et me remind you,
on the other side, if Natural History will help you, you in return can
help her; and would, I doubt not, help her, and help scientific men at
home, if once you looked fairly and steadily at the immense importance of
Natural History--of the knowledge of the "face of the earth." I believe
that all will one day feel, more or less, that to know the earth _on_
which we live, and the laws of it _by_ which we live, is a sacred duty to
ourselves, to our children after us, and to all whom we may have to
command and to influence; aye, and a duty to God likewise. For is it not
a duty of common reverence and faith towards Him, if He has put us into a
beautiful and wonderful place, and given us faculties by which we can
see, and enjoy, and use that place--is it not a duty of reverence and
faith towards Him to use these faculties, and to learn the lessons which
He has laid open for us? If you feel that, as I think you all will some
day feel, then you will surely feel likewise that it will be a good
deed--I do not say a necessary duty, but still a good deed and
praiseworthy--to help physical science forward; and to add your
contributions, however small, to our general knowledge of the earth. And
how much may be done for science by British officers, especially on
foreign stations, I need not point out. I know that much has been done,
chivalrously and well, by officers; and that men of science owe them, and
give them, hearty thanks for their labours. But I should like, I
confess, to see more done still. I should like to see every foreign
station, what one or two highly-educated officers might easily make it,
an advanced post of physical science, in regular communication with our
scientific societies at home, sending to them accurate and methodic
details of the natural history of each district--details 99/100ths of
which might seem worthless in the eyes of the public, but which would all
be precious in the eyes of scientific men, who know that no fact is
really unimportant; and more, that while plodding patiently through
seemingly unimportant facts, you may stumble on one of infinite
importance, both scientific and practical. For the student of nature,
gentlemen, if he will be but patient, diligent, methodical, is liable at
any moment to the same good fortune as befel Saul of old, when he went
out to seek his father's asses, and found a kingdom.

There are those, lastly, who have neither time nor taste for the
t