MAEINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 17 



for example, that the art of government was a good deal simpler, whilst the 

 Socialists of that time had estal)lished a perfect Commnnism ; and thougli 

 they had no ideas of property, they were free from all those difficnlties to 

 which property unfortunately gives rise. (Laughter and applause). They 

 must, nevertlieless, have succeeded in estahlishing a fixity of tenure. (Re- 

 newed laughter and a[tplause). Perhaps, in view of the heated atmosphere 

 of this room, it might also have heen some satisfaction to reflect, that in those 

 days there were not the ordeals of public luncheons, or, at any rate, if there 

 were public luncheons, the fare was a good deal more frugal, and a good deal 

 more wholesome than that which we have partaken of to-day. (Laughter and 

 applause). In flict, Mr. Chairman, I have often thought myself that there 

 was a great deal to be said for that view which Miss Kendall has so admirably 

 expressed in •' The Lay of the Trilobite." I should think that every biolo- 

 gist ought to be acquainted with that poem. One of the inferior members of 

 the human family was walking across a mountain, I may remind you, when 

 he came upon an ancient Trilobite, upon his rocky bed, and the Trilobite, if 

 I may quote the lines, addressed him in some such words as these. He 

 reminded him 

 " How all your faiths are ghosts and dreams, how in the silent sea 



Your ancestors were monotremes, whatever these may be. 



You've politics to make you fight, and utter exclamations ; 



You've cannon, too, and dynamite, to civilise the nations. 



The side that makes the loudest din is surest to be right ; 



And Oh ! a pretty fix you're in, remarked the Trilobite."* 

 And if you recollect, the man, being somewhat of a philosoi)her, takes off his 

 hat to the Trilobite and walks away, and as he goes away, utters some such 

 words as these :— 



" I wish our brains were not so good, I wish our skulls were thicker, 

 I wish that Evolution could have stopped a little quicker ; 

 For, Oh ! it was a happy plight, of liberty and ease, 

 To be a simple Trilobite in the Silurian seas." (Loud applause). 



Sir James Poole gave "The health of the Bishop of Sodor and Man," and 

 the Bishop, in reply, said in the course of an interesting speech, that the 

 scientist and the theologian should go hand in hand (applause.) He v.-elcomed 

 the Biological Committee to the island , in the name of religion, and of the 

 Church of England, and he hojjed that ere long he would have the pleasure of 

 welcoming the Members to Bishop's Court, as he now welcomed the cause they 

 represented. 



Mr. A. 0. Walker, J.P., proposed "The Legislature of the Isle of i\ran," 

 which was responded to by Mr. W. A. Stevenson, H.K. 



* "Dreams to Sell," by May Kendall : London, 1887, p. 8, slightly altered. 



