53 THE president's address. 



more roseate and lovely hue, and unlike too often the grosser 

 passion, the love of nature lasts until the termination of our life. 

 What greater difference can there be then between the dull " con- 

 stitutional" along an uninteresting road, taken perhaps at the 

 urgent instigation of some tyrannical doctor, and the happy 

 " ramble " of the Naturalist, to whom every blade of grass, every 

 peeping wild flower or graceful fern, every stone becomes an object of 

 rational interest, to whom every little pond swarms with curious and 

 interesting life ; to whom to have discovered a new or even a rare 

 specimen is worth any expenditure of time, trouble, or exertion. 

 What can be more exhilarating than the first dip with the net in 

 a new and tempting looking water; what can equal the healthy ex- 

 citement when the net comes to the surface laden with what a single 

 glance tells us to be rare or interesting specimens. What care we then 

 for muddy clothes, wet boots, or even aching backs, does not the result 

 fully compensate for such trivial misfortunes ? You may laugh, but 

 I only say " Try it! " and if you do not then agree with me, I shall 

 pronounce you different to all the specimens of humanity I have 

 ever met. Perhaps you will say, or think, " But I don't care for a 

 parcel of dirty beetles, snails, and newts." I can only repeat, " Try 

 the experiment and the love will surely come." You will find nature is 

 one lovely and harmonious whole, to which all things, however ap- 

 parently trivial, contribute. You. will find nature is full, she swarms 

 and palpitates with life under a myriad of unseen and unsuspected 

 forms ; the very air we breathe is full, each drop of water swarms with 

 life, — with tiny animalcules, so small that 150 millions of them would 

 not weigh a grain. The earth we tread teems with life, and to the 

 naturalist all this is lovingly revealed. He is invited to an intellectual 

 repast, such as might tempt the most fastidious, and his researches 

 are the more delightful because there is still so much to discover, so 

 many diflBculties to reconcile, so many theories to corroborate or 

 disprove, so much information to impart to others. Already we have 

 had several highly interesting papers read by members of our Society, 

 one on " Geology," by our indefatigable Secretary, which possessed a 

 peculiar interest for us, because the site whence it was delivered (the 

 Warren) is not only peculiar in its geological formation, but because 

 just now it is undergoing changes produced by the gradual action of 

 landsprings, &c., and gives an admirable instance of how alterations of 

 the earth's crust have been and are even now efiected ; how chalk 

 cliffs are left perpendicular, the bottoms of lakes changed and ele- 

 vated, and islands thrown up at sea. All these phenomena have lately 



