OBITUARY NOTICES. 
99 
We read also, in the biography of one of her daughters, that 
Mr. J. J. Gurney’s mother, the wife of Mr. John Gurney, of 
Earlham, would take her children for country walks, and calling 
their attention to the beauties which surrounded them, try to instil 
into their minds a love of nature. Who can tell how great the 
debt which those descendants of this gifted lady, who have since 
been distinguished in the world of science, owe to these instructive 
rambles in the fields and lanes of Bramerton and Earlham. Perhaps 
as a society, anxious to contribute to the advancement of science> 
and justly proud of the papers which we have published, we have 
thought too little of the good we have been able to do by showing 
to what an extent a slight acquaintance with even one branch of 
natural history, may give interest to 'an otherwise uninteresting 
walk. 
There are times when even a dullard must feel himself raised up 
to sympathy with nature, as when the singing of birds is heard, 
and all the trees of the wood rejoice, and re-awakening life leads 
our thoughts onward to summer sunshine and flowers and fruits, 
or again in the shortening days of autumn, when the falling leaves 
bring sadder thoughts, when we find 
“ Each fading calyx a memento mori,” 
and muse on departed friends and buried hopes. 
But the naturalist needs no inspiration to make his walks 
interesting ; the common objects of the country ; the birds, the 
flowers, the insects, and the stones, provide him with food 
for thought, with happy memories and pleasant anticipations ; 
a knowledge of the life-history of the creatures he observes, adds 
enjoyment to his excursion. The earliest blossom of some tiny 
plant is to him as the greeting of a long-absent friend ; the various 
indications of spring are noted by him with zest, and to chronicle 
the atmospheric changes is an agreeable occupation. Xor is it 
necessary to be a specialist to enter into these pleasures, the 
acquisition of a sufficient knowledge of biology is within the reach 
of all. What a happy bond of union with their parents when, as 
in the case of Mrs. Gurney, children are made companions in such 
walks, and truths are instilled into their minds through parables 
from nature ! 
Yet another illustration of the advantages of the study of natural 
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