1874-75] 99 



would resemble a man who never ate anything but one solitary- 

 kind of food. 



You will, perhaps, yourselves anticipate my inference. A man 

 who never opens any book but his ledger or day-book — or if he be 

 a so-called professional man, his digests of law or his medical 

 tractates — (I shall say nothing of certain divines, whose only 

 studies are theological) — such a man runs extreme risk of increas- 

 ing such "a mental or moral disease, as the liver on but one sort of 

 food. Naturalists' Field Clubs afford, in my judgment, one of the 

 best and most easily applied remedies for such cases. Let a man, 

 for example, during the summer season, leave for a day his desk 

 and office, or his study, or his shop, or " Change," and take an 

 excursion with our Club. Let him have eyes to see, and a heart 

 to enjoy the wonders and the beauties which the God of nature 

 scatters around field and flood, hill and dale. Let the woman 

 leave for the same season her household cares, and join our ex- 

 cursion, for woman needs variety here as well as men. Then let 

 all the members meet, during wintry months like the present, and 

 listen to the lessons which our more patient and experienced 

 members have learned for themselves, and so willingly impart to 

 others, from their summer-gatherings in Natural History, and I am 

 bold to say the result will be to aid in making all better members 

 of society — better able to take and maintain their place in " the 

 battle of life," and, above all, far more likely to look beyond this 

 lower life, and forward to the prospect which true religion — the 

 religion of revelation as well as of nature — offers in that life which 

 is to come. 



Such considerations as these will, I trust, commend our Club and 

 its pursuits not only to its members, but to many around us, and 

 thus, if appreciated, enable us to look forward in anticipation of a 

 prosperous future, as we this evening enjoy a thankful retrospect 

 of its bygone history, and especially of the year 1874. 



