THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



The Rev. Dr. Mitghinson said : — ^The subject of my address 

 to you to-day will be the utility and the daugers of Provincial 

 Natural History Societies. People are disposed sometimes to take 

 their utility for gi-anted, on the ground that a subject so interesting 

 as Natural History — so manifold in its bearing on common life — 

 must needs be of great utility to all, especially to the rising 

 generation. Now I am not disposed to set a high direct educational 

 value on such associations. I do not myself believe they can ever 

 resolve themselves into miniature local science universities, imparting 

 scientific teaching in its different branches to young and studious 

 persons. In the first place there is not the teaching power. There 

 are not enough really able men in any such local centre, each of 

 them sufliciently master of his subject to venture to impart his 

 stock of knowledge to others. Nor does it follow that, granting the 

 possession of the necessary erudition, and of the necessary command 

 of time, that such men of science have the rare gift of teaching 

 others — of seeing difficulties, and gradually building up the pile of 

 knowledge. Moreover, in the acquisition of scientific knowledge, 

 above all other kinds, mere imparting of facts is valueless to the 

 student. He must work for himself, observe, register, read, question, 

 and eventually blunder his own way to any knowledge worth the 

 name. But a Natural Histoiy Society is useful first to these veiy 

 men of science themselves. There is always a sprinkling of such, — 

 men with a hobby, — often busy men, but still men who have 

 retained in middle and later life all their boyish enthusiasm in the 

 pursuit of theii" scientific hobby : and to such men to find fellow- 

 workers, sympathetic minds, — not necessarily working in their 

 groove, but running alongside them in parallel grooves, — is an 

 encouragement and a stimulus. Secondly, it is useful to the young 

 folk of the neighbourhood, in that it opens out to them a new circle 

 of ideas, creates new tastes, encourages pursuits healthful to mind 

 and body, suggests an antidote to the exclusive domination over the 

 mind either of boyish athletics or feminine frivolity. It brings 

 them, too, within the range of minds more trained to scientific 

 observation than their own. They learn how to set about and how 

 best pursue the path through nature's works they have selected. 

 They leaVn what errors to avoid, what methods and habits of mind 

 to cultivate. They learu the mere mauipiUatiou of the microscope. 



