reported the steps which liad been taken with regard to the publication of the 

 Mappa Mundi. 



Having glanced at what we have done or attempted to do, I may add a few 

 words as to what are and ought to be the objects of a society such as ours. I would 

 say in the first place, that we do not aspire to enlighten the world at large, or even 

 as the first object to advance science. If in the course of our work we can add a 

 grain here and there to the ever-acoiimulating mass of human knowledge, it is 

 well ; but do not let us regard that as our object, which I take to be, in the first 

 place, the increasing our own knowledge by mutual instruction, and secondly, 

 encouraging like pursuits in those with whom we are brought in contact. It is 

 one at least of the great objects of man's life to cultivate and develope all his 

 powers, and not to narrow and dwarf his mind by too close an adherence to a 

 single pursuit, or the cultivation of one branch of knowledge. What a field 

 the study of natural objects affords for the cultivation and development of 

 these powers. Professor Gairdner who joined us in one of our excursions, in 

 speaking in a recent address of the study of Natural History, says : "It trains 

 at once the mind and the senses, and through the most wholesome and delightful 

 observations of detail it leads up to the most profound generalizations and the 

 most far reaching theories." Another good observer. Dr. Acland says: "I have 

 known some narrow minded naturalists and scientific men, but I never knew 

 a working man in any profession who superadding a branch of natural history to 

 his real work, was either narrow or self sufficient." If the study of natural 

 objects is so valuable to the busy, and to the active mind which seeks relaxation 

 in change of pursuit, what a boon it is or ought to be to the idle who scarcely 

 know how to pass the tedious hours. To those, too, who find their chief plea- 

 sure in the active pursuits and amusements of country life, it would add mental 

 enjoyment to the pleasures of physical existence. 



The power or habit of accurate observation is painfully rare, and I know of 

 no better means of cultivating this power than the pursuit of natural history. 

 It would be curious, and I fear humiliating, if it could be ascertained how many 

 people, say in a county or town, believe in the last toad which has been discovered 

 in coal or some equally credible marvel, people who would consider the story of 

 the sleeping beaxity in the enchanted castle as fit only for the nursery. Part of 

 this credulity arises no doubt from want of knowledge, say of the age of coal, 

 and of the phenomena of life which cannot be carried on without change, but 

 a great deal of it arises from not giving adequate importance to accurate observa- 

 tion, good faith in the observer being considered sufficient. It has been well 

 observed that a man can see no more than he knows. Not only does knowledge 

 enable us to see more but to see with greater pleasure. He who looks on the sun 

 or moon merely as soiirces of light and heat cannot appreciate creation so well 

 as he who knows the movements of these bodies, and so far as our knowledge 

 goes their structure and composition, and much as we admired a blue sky before, 

 is our admiration not of a higher kind now that the recent researches of Pro- 



