THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES 



discovery of which the Royal Society has itself played 

 largely the part of Columbus. Contrast the view of nature 

 which was common in the middle of the seventeenth century 

 with that open before us to-day. One of our. early Fellows 

 tells us how trees were regarded by noblemen of his time, 

 who considered them to be excrescences from the earth 

 provided by Divine wisdom to enable a gentleman to pay 

 his debts. To-day, even to a man of average culture, 

 how rich is the concatenation of ideas which group them- 

 selves about even so familiar an object as a tree its place 

 in the evolution of plant life, all the physical and chemical 

 problems associated with its growth by the assimilation 

 of matter from the earth and air, its relation to insect and 

 animal life, to the health and needs of man, and to con- 

 ditions of climate. 



Touched by science, the eye is opened to perceive 

 behind Nature's outward aspect of form and colour, on 

 which the artist delights to dwell, an inner world of 

 life and relationships of not less beauty, and of infinite 

 wonder and variety.] 



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