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he extended to the Club and its friends on the occasion of its first 

 meeting in the Normal School. The Club is welcome for two reasons : — 

 First, because its work is part and parcel of the great work of aducaiion, 

 to which this institution is dedicated ; secondly, because of the fact 

 that many members of the staffs of the Normal and Model Schools, are 

 active members of the Club; and the Normal Schonl students — to 

 their profit and pleasure — are made welcome to the lectures and 

 excursions. 



The Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club is one of those working bodies 

 of Scientists, who in the language of Shakespeare, find "tongues in 

 trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in 

 everything." 



The study of natural science when prosecuted aright, cannot fail 

 to be productive of immense benefit during all the future career of the 

 student. It communicates knowledge of great practical value in almost 

 every sphere and pursuit of life. It has been well said : — " It will not 

 be ditificult to show that almost every new.<?.nd valuable invention, from 

 the spinning-jenny to the telephone, which has increased the control 

 of man over nature, economised his time, or added to his comfort, is 

 the product of scientific knowledge, and often ot experiments and 

 researches which had, at first, no merely utilitarian purpose, buf- were 

 undertaken with the sole and simple object of discovering the secrets 

 of nature^ and of revealing truth. And there is not a single lesson by 

 m>ians of which you can convey to a learner a strong interest in any 

 one depaitment of physical science, which may not develop itself, as it 

 works and germinates in his mind, into results and discoveries of 

 unexpected value, and add enormously to the resources and to the 

 enjoyments of mankind. 



And, if the study of Natural Science is of inconceivable value in 

 all the practical pursuits of life, it is equally advantageous, in the dis- 

 ciplining of mind. Prof. Huxley, in a lecture on scientific education, 

 puts the matter clearly, thus : — " If scientific training is to yield its most 

 eminent results, it must be practical — that is to say, in explaining to a 

 learner the general phenomena of nature you must, as far as possible, 

 give reality to your teaching, by object lessons. In teaching him 



