1855.] Linnean Society. 389 



In considering the means by which the study of Natural History 

 may be most extensively and effectually advanced, it is impossible 

 not to turn with the most anxious anticipations to our great seats of 

 learning, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It is not for 

 me to criticise the course of education, which, established by the 

 wisdom of our ancestors and hallowed by the long list of great men 

 whom it has formed, has been corrected and expanded by successive 

 ages of accumulative experience, and accommodated, in some degree 

 at least, to the spread of knowledge and the increasing requirements 

 of advanced civilization. Nor am I disposed to join in the cry which 

 has been got up against the great importance which is attached to 

 the study of the exact sciences in the one, or to the acquisition of 

 classical literature in the other. The severe mental discipline and 

 logical exactitude ensured by the former, and the essential applica- 

 tion of the course of study involved in it to astronomical and physical 

 science, are considerations so important as scarcely to admit of an 

 over-estimate ; and, on the other hand, amidst many minor though 

 very material advantages derived from the critical study of classical 

 literature, it must never be forgotten that upon it depends the 

 permanent preservation, in their purity and integrity, of the " ipsis- 

 sima verba" of the Holy Scriptures. Far be it then from us to 

 depreciate the graver studies which have so long been identified with 

 those great schools, whilst we claim and earnestly demand some 

 degree of their patronage, for those not less interesting and scarcely 

 less important pursuits, to which our attention is especially directed. 



One of the most important and delightful objects in connection 

 with the spread of natural knowledge, is the genial and elevating 

 effect which an acquaintance with natural phaenomena must produce 

 upon the heart and intellect of a population so generally addicted 

 as ours to the drudgery of business, and so subject to the narrowing 

 influence which its exclusive pursuit is calculated to exercise on the 

 mind. And this is not less applicable to the rich than to the poor — 

 to the merchant or the manufacturer who counts his wealth by 

 hundreds of thousands, than to the humble labourer the sweat of 

 whose brow procures his daily pittance. But where are we to look 

 for the sources from whence this blessing to the common mind of 

 our country is to flow ? Where but to the higher and influential 

 classes of society, whose example as well as patronage seems to be 

 necessary to any wide and systematic extension of this unspeakable 

 good. And yet how few comparatively of the nobility, the landed 

 gentry, the wealthy merchants or manufactui'ers, on whom the masses 

 are mostly dependent, possess even the most superficial acquaintance 



