ISSO.] TRANSACTIONS. 59 



imperative!}' requires. Ai\y close ol)serv!ition of it, in detail, 

 becomes impossible from its very bulk. Objects that would be 

 worthy of notice are lost in immeTisit}" ; and the commonplace 

 attracts attention because of its omnipresence. Committees are 

 obtained with difficulty to undertake a task of such appalling- 

 magnitude ; and, when obtained, find it impracticable to concen- 

 trate articles of merit ; or to approximate, at all closely, their 

 relative degrees of excellence. 



Our own Weekly Exhibitions, rigidly confined to specimens of 

 unquestionable superiority, latterly taxed the whole time and 

 strictest attention of their Committees. Faith that there would 

 be something worth seeing jjrevailed in the community ; and our 

 Halls were thronged, as never before, by an eager and interested 

 crowd of witnesses. It is a pleasure, in itself, to labor for such a 

 consummation. We have now a plane of achievement wherefrom 

 to measure. Our aim may be full high advanced ; but, with a 

 continuance of such enthusiasm and zeal as inspired our Members, 

 during the season just past, it cannot be impossible of attainment, 

 however exalted. Shall we content ourselves with aught less 

 than absolute excellence ? It rests with yourselves. Gentlemen 

 and Ladies of the Society ! to determine. 



The unusually mild Winter, followed by a Spring dryer than 

 ordinary, was favorable to the development of every form of 

 Insect-Life. Then, if ever, was the time for the Birds, — objects 

 of cockney or girlish adoration, to vindicate their fair repute and 

 show some good reason for a legalized existence. The whole art 

 and science of Chemistry is exhausted to reduce, in whatsoever 

 measure it may, the infinite swarms of our Insect-Foes. No one 

 stops to reflect that arsenical poisons may prove no more deadly 

 to the Doryphora decemlineata than to the parasite which saps 

 his life. No one appears to care whether the Turdus migratorius 

 impales upon his merciless beak insect-friends, or foes, of man. 

 The country is kept in a perpetual turmoil because Four Million 

 Negroes will not — as did Three Million White Men, a century 

 since, — hoe their own row ! Agitation is ceaseless because Woman 

 has not her Rights, — Heaven save the mark ! Man making no 

 perceptible fuss as he packs the burden of his wrongs on a back 

 galled to the quick. The Earth grows fat, and laughs, with her 



