ing our rare animals, flowers, bird?, and insects. 

 There seems to be something elevating in the 

 way the men of old approached Nature. 'I'hey did 

 not have Natural History exploited to them on a 

 fixed set of lines. They had their altars on the 

 hills, they worshipped the Creator in the open, and 

 they felt, as we should, that in learning Nature's 

 laws, we are grasping the thoughts which went to 

 the building up of the universe, for by so doing 

 we are affirming our own high calling as intelli- 

 gent beings. In this light every moment given 

 to the study of Nature means intellectusl and 

 moral gain. Somehow it seems to be the 

 son^ of the Beauty of Holiness which we shoiild 

 now hear, to help us to become saints, and if it 

 should at last be discovered that the Beauty of 

 Holiness and the Beauty of Nature are one, what 

 strength would return to us ? As it is, the reign ot 

 peace so confidently prophesied many years ago, 

 seems further off than ever, and man, through the 

 tendency of modern times to make things easy, 

 has ceased to think. Herbert Spencer, afrer 

 writing his delightful works, said he was placed at 

 a disadvantage in having to omit that part of the 

 system of Philosophy which deals with inorganic 

 evolution (two volumns are missing). I think, too, 

 it was he who said that the disagreements between 

 Religion and Science have throughout been 

 nothing more than the consequences of their 

 incompleteness. In our ontbok on the universe, 

 we gain some idea of the looseness, the constant 

 change and lack of permanence in all things. In 

 astronomy among the heavenly bodies, in 

 geology as regards the past history of the earth, 

 and more especially in biology, as concerns living 

 creatures, where instability is manifest. Now we 

 seem to be on the verge of seeing the same process 

 of evolution and development with inorganic 

 matter. Probably in time it will not be seventy or 

 more elements, but as the process of radio-activity 

 most strongly marked in radium and other bodies 

 which gradually breaks up into helium, so perhaps 

 some of us may live to see that all matter is liable 

 occasionally to get into an unstible condition and 

 form into other substances. Perhaps at length it 

 will be found that every form of matter, though 

 the substratum and basis is fixed and constant in 

 quantity, its mode of chemical and physical 

 manifestation is liable to change slowly into 

 different material forms and our seventy or more 



elements will be brought down in numbers, and' 

 it will be indeed interesting to watch the results 

 of this branch of science. 



Although we may attempt to look over the past 

 and into the mists of the future, etill as far as the 

 man himself is concerned with advancing years, 

 as his strength becomes less, he feels the less 

 necessity for exertion. Hope is gradually replaced 

 by memory, and whether this adds to his happi- 

 ness or not depends on what his life has been. 

 This seems to be the reason why old, learned 

 people, with their rich store of memories, are so 

 delightful to converge with. Such people will be 

 looking forward to death, not with fear and dread. 

 They feel how ignorant, after all, we are of the 

 destiny of our souls. The knowledge of Nature 

 suggests two points. We may think of life as but 

 a day with the dawn, noon, eve, and tired we may 

 pass into the unconscious, peaceful sleep of 

 eternity. But if death is the migration of our 

 souls from this world to some other, what could 

 be greater than this? Man's body is left as a 

 fallen tree, but his soul or mind, no longer held to 

 this world by his body, perhaps sets off on a new 

 sphere of existence, perhaps with greater power 

 of acquiring knowledge of that maze of marvels 

 which we attempt to look into to-day and call 

 Nature. 



Life is too short to waste. What w« require 

 to teach us for the peace and tranquility of our 

 souls, is the nature of every-day phenomena, that 

 power which forms the clouds and rounds the 

 raindrops, that springs in the grass and pulses in 

 the tide-, that glances in the sunbeam and 

 breathes in the flower, that works witchery in the 

 crystal and breaks into glory in the sunset. The 

 mind that knows what can be known of these 

 things, has feasted full of wonder and beauty and 

 makes no greedy demand for higher grace or 

 mightier miracle. In the past, in every period 

 of the earth's history, animals and plants in each 

 succeeding epoch of time, are found to be of a 

 higher order than the preceding ones, and there 

 seems to be in the grey cloudy distance of the 

 future, a realm of peace and beauty on this earth 

 and in Nature, but to reach it man must study 

 long in the school of Natuie, but before all he 

 must free himself from the bonds of selfishness. 

 Let us imbibe natural phenomena and think, for 

 thought is both prayor and worship. 



ELEVENTH WINTER MEETING.— APRIL nth, 1904. 



' HINTS ON THE PICTOKIAL COMPOSITION OF PHOTOGBAPHS. 

 By Mr. J. OGDEN. 



The DiPeting was helH at the Beaney Institute 

 on Tuesday eveningr, Mr. S. Harvey presiding. 

 The fir-^t business was the election of two 

 new mfluibers— Dr. Pittock, late ot Margate, who 

 has recently come to reside at Canterbury, and 

 Mr. Waleii, Headmaster of Holy Cioss School. 



Several interesting exhibits were shewn by mem- 

 bers. Mr. Hammond exhibited some very rare 

 plants, Mr. W. Cozens some fossil teeth, whilst 

 Mr. Wales shewed a very rare flower, the Grft|"e 

 Hyacinth, picked by one of his pupils, which is 

 only to be seen wild in one or two localities in 



