20 THE FUNCTIONS OF A LOCAL NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
‘© Sylphs ! on each oakbud wound the wormy galls 
With pigmy spears, or crush the venomed balls ; 
Fright the green locust from his foamy bed, 
Unweave the caterpillar’s fleecy thread ; 
Chase the fierce earwig, scare the bloated toad ; 
Arrest the snail upon his slimy road ; 
Arm with sharp thorns the sweetbriar’s tender wood, 
And dash the Cynips from her damask bud ; 
Steep in ambrosial dews the woodbine’s bells, 
And drive the night moth from her honey’d cells.” 
‘* Four of the giant brood with Ilex stand, 
Each grasps a thousand arrows in his hand ; 
A thousand steely points on every scale 
Form the bright terrors of his bristly mail.— 
So armed, immortal Moore uncharmed the spell, 
And slew the wily dragon of the well. — 
Sudden with rage their zjz’d bosoms burn, 
Onwrong’d, as gentle as the breeze that sweeps 
Retort the insult, on the wound return ; 
The unbending harvests or undimpled deeps, 
They guard, the Kings of Needwood’s wide domains, 
Their sister wives and fair infantine trains; 
Lead the lone pilgrim through the trackless glade, 
Or guide in leafy wilds the wandering maid.” 
You must not imagine that I think it possible for all this to be 
done at once, if so, we might as well sit down and fold our hands, 
dismayed by the magnitude of the task; but ‘‘art is long, though 
time be fleeting,” and if members of similar pursuits will only 
form sections, differing at different times, each of which will 
furnish lists of their captures, to be presented to the Society at the 
close of each session, in time a complete Fauna and Flora can 
be published from these lists. 
In the third place, as a necessity for the perfect working of such 
a Society, I put the formation of a good library of reference. 
Alas, with means as limited as ours are, this can only be accom- 
plished by degrees and slowly, for the formation of such a library 
is a most expensive matter. This want can only be supplied by 
each one of us putting at the service of other members such books 
as he may possess. 
