PROCEEDINGS OF PROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 307 



WORCESTERSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



The autumnal course of lectures of this Institution was opened 

 by Dr. ConoJly on the 4th of October. The learned physician 

 commenced his lecture as follows : — " Addressing you in this new 

 and elegant building, of which, when I was last here, I saw 

 but the foundations laid, but which I have now the gratifica- 

 tion to find advancing fast to completion, and consecrated to 

 the noble purpose of promoting the great science of Natural His- 

 tory ; — surrounded, as I am, by specimens of the amazing varieties 

 of forms contained in the section of the universe to which our facul- 

 ties are limited, and with which our physical existence is associated ; 

 looking upon this scene, and upon these collections, so characteristic 

 of an age of earnest and wide inquiry, in which philosophy, 

 divested of vain aspirations, is brought from the clouds, dwells 

 among men, and questions nature with diligence but without pre- 

 sumption ; I cannot but reflect that the social institutions of each 

 age are the durable monuments of its tendency and character ; that 

 they enable us to see the direction given, at any specific period, to 

 the exertions of human intellect and human feelings. 



" I recal to memory that in remote times they do but speak to us 

 of the power exercised by the instructed few over ignorant masses 

 of the people, and seldom for useful or imperishable ends ; and I 

 contemplate with unspeakable satisfaction the more generous spec- 

 tacle exhibited by the institutions of our own day, in which, neg- 

 lected no longer, no longer consigned to all the miserable conse- 

 quences of mental darkness, all ranks of society may be beheld, 

 awakening from the sleep of ages, and exercising the highest facul- 

 ties which the bounty of God has imparted to them, to produce ef- 

 fects conformable to his large benevolence. 



a The remains of this age, the monuments on which the minds of 

 posterity will most gratefully dwell, will surely be the memory of 

 these and other great institutions of knowledge ; institutions not 

 surrounded by the splendour reflected from arts of hostility and 

 wide destruction, but adorned by the serener glories arising from 

 the steady improvement of communities, for the ultimate good of 

 all. 



" If I ever evinced any zeal in the cause of Natural History So- 

 cieties — if on this spot I feel that zeal warmed and increased — it is 

 not that I set an exclusive value on the dazzling collections which 

 they furnish opportunities for displaying, but that I feel satisfied 

 that such societies are really subservient to the highest efforts of 

 the best and most enlightened minds for the improvement of society 

 in general." 



After giving a brief sketch of the progress of Natural History, 

 and making some remarks on the encouragement at present given 

 to its pursuit, Dr. C. made several observations on the formation 

 and constitution of Natural History Societies, some of which we 

 quote : — f*. The Society which I have now the honour to address 



