72 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF MONTREAL. 



perhaps, because there is no evidence of fair criticism in it, on the 

 same principle that a worthy son of Erin called himself rich, be- 

 cause his money could not be counted, — if this writer, I say, had 

 only been a working member of the Natural History Society of 

 Montreal, I am sure that at least some of his objections would 

 not have been started, but he would have recoiled at their absurdity. 

 As an example, when he puzzles himself with one of his favorite 

 arithmetical propositions, — " If 600,000 men in London require 

 so much fuel, how much did 600,000 Israelites require in the 

 desert, where trees are few," a member might remind him that 

 the genus homo amidst the fogs, damp and cold of London, requires 

 ■a little more caloric than the genus homo travelling under the 

 burning sun of Arabia — that to cook the bread and beef of old 

 England requires a little more fuel than did the manna, the food 

 of the Israelites, which was melted by the mere heat of the 

 sun. We could also whisper to him a few secrets about animal 

 fuel, such as the Arab even now prepares in the desert, and the 

 prophet Ezekiel refers to. We might say something too 

 of the changes taking place on the face of the physical world,— 

 of Lebanon, now barren and once covered with trees — of the 

 present sterility of parts of Palestine, formerly most productive 

 and prosperous, and show that even the wood-fuel they had was 

 not absolutely required ; nay, we might give him a rule-of- three 

 sum in return, and say, if 600,000 persons required so much fuel 

 in Arabia, and so much in London, how is it that the same num- 

 ber of persons in these northern regions of Canada, can find 

 cord-wood enougb for their supply, when so vast a proportion 

 of these are needy persons, and have not wherewith to supply 

 their wants from day to day ? We will ^volunteer the reply also. 

 The reply is one which all the researches of this Society into 

 the Eternal's works of the natural order, as well as the holy book 

 gives us, and it is that the hand of God never waxeth short, but 

 every thing, and every one, bears incontrovertible testimony to 

 the infinite power, wisdom and benevolence of the Creator of 

 nature. I trust my reference may be excused. But I desired 

 to employ this opportunity to state my humble opinion that if 

 biblical students and religionists will not avail themselves of the 

 advantages conferred by the study of natural science, there is 

 a certain personage who well knows how to use them, as he has 

 ever used them, for the attainment of his own ends. And I 

 desired to illustrate the needlessness of the alarm of some timid 



