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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER o9ru, 1889. 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
BY 
MR. GEORGE DE PARIS, 
(PRESIDENT), ON 
THE RELATION OF ART TO SCIENCE. 
Mr. GeorGE De Paris, by way of vindicating the action of 
the Society in choosing one who was not a Naturalist, but an 
Artist, set out to show the intimate connection which exists 
between the study of Art and the study of Natural History, and 
the great assistance which each can and should render the other. 
For instance (said the President) the delightful Field Excursions 
of this Society have made some of us familiar with the most 
romantic parts of Sussex. At many of those meetings Art has 
been well represented by both professional and amateur artists, 
who have amply illustrated the close connection of our varying 
pursuits. The rugged quarry which attracted the geologist, the 
tangled wood that gave employment to the botanist, and the quiet 
lake on whose banks and in whose reedy shallows the entomolo- 
gist and the microscopist pursued their researches,—all offered 
subjects for the sketch-book of the Artist, and it was hard to say 
which of them had most enjoyed their short communion with 
Nature. Communion with Nature! That is the secret of our 
common brotherhood. ‘The Artist may exercise his skill on the 
incidents of town life, or the excitement of a race-course ; the 
Naturalist may pursue his researches in a city water-butt, but it 
is only in the company of Nature that their true studies are 
pursued. In the green lane, and on the breezy downs, they find 
their choicest wisdom, their purest happiness. And the saying of 
Grindon applies to the Artist as well as to the Naturalist, “ Nature 
diligently and reverently studied, keeps the heart green, and 
carries on our youth far beyond the birthdays.” And if the love 
of Nature in her most beautiful forms is common to the Artist 
and the Naturalist, they are still more closely united by their 
faculty for seeking out, and communicating to others, her most 
