PKKSIDKNT S ADDRESS 



Now surely all Societies, whether they be Royal, Linnean, 

 or such as consist only of a few intelligent operatives in some 

 little country town, who encourage or take part in the work of 

 investigating the past, present, and future of the innumerable 

 works of creation — all such Societies are aiding in the good 

 work of opening eyes and awakening minds to what lies so near 

 to them, but which, for so many, though equally near to them, 

 is yet "so far away." It surely cannot now need any statement of 

 utilitarian uses, or the setting forth of the money value of these 

 Natural History studies, to justify their pursuit to any liberal- 

 minded man. Societies like ours attbrd the means and oppor- 

 tunities for students in all ranks of life to meet together on a 

 common platform, where help, encouragement, and enlightenment 

 are ready for all those who otherwise must have remained 

 ignorant of much that is now a som'ce of increasing pleasure 

 and solace to them. Natural Science studies have yielded 

 congenial lines of investigation for hundreds and thousands of 

 oiu" artizaus, who have also been led in the pursuit of flowers, 

 or insects, or birds, or the minute organisms found in our pools 

 and streams, far from the smoke of the towns, where theii' lives, 

 for the most part, are spent, away into pleasant country spots, 

 where they have communed with Nature, and got her secrets 

 fi'om her (for though she is coy, she is not unyielding to the 

 persistent lover), and who, when they returned home, have found 

 themselves invariably the healthier, and happier, and wiser for 

 their jaunt. Nor must I omit to notice that the effect of 

 Natural History studies, as of most others properly pursued, is 

 to invigorate the powers of the mind, and especially to strengthen 

 the habits of accurate observation and painstaking, which cannot 

 be hmited in their i;ses to these leisure-time studies, but will 

 extend with great advantage to the daily working duties of the 

 student in the ordinary aflau's of life. 



I venture to think that besides the agreeable intellectual 

 occupation which, in our own homes, and in this room and 

 elsewhere, our natural history studies provide for us, there is 

 something else to be put down to their credit which must not be 



