14 



round Woolhope. I cannot forbear the remark, that the names of 

 those friends, whose premature departure we have so much reason 

 to deplore, are associated in the record of this discovery.* 



Few organics have yet been collected from the old red aandstone 

 of Herefordshire, in comparison with what have been found in 

 Scotland and elsewhere. I have not heard that the railway cuttings 

 have produced a single specimen; but there are many localities 

 trhere they have been found, and which have hitherto been scarcely 

 examined. The detritus and gravel, of daily increasing interest, 

 will be found a rich and productive field. The nature and distri- 

 bution of soils and vegetables naturally invite our examination, and 

 •We trust will be followed up by some of our members who have 

 already, in the previous year, shown themselves not unequal to the 

 task, and who will thereby be enabled to vindicate the study of 

 batural history, to the " cui bono" enquirer. There is, however, a 

 higher view, which we must not lose sight of. Endowed with 

 teason, man is called on all sides to the contemplation of God's 

 works, and, enlightened by God's grace, to the study of His word. 

 In one he sees the manifestation of Almighty power and wisdom ; 

 and in the other of Divinedove and mercy to mankind. In the words 

 of Professor Sedgwick, to whom I have been privileged to listen as 

 a master, in his delightful book on the Studies of the University 

 of Cambridge ; — " The studies of mankind have sometimes been 

 divided into natural, moral, and religious. Each branch requires 

 its appropriate training, and yields its own peculiar fruit. A study 

 of the natural world teaches not the truths of revealed religion ; 

 Bor do the truths of religion inform us of the inductions of physical 

 science. Hence it is that men whose studies are confined to one 

 branch of knowledge, often learn to overrate themselves, and so 

 become narrow-minded. Bigotry is a besetting sin of our nature. 

 Too often it has been the attendant of religious zeal, but it is most 

 bitter and unsparing when found with the irreligious. A philoso- 

 pher, understanding not one atom of their spirit, will sometimes 

 Scoff at the labours of religious men ; and one who calls himself 

 religious will, perhaps, turn a like harsh judgment, and thank God 



* See a paper on the protruded mass of the upper Ludlow rocks at Hagley 

 t'ark, Herefordshire, by Hugh E. Strickland, Esq., F.K.S., &c., in the Quar- 

 terly Journal of the Geolc^ical Society of London, November, 1863. 



