116 



culture in our midst, — an institution which takes the stu- 

 dent after leaving school and the university, and encourages 

 him to make use of the learning acquired in them in the 

 formation of original ideas, and in the extension of the 

 domains of knowledge. 



A little more than a hundred years ago the Society was 

 founded by men who worthil}^ represented the public spirit 

 of the town. Its 1st volume of memoirs was published in 

 1785, and was dedicated to the King; its twenty -ninth 

 volume is now in the press, as is also the twenty-third 

 volume of the " Proceedings " of the Society. These works 

 are prized by cultivated men, both at home and abroad, as 

 the repositories of some of the most important discoveries of 

 the century which the Society has survived. A large 

 library has in the meantime been formed, containing books, 

 many of which are rare, and all necessary to the literature 

 of science. The conversations, which form an important 

 part of the proceedings of the Society, have resulted in 

 permanent benefits, not only to the city and to the district, 

 but to mankind in general. All this, including the acquisi- 

 tion of its house and the artistic treasures which it contains, 

 has been accomplished by the members without adventitious 

 aid, and at the cost of a comparatively small sum. 



Societies like our own may be considered as educational 

 establishments of the highest grade, in which students, 

 having passed the condition of pupilage, afterwards advance 

 by their own power. It may be confidently asserted that 

 without the aid of societies which have sprung up in modern 

 times with aims kindred to our own, science would have held 

 a position at this day similar to that which it occupied three 

 hundred years ago. A scientific society is always useful 

 wherever located, but in a University city it must be doubly 

 necessary, for there will be collected the largest number of 

 men who have chosen intellectual pursuits as their chief 

 business in life. 



