from the worlds which we are permitted to see afar, to those 

 beyond, in iUimitable space, to the lesser world in which we live, 

 and which we are permitted to examine, and to take pleasure 

 therein. 



I have often thought of that unique and comprehensive ex- 

 pression in the creed of St. Athanasius, " maker of all things 

 visible and invisible." Of things visible, how much more do we not 

 now know than the framer of the phrase, of the constitution of the 

 earth's crust ; the structure, functions and properties of plants, the 

 whole animal world, and the insight we have been able to obtain 

 as to their composition by the aid of chemical science. 



Of the ^' things invisible " what vast revelations have been given 

 to us by the microscope, since the day which first heard the 

 recitation of that article of our faith, revelations even to the very 

 gate of that knowledge by which the origin and cause of life is 

 centred. 



The revealing to sight of that formidable world of bacteria, their 

 functions, uses and dangers, is progress which would hardly be 

 credible to the old observers of natural science and history. Our 

 love for this progressive knowledge is inborn ; from Adam, who 

 is recorded to have had the beasts of the field and the fowls of the 

 air brought to him to see what he would call them ; "■ and the man 

 gave names to all cattle, and to the fowls of the air; and whatsoever 

 the man called them, that was the name thereof." How, since that 

 ancient past, has that naming been continued ; and how we are yet 

 infected with the desire to find a new species, and to add a new 

 name to an already vast nomenclature ! 



Of Solomon it is written that ''he spake of trees, from the cedar 

 tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of 

 the wall. He spake also of beasts, of fowl, of creeping things, and 

 of fishes." (1st Kings, iv, 33 v.) And we are reminded, at least 

 those of us who heard of our friend Mr. Carr's eloquent recital of 

 the Talmud story of the bees, on the Sunday afternoon under the 

 trees at Clumber last year, in words partly his own, of Solomon's 

 knowledge of insects. 



As our Annual Meeting is not rigidly confined to Science, but a 

 friendly occasion to report progress, perhaps you will pardon me if 

 I read these verses ; they are sure to interest at least those who 

 have not heard them before : — 



