PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 309 



with which the mind is engaged ; and thus expresses the benefit to 

 be derived from even the most casual observation : — " It is known 

 only to the lover of Nature how moral and social a tone even the 

 most cursory contemplation of her works is calculated to impart to 

 the mind and to the heart. In the busy scenes of life our feelings 

 are too often embittered and our passions excited by collision with 

 our fellow men and by the very weight of material existence : but 

 one look upon the smiling landscape, one glance at the glowing sky, 

 dispels the gloom and infuses its sunshine into the breast. We see 

 the great parent of all, who is kind to all, for he maketh his sun to 

 rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 

 on the unjust. We catch something of this divine spirit, our pas- 

 sions are assuaged, our hearts are softened, our sympathies are awa- 

 kened ; we return into the world and are irresistibly impelled to 

 hold out the hand of reconciliation to an offending brother, and to 

 extend to universal creation the sacred sentiments of charity and 

 love." After some farther reflections, and a noble passage from a 

 work of Linneus, expressive of his unbounded admiration of the 

 works of God, but his consciousness of deep personal humiliation 

 and abasement in their contemplation, the lecturer thus concluded 

 his subject : — '-'We see, then, all that are illustrious for their genius 

 and venerable for their worth unite in contemplating the Deity 

 through the works of his hands, and, from hearts overflowing with 

 devotion, in offering their unbounded and imperfect tribute of gra 

 titude and praise. It is, indeed, a subject calculated to call forth 

 every expression of the tongue, to elevate the intellect to its proud- 

 est summit, and yet to overwhelm it with the immensity and gran- 

 deur of the considerations which it involves. If the mind thus 

 shrinks within itself, if the eye can scarcely view the present un- 

 moved, what will support us in that awful hour when the earth 

 shall rock from her deep foundations, when the heavens shall be 

 rolled together like a scroll, when the sun shall be extinguished in 

 eternal darkness, when Nature herself shall perish, and the soul 

 shall survive ihe general wreck, and the spirit shall return to God 

 who gave it ? What, then, shall be our trust, when the present 

 shall yield to the future, and prophecy be swallowed up in its own 

 completion? Faith, strengthened by the contemplation of the 

 works of God, and built upon the rock of his revelation — hope, 

 cheered by his visible goodness and perfected by his gracious pro- 

 mises. These will not forsake us when Nature herself shall fail — 

 these will sustain the shock of a dissolving universe, and support us 

 in the presence of that stupendous Being who was, and is, and is to 

 come. Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundations of 

 the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands ; they shall 

 perish, but thou remainest ; and they all shall wax old as doth a 

 garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall 

 be changed ; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.'' 



The fourth anniversary of the Society was held at the 3Iuseum on 

 the 24th of May, the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Worcester in 



