PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
69 
But one cannot at the same time help regretting that other 
not less interesting departments of Natural Science are not 
so generally cultivated. There are very few zoologists, 
and still fewer botanists, who seem to take much interest 
in questions relating to the origins of the present geo¬ 
graphical distribution of living things. And yet such 
questions are big with the promise of great discoveries. 
But, for the present, investigators are too much enamoured 
of other studies to give much attention to them. Now, the 
members of such Societies as this might do good service by 
* carefully working up the subject in all its details, and thus 
by-and-bye the abundance of material collected would 
doubtless attract the attention of philosophical naturalists 
to a subject which hardly yields to any other, either in 
interest or importance. Many of us have neither the 
time, the opportunity, nor the means and appliances, for 
carrying on the researches which are most in vogue at 
present, but each of us might be able to do something in the 
direction I have indicated. 
I have said nothing about the utilitarian results to be 
derived from a study of Natural Science,—although much 
might be said upon such a subject, which, notwithstanding 
the “pooh-pooh” of some very superior persons, is yet a 
most important one to each and all of us. But if I pass it 
by it is simply because I believe the usefulness of such 
studies is already generally recognised. I cannot, however, 
close my remarks without adding a few words on the 
usefulness of natural science as a means of self-culture. I 
suppose even the busiest of us who are engaged in profes¬ 
sional and commercial pursuits have yet now and again 
leisure hours which we may devote to other purposes than 
eating, drinking, and sleeping. A portion of that leisure 
time a wise man will employ in some healthy relaxation— 
what does he do with the remainder? Is it utilised in 
self-culture or simply frittered away ? Some will tell you 
that they occupy such leisure minutes in reading. So far 
good : but, let us ask, is there any method in the reading ? 
I suppose there never was an age in which there were more 
books to read or more books read than the present. There 
is a very wide diffusion of knowledge of all kinds : but, 
unfortunately, the depth of that knowledge is by no means 
proportioned to its width. So that, paradoxical as it may 
seem, the very abundance of our literature tends to produce 
superficiality and shallowness. Our magazines, excellent 
as many of these are, have yet not a little to answer for in 
breeding up a race of half-informed and therefore voluble 
dogmatic talkers, who are among the most obnoxious bores 
one meets with. The object of many of these publications 
is doubtless laudable,—it being the obvious desire of not a 
few popular writers to kindle an interest in certain subjects 
which shall lead the reader to go more deeply into them 
for himself. It would be well if this valuable result were 
always or even most frequently attained. But one may be 
excused for doubting if such is the case, when one finds 
that the deluge of talk seems ever on the increase. That 
we may not unnecessarily add to this volume of empty 
sound, it would be well to limit our course of reading, 
more or less, to some special subject,—something in which 
we are interested, and all the outs and ins of which we 
desire to became acquainted with. Such a method, 
honestly pursued, will eventually give us a firm grasp of 
at least one subject or class of subjects, and enable us to 
take reasonable views and to form justifiable opinions,— 
the working-out of which in our own minds will do us 
infinitely more good than if we had applied ourselves like 
so many sponges to soak up all the ideas and notions of 
other men upon half-a-hundred different branches of 
human knowledge. For such purposes of self-culture, 
any one of the Natural Sciences is admirably adapted. 
The assiduous cultivation of any one of these will 
quicken the observing faculty, sharpen the reasoning 
powers, and expand the imagination. An old quarryman, 
who had long studied geology, once made a remark to me, 
the truth of which will be recognised by every votary? of 
Natural Science:—“Man, it just keeps a body aye young.” 
That is the fact, and in this you have an explanation of 
the circumstance that those who have made a hobby of 
science are invariably cheerful, and preserve a kind of 
youthful lightness and brightness to the end. And, surely, 
in an age when the rush and crush of life becomes harder 
and harder to bear,—when the air is filled with doubts and 
questionings, which in the nature of things must ever re¬ 
main unsolved and unanswered,—when the fever of politics 
increases in fervour,—when the simple life that our fathers 
led seems like a pleasant dream which in our days can 
hardly be realised,—it is something to be able to escape 
from all the dust and din, the fret and fever, to commune 
with serene Nature,—to drink of her pleasant fountains, 
and listen to the wonderful music she discourses,—to read 
the story of Creation as the hand of God himself has traced 
it in his living creatures,—to ponder upon the mighty past 
with its manifold changes,—and to realise the nothingness 
of all those little troubles that wear and fret and eat the 
heart out of so many of our fellow-pilgrims. Do not sup¬ 
pose that this ready mode of escape from petty cant and 
care is open only to profound experts in science. Nature 
is a beneficent mother, who has a kindly smile for each of 
her children. The youngest of her students cannot fail to 
come under her charm, and to have his life sweetened and 
brightened for him by her subtle influence. Let no begin- 
