PROCEEDINGS OK SOCIETIES. 97 



is a new species of the Rhinoceros, with several important additions 

 to the winged tribes ; and as many curious observations on the habits 

 and other characteristics of the more remarkable and rare animals 

 preserved in the Society's collection are concisely introduced into the 

 Catalogue, it is thereby rendered more worthy of public attention and 

 patronage. 



Dr. Andrew Smith is preparing for publication a Journal of the 

 Expedition, which will comprise a great diversity of valuable infor- 

 mation respecting the native inhabitants, the country and its natural 

 productions. 



LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION OF STAINES. 



This Society completed its third season in the month of June last, 

 and the last Lecture was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Jones, Vicar of 

 Bedfont and Vice-President of the Institution, who had already print- 

 ed five discourses addressed to the same Society, and now sends this 

 one forth to share the fate of its associates. It is a vigorous and ani- 

 mated lecture, sparkling throughout with a brilliant and generous en- 

 thusiasm. 



During the third season of the Staines Institution, which occupied 

 eight whole months, a lecture was delivered every week, with a few 

 unavoidable interruptions. In the first season eleven lectures only, 

 in the second sixteen were given, but in the last they amounted to 

 thirty-one ; and, says Dr. Jones, who commends them, all these ex- 

 ertions were gratefully acknowledged by a full attendance of the 

 members, by their kind encouragement and warm applause. 



Dr. Jones's lecture will be perused with intense satisfaction by all 

 those who cordially engage in undertakings similar to that for the 

 promotion of which he devotes the best energies of an active and vi- 

 gorous mind. Some of his powers and his principles are manifested 

 in the following observations : — " We certainly live in changeful 

 days ; but it is true philosophy boldly to meet events, and convert 

 them, if possible, into blessings. The general dissemination of know- 

 ledge is, perhaps, the most startling of the moral phenomena of our 

 times. Heretofore, influential individuals there have been, anxious 

 and active to forward the cause of popular enlightenment, but they 

 found few of kindred zeal to aid the noble work ; nor was there 

 greater encouragement from the people themselves. A brighter day 

 has dawned upon us. Ignorance has no longer the patronage of high 

 authorities, and knowledge is discovered to be not only the privilege 

 but the happiness of a people. Not that the path is even now so 

 widely opened, or so freed from obstacles, as it soon will be. We 

 have not yet swept away all the little prejudices and fears which re- 

 tard the march of truth ; still, much has been done, and more bene- 

 volently contemplated, and this very contemplation has its use. Nor 



A'OL. VII., NO. XXI. N 



