PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3 



to stimulate each other to closer research into the microscopic 

 world of nature, so many of whose departments have been hardly 

 yet investigated. For all our members ought to be more or less 

 workers, not mere drones, doing nothing for the Society's general 

 good, and taking no interest in microscopical pursuits. 



Very various and diversified is the classification of our mem- 

 bers. There is the soldier, the sailor, the lawyer, the clergyman, 

 the merchant, the tradesman, the physician, the chemist, the 

 schoolmaster ; the man of toil and the man of ease ; the gentle 

 lady, the invalid, and the strong ; professional and non-professional 

 men: all these belong to us. England, Ireland, Scotland, and even 

 Portugal, contribute their quota of members ; there is vast diver- 

 sity of training, of surroundings, of taste, and of leisure amongst 

 us ; and the common bond which unites us all, is a love for 

 microscopical pursuits. 



Now, it is no small advantage and benefit to have in our Society 

 men of such varied training and of such diverse habits, not to 

 speak of the further differences of mind, and systems of thought 

 which so strangely mark different nations, and even different 

 portions of the United Kingdom. For the same thing will strike 

 different people in very difi'erent ways ; so we must expect a great 

 variety in the expression of opinion amongst ourselves ; and we 

 ought to welcome such differences, for in this way it is that a 

 statement or a matter can more thoroughly be investigated, when 

 it has to endure the fire of criticism. But I need not say that the 

 criticism should be kindly given, and as kindly received. A man 

 is not worth his salt if he cannot bear to see his pet hobby upset 

 and declared to be absurd, or his favourite opinion proved wanting 

 and impossible ; shallowness of information and scantiness of 

 knowledge generally betray themselves by irritation and impatience 

 of criticism, just as, on the other hand, poor and trifling criticism 

 shows a meagrely furnished mind. 



Now, one great disadvantage under which the Postal Micro- 

 scopical Society labours, arises from the fact that we have never 

 and can never meet altogether ; our homes are so wide apart, and 

 w^e are practically an aggregate, not so much of individuals isolated 

 and at a distance from each other — though this is the case in some 

 instances, but an aggregate of many smaller societies which 



