100 president's address. 



bright sunshine, by the side of some sparkling river, on the 

 breezy fell, or the secret top of some mountain, or most of all, 

 on the wild and rocky shore of the ocean, they that have eyes 

 to see and hearts to feel will be conscious of deeper thoughts. 

 The signs of life in such variety and gladness all around will 

 bring to mind the giver of life, and a holier presence will be re- 

 cognized, and thoughts be awakened that will not die. 



Nature, it is true, is not God. " Quamvis enim nihil esse 

 possit sine ipso," says Augustine, " lamen non sunt quod ipse." 

 (Aug. civit Dei, Lib. VII., p. 219.) But God is to be traced 

 and discovered in nature. Even one of those wonderful old 

 heathens could see in natural beauty the fruits of divine love ; 



" Tibi suaves doedala tellus 

 Submittit flores, tibi riclent aaquora Ponti 

 Placatum-que nitet cliff uso humine coelum." 



And what the heathen poet feeling after truth so well expressed, 

 the apostle, as was to be expected, has declared with more au- 

 thority, affirming of the great first cause, " that the invisible 

 things of Him, even His eternal power and Godhead, from the 

 creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the 

 things that are made." We seem to find Gocl easily in the va- 

 ried aspects of nature. "When contemplating any scene of natural 

 beauty the sequence of thought is happily expressed by our 

 great poet, when he represents our first parents looking forth 

 upon the external world and saying, 



" These are thy glorious works, parent of good, 

 Almighty ! thine this universal frame, 

 Thus wondrous fair ; — Thyself how wondrous then !" 



I trust that one good result to follow from the establishment 

 in Newcastle of a College of Science may be to encourage in 

 young people a love of nature. This, besides being a source of 

 unalloyed pleasure and of never failing interest, seems naturally, 

 as we have seen, to lead to the love of God, and so to happiness. 

 Those who can succeed in inspiring young people with a taste 

 for such studies may be numbered amongst their benefactors. 

 No fear then of time hanging heavy on hand, or of unemployed 

 hours. Either alone, or with some congenial companion, they 



