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part of a liberal education, and to know the best means of imparting 

 the same to those with whom they are brought in contact. To all such, 

 both of those who are here to attend the winter session, and those who 

 are present during the earlier part of the year, we can say most confi- 

 dently that an attendance at the regular lectures of the winter courses, 

 or at the regular outings of the summer and autumn, which may be 

 said to extend from the 1st May to the 1st of November, will be time 

 most profitably spent, and bs productive, in most cases, of far better 

 and higher results to those engaged m the work of teacliing than the 

 same time devoted to the study of some prosy text book. In this 

 way, too, by opening some hitherto unexplored pathway among 

 Nature's choicest treasures, and by awakening in the mind some new 

 and hitherto unexpressed desire for a further and broader acquaintance 

 with some of the more varied forms of matter, such a plan will, it 

 is safe to say, tend to kindle the higher and nobler part of our natures 

 and enhance our capacities for enjoyment tenfold. True it is that all 

 dispositions do not regard the study of the natural sciences with the 

 sanin feeling of delight. To some there is, unfortunately, no enjoyment 

 in the contemplation of the beauty presented in the unfolding rose, or 

 in the flight of the delicately tinted butterfly. To some, also, the study 

 of the fossils embedded in the rock, or the contemplation of the wonders 

 seen on every hand, does not raise the mind to the consideration 

 of the grand* ur and condescension of that Master designer of the 

 universe that has fashioned all things with such wondrous art, and 

 created for man's enjoyment such wondrously beautiful things. But in 

 so far as the teaching portion of our community is concerned, I believe 

 there is no way by which those so engaged can exercise so beneficent an 

 influence on those entrusted to their care as by frequent short excur- 

 sions over the neighboring fields • by unfolding to them the beauties of 

 structure displayed in every opening flower, by showing the wonderful 

 convolutions of the many dainty shells which, though more rare than 

 the flower, can also be easily obtained, the increased necessity for closer 

 seai-ch, serving often but to enhance the pleasure of the discovery. 

 What, for instance, can be more interesting than to study the habits of 

 some of our most common insects, to watch the various evolutions of 

 our common ants, to note the gorgeous colors and graceful flight of som 



