450 Journal of the Essex County JVaf . Hist. Soc. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. T. Journal of the Essex County J^atural History Society. 

 Vol. I. No. I. Pamphlet, 8vo. pp. 44. Salem. 1836. 



This is the first number of a journal issued by the Essex 

 County Natural History Society, and which will probably be 

 continued fi'om time to time, as the quantity of matter accumu- 

 lates. The labors of this society are second only to those of 

 the Natural History Society of Boston; and we look forward 

 with pleasure to its future prospects: composed as it is of mem- 

 bers who are greatly devoted to the different branches, we may 

 anticipate the beneficial influence which it will exert in diffusing 

 a taste for its numerous and varied objects. The society has a 

 very rich collection, and their cabinets are filled with many rare 

 specimens, the donations of the members and their friends ; they 

 have also frequent exhibitions of flowers at their hall, which 

 has been the means of extending a taste for, and an interest in, 

 the cultivation of plants. 



The second anniversary of the society took place on the 15th 

 of June last: on this occasion an address was delivered be- 

 fore the members, by Professor Russell. We had the pleasure 

 of hearing it ourselves, and we need only say it was worthy the 

 occasion and the subject of which it spoke; we regret that it was 

 not listened to by a more numerous audience. It commences 

 with a brief view of the progress of the society since its first 

 organization, up to the present time: v/ith not a specimen of any 

 kind or a single work on natural science, the society, in the brief 

 space of three years, has arrived to its now flourishing state. 



The pleasure to be derived from the pursuit of Natural His- 

 tory is portrayed with a true hand, and its importance as a branch 

 of education is distinctly urged. We have not room for many 

 extracts, but we present the following, as showing at once the 

 object for which the society was instituted: — 



" The primary design of a society like ours is the intention to direct 

 he mind of every lover of science and truth to a study of those glori- 

 ous objects of Creation, which are every where around and about him. 

 How many are those, whose wayward and idle curiosity is unduly a- 

 wakened to the merest insignificance of misspent human industry, and to- 

 tally blind to the unsurpassed, unrivalled workmanship of Nature's plas- 

 tic 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 pretended 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 coun- 

 tries, while far more curious and wonderful objects are cast up by every 



