31 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 

 By J. G. Waller, F.S.A. 



Delivered February ISth, 1898. 



Another year has passed away, and I again stand before }"on: 

 to perform a duty which my office demands of me, but which I 

 am about to resign unto another. There is an old Latin adage- 

 which says, " Time brings roses " ; we also know of another, that 

 " Roses have thorns." But my time with the Club, in the last 

 year as in the previous one, has brought me the roses without 

 the thorns. This remembrance enforces upon me that which I 

 owe you all for your courtesy, and to the merits of the officers 

 by whom the Club is so well served and represented. When all 

 are so good, it would be almost invidious to specialise ; but every 

 one knows how important it is to have a good Secretary and 

 Treasurer; and here we may well congratulate ourselves, for 

 with an experience of over half a century in the management 

 of societies, I know how much success is due to those entrusted 

 with the guidance. 



But if I might use the metaphor of the roses further, I should 

 find it in the action of the Club itself, which has gone on smoothly 

 developing during the past year. I never come down to the 

 meetings (and I am rarely absent) A\ithout finding both interest 

 and instruction ; and when I look back upon the past, I am 

 struck with the great superiority in the character of the objects 

 exhibited, and also in the mode of exhibition. 



When we speak of science in the abstract, it is as one. But 

 it has numerous subdivisions, which, however, bear upon one 

 another, assisting each other ; for in the brevity of human life, 

 one person can never be accomplished in all. And this subdivision 

 seems to be on the increase — indeed, necessarily so ; but in the end 

 it must lead to a more comprehensive and general knowledge. 

 Societies are composed of various units, each of whom may add 

 to the general sum of knowledge, though all may be moving 

 in divergent directions ; but these very divergencies ma}^ have 

 an ultimate tendencv to reunion. However humble may be the 



