XXXIV ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
pathy which we carried back with us to our work with advantage to 
ourselves and to those whom we taught and influenced. 
I cannot claim to have been one of the most regular of the fellows 
of this Society, but I can say that, whenever I have been present here, 
I have regretted my omissions in the past, and have resolved to be more 
regular in the future. Of a Society which has excited such thoughts 
and purposes, it cannot be said that it has no practical value. Let us 
come, however, to something more definite. 
During the last year, to go no further back, we have lost two men 
who would be an honour to any learned company, Principal Sir William 
Dawson and Sir James Edgar. May we not here also, for a moment, 
refer to a loss still more recently sustained by the whole Empire, in which 
Canada and the Royal Society may be said to have a peculiar interest, in 
the death of the Duke of Argyll ? He was a man of great parts and 
large attainments—a scholar, a thinker, a writer, in politics, science, and 
theology. Nor should we here forget that he was the father of the 
Founder of this Society, then the Marquess of Lorne and Governor-Gen- 
eral of Canada, and now Duke of Argyll. Those who will turn back to the 
first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society, and will ponder the 
wise and weighty words of its founder at the first meeting of its members, 
will learn something of the debt which we owe to him; and it may be 
worthy of consideration whether it is not our duty, as a Society, to convey 
to His Grace our respectful sympathy in the loss which he has sustained, 
and our earnest wishes for his well-being in the future. 
Sir John William Dawson has great claims upon the reverent remem- 
brance of this Society. He was not only its first president, but a fre- 
quent contributor to its Transactions, and his name and fame would 
bring honour to any literary or scientific society in the world. Born in 
Nova Scotia in 1820, educated partly in his native province and partly 
in the University of Edinburgh, he soon became distinguished in various 
departments of learning.. From the year 1855 he was Principal of 
‘McGill University, and contributed in no small degree to the growth and 
development of that great institution. It would be wearisome to 
recount but a small portion of his achievements in science and in litera- 
ture, especially in the presence of a body to the members of which he 
was so intimately known; and it may suffice to quote a testimony which 
comes from the great Republic to the south of us: “He has been for 
more than a third of a century recognized by all competent judges as one 
of the few great masters of that wonderful science which seeks to read 
the handwriting of God on the face of the rocks.” 
Sir James Edgar was a figure not easily forgotten by those who had 
once seen him. Cultivated, courteous, dignified, he was the beau ideal 
