specimens, some of which are seldom to be found in 

 the collections of older Societies. We hope still, to 

 merit such tokens of their interest in our behalf and 

 in the general cause of science. A casual glance at 

 our cabinets, will however, convince the observer, that 

 while foreign seas and climates have contributed to 

 our acquired treasures, the no less interesting though 

 more neglected department of Nature at home, have 

 not been disregarded. This is as it should be. The 

 primary design of a Society like our's is the intention 

 to direct the mind of every lover of science and truth, 

 to a study of those glorious objects of Creation, which 

 are every where around and about him. How many 

 are those, whose wayward and idle curiosity is un- 

 duly awakened to the merest insignificance of misspent 

 human industry, and totally blind to the unsurpassed, 

 unrivalled workmanship of Nature's plastic hand. 

 How many too, with listless and indifferent eye, can 

 pass over and heedlessly tread down the gorgeous 

 flower of their native fields and yet gaze with pre- 

 tended admiration at some frail production of a more 

 distant clime ! What curiosity is awakened at the 

 meanest shell, or the smallest fragment of animated 

 nature from distant countries, while far more curious 

 and wonderful objects are cast up by every returning 

 wave on the neighboring seacoast, or may be gathered 

 on the smooth and pebbly margin of many a broad 

 and extended lake, or the sedgy border of some crys- 

 tal pond ! What inestimable value does a shapeless 

 and rude fragment of some utensil of semibarbarous 

 nations, a handful of dust from the site of some over- 

 thrown and almost forgotten city, the most useless 



