16 
department of the subject, at least, lias recently received able 
exposition within these walls.* 
Brevity in the enunciation of my purpose may have failed to 
convey to you a due estimate of the scope and tendency of the 
Natural History Sciences ; nevertheless, if the appetite has been 
augmented, the mind imbued, the desire enlarged, and the will 
provoked in the direction my arguments have taken, sufficient 
has, I think, been said to prove the necessity for a wider diffusion 
of the Natural History Sciences on purely educational and moral 
grounds. In order, however, that the student may derive durable 
profit from these studies, it is absolutely necessary that the tutorial 
method of communicating knowledge should be combined with the 
delivery of public lectures. I believe our Collegiate establishments, 
so far as the above sciences go, all fail in this particular. When 
private instruction by demonstration is superadded to public 
teaching, it is surprising what a relish and facility in acquiring 
information is thus imparted to the learner. The masses of 
uncorrelated objects by which the student of organic nature is at 
first surrounded soon marshal themselves before him like the 
serried ranks of a well-disciplined host, whilst day by day fresh 
levies crowd upon the circle of the mind’s horizon ; yet, notwith- 
standing this accession of numbers, and the varied uniforms they 
severally present, it is by-and-by perceived that harmoniety 
plan pervades their movements, and the meanest unit has its part 
to play, not only in the struggle , but also in the enjoyment of its 
existence. 
Of course, in all this teaching, it is assumed that the tutor shall 
be something more than a mere book-worm — one, in short, who, 
by practical work in the field, and by careful observation, assisted 
by all available artificial aids — coupled with a more or less extended 
acquaintance with the labours of other workers — has it in his 
power to unveil the beauties of creation as they successively 
declare themselves to an unprejudiced inquirer. 
Under these advantages the study of the Natural History 
Sciences is productive of the happiest results ; the impressions 
left upon the mind being analogous to those which the ear 
receives from a well-sustained series of harmonies. Were these 
experiences, however, shared only by those who are occupied 
with the warm and cheerful precincts of vitality, the Biologist in 
any of his callings might afford to despise the researches of the 
Geologist ; but, strange as it may appear to the uninitiated, a 
similar effect follows the contemplation of the frigid outlines of 
inert matter. 
In a social point of view, I ask, then, finally: 
Is it not a privilege to commune with those whose minds are 
* In a course of lectures ‘ On the Relations of the Animal Kingdom to 
Man,’ by Dr Lankester, F.R.S. 
