems more 

 worthy of our curious study than human beings themselves, whose greater 

 intelligence, whose memory and undying consciousness, whose instinctive 

 aspiration after something beyond this ' dim spot which we call earth,' mark 



