52 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Feb.- 



on former occasions, you will sympatliize with our pursuits and 

 enjoy the entertainment which we have provided. I have no doubt 

 that many of you regard us as very simple though harmless enthu- 

 siasts, pleased with a butterfly or a flower, delighted with a new 

 shell or coral, going into ecstacies over the discovery of some un- 

 heard-of worm or microscopic animalcule smaller than a grain of 

 dust. But admitting all this, and that our pursuits may not be 

 worthy of comparison with the grave and weighty matters which 

 engage your attention, we have still something to say for ourselves.. 

 If enthusiasts, we are not selfish ; indeed I may say that we are 

 somewhat amiable. A great authority in such matters has said 

 that a true naturalist is never an ill-natured man ; and we show 

 our good nature by gathering here all our precious treasures, and 

 exposing them to your inspection, and by providing in our Museum 

 a refuge for every destitute specimen, that might otherwise go to 

 waste or be neglected in some obscure corner. Indeed, I fear that 

 we sometimes carry this to an extreme, and even render ourselves 

 troublesome by insisting that you should look through our micro- 

 scopes or examine our choice specimens, when you would rather be 

 engaged about something else. We further, in these artificial 

 days, keep up a testimony in behalf of nature. We maintain its 

 pre-eminent loveliness, standing up for the lily of the field, even 

 against all the glory of modern art. We invite attention to the 

 plan and order, to the design and contrivance, which exist in na- 

 ture, and thus do what little we can to magnify the works of God. 

 Further, we are always ready to inform you as to any little practi- 

 cal matter that lies in our way. If you are puzzled by any strange 

 bird or beast, or by any unaccountable phenomenon in air or earth, 

 we are always ready to do our best to explain it. If any imperti- 

 nent insect or fungus ravages your farm, garden, or orchard, we 

 can tell you all about its habits, and how to get rid of it. We can, 

 with the aid of our friends of the Geological Survey, inform you 

 as to the mineral resources of the country, and can guard you 

 against that perversion of mining enterprise, whereby some simple 

 persons contrive to bury their money under ground without any 

 rational hope of ever extracting it again. Besides all this, in our 

 lectures, our monthly meetings, our published proceedings, and our 

 museum, we^ provide you with many sources of pleasing and 

 profitable recreation. Doing all this and more, in a quiet unobtru- 

 sive way, we think ourselves entitled to ask your kind counte- 



