THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, 
No. 59.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1857. [Price Id. 
LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS. 
We have received a number of com- 
munications on the subject of “ Local 
Associations,” and many of our cor- 
respondents express themselves dissatis- 
fied with the result of them; a want 
of earnestness and definite aim is felt 
by many to be a stumbling-block to 
the attainment of any great amount of 
usefulness. We fear this is too true! 
But it is of no use simply being dis- 
satisfied with the existing state of 
things; each in his proper sphere must 
endeavour to remove the causes of dis- 
satisfaction. Every leading member of 
an “Association” has a certain amount 
of responsibility entailed upon him, and 
he must endeavour to ascertain whether 
he cannot himself do something to ren- 
der his “ Association ” more serviceable 
to all the members. The winter ob- 
ject of these Associations is, as we take 
it, mainly educational. Now how can 
they be more efficiently used to this 
end? Water, we know, will always 
find its own level, — that is, the lower 
pools are swollen at the expense of 
those higher up ; but it is not so in 
imparting knowledge: those who con- 
tribute freely from their stores to those 
who, from station or youth, are on a 
lower level, may, it is true, raise the 
amount of knowledge amongst those 
below them, but they will not in any 
degree have lessened their own stock. 
But of course we shall be told by 
many that there is no lack of readi- 
ness to impart knowledge, but that 
little interest is apparently taken by 
the audience in the subjects selected 
for “ papers ” by the savans of the 
“ Association.” This again, we fear, 
is too true! The great gun is very 
apt to fire off with the view of making 
a great noise : people are surprised, 
and they stare and they say, “ Did 
you hear Mr. P. last night? He must 
be very clever! why I hardly under- 
stood a word he said.” And Mr. P. 
had simply been eloquent on a subject 
with which he was well conversant, and 
had been content with displaying his 
own knowledge, little considering how 
his peroration would appear to those 
hitherto uninformed upon the subject, 
and little considering the important 
question of cui bonoP 
Of course we do not wish to rush 
off at a tangent about the “ love of 
display,” but we simply wish to call 
the attention of those who are inte- 
rested in “Local Associations” to the 
fact that a series of systematically pro- 
gressive papers upon one subject would 
n 
