Canterbury Philosophical Institute. 463 
No one need be debarred from joining our ranks from a consciousness of 
ignorance of scientific subjects. There are, of course, many amongst us who 
have been prevented by circumstances from acquiring scientific information, 
but all may be intelligent observers of the facts that come under their own 
immediate notice. It must be admitted that habit and mental training are of 
great value for the observation of facts, but there is no doubt that even 
uneducated men of ordinary intellect generally acquire a large amount of 
trustworthy information merely from observing the facts brought under their 
notice by their daily occupations. If only this faculty were more generally 
turned to account in the study of any one particular branch of science, 
according to individual taste, what a large amount of information would be 
accumulated. 
We often hear complaints of the want of amusement and recreation in 
the colony, and this is sometimes advanced as an excuse for the indulgence in 
low and sensual gratification to which young men here often become addicted. 
If they would only open their eyes to the wonderful phenomena by which 
they are surrounded, and would choose a subject of observation, botany or 
geology for example, they would not only bring valuable contributions to the 
cause of science, but they would find fresh sources of interest constantly 
opened up to them, and their enjoyment of life multiplied and enhanced. 
It has been well said that“ the earnest naturalist is pretty certain to have 
attained that great need of all men, to get rid of self. He who after the 
hours of business finds himself with a mind relaxed and wearied will not be 
tempted to sit at home dreaming over impossible scenes of pleasure, or to 
go for amusement to haunts of coarse excitement, if he have in every hedge, 
bank, and woodland, and running stream, in every bird among the boughs, 
and every cloud above his head, stores of interest, which will enable him 
to forget awhile himself and man, and all the cares, even all the hopes of 
human life, and to be alone with the inexhaustible beauty and glory of 
nature, and of God who made her. 
The admirable paper of Mr. Potts, “ On the Birds of New Zealand,” pub- 
lished in Vols. II. and III. of the Transactions,* affords one of the many 
striking examples contained in those volumes of how much valuable informa- 
tion may be acquired by habits of intelligent observation. 
In reading the biographies of eminent men—Bunsen, for example—one 
cannot fail to observe how much their objects of interest in life are multiplied 
by the wise direction of their mental activity. This observation applies with 
increased force to the life of colonists, who, from their isolated position, are 
liable to become absorbed in their own petty interests, and to form narrow 
opinions of what is passing beyond the sphere of their own personal observa- 
* See also Art. XX., p. 171. 
