Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. 3789 



to lead us to praise the Creator; and the second is, the increase of our interest in 

 each other's welfare. And how vast the field is over which we are called to expatiate ! 

 Although we hare agreed to limit our attention, as a Society, chiefly to zoology, pa- 

 laeontology, and microscopy, we find a great range of subjects, with the whole of which 

 a few only amongst us are acquainted ; but we agree to learn from one another ; and 

 we believe that the very youngest amongst us may furnish something that may in- 

 crease our common stock of knowledge. Even in the fields of natural science which 

 we have marked out for our proper cultivation, we believe that there are riches inex- 

 haustible, — food for the mind in unimaginable quantity. Doubtless, it is a common 

 idea amongst young naturalists, that in a short time, through the united labours of so 

 great a body of zealous observers as now exists, the science of natural history is likely 

 to be so perfect that there will be no room for the researches of future observers. It 

 seems not at all an impracticable thing to assemble specimens of every animal, plant, 

 and mineral species that exists on the surface of our globe, to describe their structure, 

 and to learn their habits ; and supposing this to be done, there would apparently be 

 an end put to the calling of the scientific naturalist. But wonderful it is how the 

 charm of novelty is unceasingly supplied to those who give themselves to the 

 work of searching out the secrets of creation. Even amongst the smallest, and ap- 

 parently simplest, organisms, the longer and more minutely we scrutinize, the more do 

 we get to wonder at and admire. Here, truly, we are taught, in some measure, and 

 according to the feebleness of our comprehension, to appreciate the reality of the at- 

 tributes of Infinite Power, co-operating with Infinite Goodness and Wisdom. I 

 believe most of us are now disposed to agree with that keen-witted thinker of a former 

 age, Sir Thomas Brown, when he says, "in the most imperfect creatures, and such as 

 were not preserved in the ark, but having their seeds and principles in the womb of 

 nature, are everywhere where the power of the sun is, — in these is the wisdom of God's 

 hand discovered ; out of this rank Solomon chose the object of his admiration ; indeed, 

 what reason may not go to school to the wisdom of bees, ants, and spiders ? What wise 

 hand teacheth them to do what reason cannot teach us ? Kuder heads stand amazed 

 at those prodigious pieces of nature, whales, elephants, and camels ; these, I confess, 

 are the colossus and majestic pieces of her hand; but in those narrow engines there 

 is more curious mathematics, and the civility of those little citizens more neatly set 

 forth the wisdom of their Maker.'' The extensive use of the microscope in modern 

 times enables us most cordially to homologate the sentiments of Brown, and that with 

 a degree of intelligence which he could not, with all his sagacity, have attained to. 

 What Brown and his predecessors imagined, we see clearly ; so that the merest tyro 

 in the observation of nature now starts from a vantage ground which in former days 

 was reached by but a few of the wisest of men. And assuredly, the results of the 

 labours of the last century, in the course of which natural history has immensely ex- 

 tended its domain, tend to assure us that, however accurately men may retain the 

 existing amount of natural knowledge, and however diligently they may continue their 

 researches and observations for ages to come, there will still remain abundance of sub- 

 jects for inquiry, to exercise the faculties, and to gratify the affections, even of the 

 most remote of our descendants. 



" Still seems the thought enormous ? Think again : — 

 Experience' self shall aid thy lame belief; 

 Glasses (that revelation to the sight!) 



