20 
and they who least understand hini dogmatise the most. Darwin 
himself has admitted the probability of the creation of some few 
typical forms from which all others have been ultimately developed, 
these type forms must, therefore, have been special creations. 
I had intended to have made some special remarks on the 
advantages and pleasures to he derived from the study of natural 
histoi’y, and also as to the use that this and like societies might he in 
teaching such knowledge. I cannot hut feel that we are in some 
measure to blame that the fine collections in this building are not 
of greater interest to the public than they are ; to the great 
majority of visitors they afford hut little pleasure or instruction ; 
they see a handsome shell or a beautiful bird, to which is attached 
a ticket bearing a long name in an unknown tongue j hut of the 
inhabitant of the one, or the physical structure and habits of the 
other they are quite ignorant. 
A love of Nature and the study of natural objects would com- 
pete, and not unsuccessfully, with debasing or immoral amusements, 
and thus in effect the flowers and the birds would become great 
moral teachers. Ruskin makes the following eloquent remark, 
which seems specially applicable to this subject : — “ They tell 
us often to meditate in the closet, but they do not send us into the 
fields at even; they dwell on the duty of self-denial, but they 
exhibit not the duty of delight. It is not possible for a Christian 
man to walk across so much as a rood of the natural earth, Avith a 
mind unagitated and rightly poised without receiving strength and 
hope from some stone, leaf, flower, or sound, nor Avithout a sense of 
the dew falling upon him out of the sky.” 
“ With tender ministrations thou, 0 Nature, 
Healest thy wandering and distracted child ; 
Then pourest on him thy soft influences, 
Thy sunny hues, fair forms, and breathing sweets ; 
The melody of woods and winds and waters ! 
Till he relent, and can no more endure 
To be a jarring and dissonant thing 
Amiiist the general voice and minstrelsy ; 
And bursting into tears wins back his Avay— 
llis angry spirit healed and hariuonhed 
By the benignant touch of love and mercy.” ( Coleridge.) 
