116 



Our Society has flourished, even under the dis- 

 advantages of holding its meetings, by permission, 

 within the walls of another Literary Institution, 

 and of having such confined limits for the tem- 

 porary deposit of our Museum, as to render it 

 necessary to suffer many fine specimens, parti- 

 cularly in the geological department, to remain, 

 for their better preservation, in the packages 

 which conveyed them to us : can it then for a 

 moment be doubted, that, when we shall assem- 

 ble in apartments of our own, with a spacious 

 lecture-room, and an elegant Museum, above 

 forty yards in length, for the exhibition of our 

 collection of the works of nature and of art, 

 it will acquire fresh vigour, and act with 

 increased energy? 



Our Museum, to which many are now ready 

 to make considerable and valuable additions, as 

 soon as we shall be provided with sufficient ac^ 

 commodation to secure their donations from in- 

 jury, and to exhibit them to advantage, must, in 

 itself, operate with us as a powerful bond of union. 

 I trust it will be our endeavour to cement that 

 bond, by a continuance of the harmony and good 

 feeling which have hitherto prevailed among us. 

 Let us bring into friendly union whatever talents 

 we individually possess, and apply them to the 

 cultivation of those studies which it is the object 

 qf our Society to promote, and which it is the 



