254 INTEODUCTION. 



things from the highest to the lowest ; it consists of the descrip- 

 tion of the life, the structure and functions of all things in nature, 

 from man to the simplest protoplasm, of minerals, vegetables, 

 as well as animals, of the earth itself, the sea, and the sky. 

 The study of a small portion only of any one of these divisions 

 is work enough for most men of talent, though some have dis- 

 tinguished themselves by the intellectual grasp they have taken 

 of the greater part of the realm of nature. "Who that knows 

 anything of natural history has not heard of the great names of 

 John Eay, Linnaeus, Lamarck, De Blainville, and Cuvier, and 

 their more recent successors in England — Owen, Huxley, Dar- 

 win, and others, men who have spent long lives in the study of 

 nature, and achieved world-wide distinction and honour. The 

 ranks of science have lost all these great men and many more, 

 with the exception of Huxley. Only quite recently the vener- 

 able anatomist, Eichard Owen, has been followed to the grave 

 by the elite of the scientific men of England. These men are to 

 be held up for the imitation of the rising generation of naturalists. 



Eor the successful pursuit of natural history a student can 

 hardly begin too early in life, and ought to be imbued with a 

 love of nature for its own sake, a love like that which possessed 

 and impelled the founders of the Natural History Society and 

 our late lamented friends, Albany and John Hancock, to whose 

 deserved memory the elegant tablet in the vestibule of our 

 Museum has been recently erected. It is to the labours of John 

 Hancock, and his kindly influence over the honoured benefactors 

 of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, that we owe this, our stately Museum 

 building, and the greater part of its ornithological contents, 

 which together form one of the glories of our city, and the envy 

 of other societies and other cities. 



A student should choose that branch of our great subject that 

 is most suited to his powers and his love, and must expect to pass 

 years of steady work in the open air and the cabinet before he 

 can know all that is known in his chosen branch of the subject. 

 When he has accomplished this, ho will have done much to 

 advance himself and promote his own happiness; but if the 



