13 



the most extensively beneficial of all the discoveries of the 

 present age. The same habits of thought, which at one time 

 were employed in watching the instincts of the cuckoo,* at 

 another, seized upon the preventive power of vaccination, 

 and introduced into the world a practice by which the lives 

 of millions have been saved. 



Of still higher importance than any thing which has yet 

 been mentioned, is the moral effect which arises from inves- 

 tigating the laws and meditating upon the works of nature. 

 To trace the hand of creative wisdom, whether manifested in 

 its sublimest operations, or in the most minute contrivances 

 for the smallest objects of its care, has a tendency, beyond 

 all other occupations, to elevate the mind of man. And if 

 improvement be the true standard of utility, what can be 

 more improving, and therefore what more useful, than those 

 studies which have furnished such various and striking illus- 

 trations of the most momentous of all truths ? , Associated 

 together with undivided sentiments, in contemplating subjects 

 at once so edifying and attractive, we meet one another in 

 an instructive and harmonious intercourse ; and science, with 

 a secret moral charm, allays the animosity of parties, and 

 •pours a friendly feeling over the most discordant minds. 

 !() .iiK» gtni «(,tvl b«iJ giiillfiv 



Impressed with these considerations, the Council have not 

 scrupled to urge the claims of the Institution as strongly as 



' Seethe Memoir — "On the natural history of the cuckoo, by Mr. Edward 

 Jenner:" Phil, Transactions, (1788,) vol 78, p. 219.— or, Phil. Trans, abridged 

 by Hutton, &c. vol. 16, p, 432. >.^„«..^ ti 



