96 The Conferences 



ledge which have been accumulated and handed down 

 to us by those who have gone before, yet at the same 

 time there is also much which is to be learned not 

 from books, but from the facts of Nature itself While 

 the study of books may too often be only an exercise 

 for the faculty of memory, and may leave almost un- 

 touched the other faculties of the human mind, on the 

 other hand the study of the facts of Nature, the intelli- 

 gent observation and study of the facts of Nature, is a 

 mental discipline which cannot fail to develop those 

 powers of the mind which it is the object of all true 

 education to discover, to cultivate, and to strengthen. 



The exhibition was then declared open by the Duchess ot 

 Devonshire. A vote of thanks to the Duke and Duchess was 

 proposed by Sir W. Hart-Dyke, M.P., seconded by Sir John 

 Cockburn, and supported by Sir Joseph Hooker, who referred 

 to his long connection with the botanical museums at Kew, and 

 hoped that the county councils would take up the movement in 

 favour of Nature-study, and pursue it under the aegis of the 

 government. The Duke, in reply, congratulated the organizers 

 of the exhibition on having the support of so eminent a man of 

 science as Sir Joseph Hooker. A vote of thanks to the Royal 

 Botanical Society for the use of their premises was moved by 

 Lord Northbrook and seconded by Sir John Hibbert, and after 

 Sir John Hutton had replied the proceedings terminated. 



