332 president's address. 



It was sufficient in the older time to ascribe the absence of 

 toads and venomous reptiles in Guernsey to a not too well 

 authenticated visit of St. Patrick, and folk-lore has a value 

 even in these days of advanced science ; for if the explanation 

 fails to satisfy, the fact of lengthy endurance gives force to 

 the disharmony which we may some day note. There must 

 be an underlying plan which produces the new or rare 

 specimen ; the secret of its evolution may carry great 

 influences on the good or evil of the human race, for some 

 disharmonies reap a harvest to our hurt. The student of 

 Natural Science is always a scout in the advanced line who 

 should be able to appreciate the harmony and mark the 

 earliest sign of discord. Fossils and folk-lore were large 

 factors in the problem to which Darwin applied himself ; 

 what would he not have given for such records as the 

 Transactions of this Society afford ? To be useful they 

 must be full and continuous, and we require not only zealous 

 workers but pecuniary support. To the latter end your 

 Council have put before you the need to raise the subscription 

 of individual members ; for the encouragement of new 

 workers I have also a plea. We cannot expect them to open 

 the book of Nature at the page of our more advanced readers 

 and be interested, hence the value of our lecturettes. Lists 

 of botanical and zoological names are only a weariness to the 

 junior, however complete ; they fail to excite c that curiosity 

 which is natural to the child and essential to the man of 

 science ' ( Stevenson). And some element of curiosity is 

 needful to tempt the uninitiated to interest. The harmonies 

 are great and from their very greatness appalling ; the 

 disharmonies are minute and present ; they might more often 

 form the text of our discourse and whet the appetite for 

 further study. We have had fine examples of this process, 

 but they are too few, and might be increased with advantage 

 to all. 



Our Transactions should be, and they deserve to be, a local 

 text book ; neither trouble nor expense must be stinted to 

 make them a reliable record of the Society's work. But the 

 care of the Society is the education of all willing workers 

 towards a familiar acquaintance with the major premiss ; the 

 avoidance of all error in the minor premiss ; the strict 

 examination of conclusions with a view to assign a reasonable 

 value to disharmonies, however slight ; and the cultivation of 

 such methods of criticism and prophecy as will fit its 

 members to take their place at that table where all men are 

 equal. 



