PROCEEDINGS FOR 1900 .XLI 
briefly to the great obligations we are under to our Honorary Secretary. 
When one looks back on the immense work which he has done for the 
Society, in addition to all his other labours, one remembers what was 
said of Chrysippus, not the founder but an early teacher of the Stoics : 
“If Chrysippus were not, the Stoa were not.” So might we say, “If 
Sir John Bourinot were not, the Royal Society were not.” 
In connection with the subject of history, mention should be made 
of one who has rendered important services to this department, although, 
through the accident of his residence outside the Dominion, he is not a 
member of this Society. I refer to Mr. William Francis Ganong, Pro- 
fessor in Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, a native of New 
Brunswick, who has made most valuable contributions to the history of a 
province hitherto neglected. His essays on “Relics of the French 
Period in New Brunswick” and other cognate subjects are conceived 
in the thorough critical spirit of modern scientific historical investiga- 
tion. It will be seen that he contributes, this year, a paper to the 
department of English literature and history: “ A Monograph of the 
Evolution of the Boundaries of the Province of New Brunswick.” The 
mention of this province reminds us of another distinguished writer, 
who, however, is a member of our Society, Dr. Matthew, of St. John, 
who has made valuable contributions to the Transactions of our Society 
on the subject of Geology. 
Passing to literature, more properly and distinctively so-called, it 
is possible for us, in the dreams of our youthful ambition, to raise our 
expectations so high that we must needs encounter disappointment ; 
yet we may venture to say that no reasonable anticipations will be dis- 
appointed. In literature, let us remember, there are two things, matter 
and form—thought and expression ; and neither of these will be satis- 
fy ng apart from the other. We must have, on the one hand, elevation, 
freshness, richness of thought ; and, on the other, purity, clearness, and 
force of expression. It cannot be said that the circumstances of a 
country like this are favourable either to depth and maturity of thought 
or to graceful and artistic language. Yet it cannot be said with truth 
that we are entirely destitute of qualities that may be called literary, or 
that we have produced nothing worthy to be called literature. It is 
true, we are most of us mere working-men without leisure for the culti- 
vation of our tastes. Our work is too continuous, too unbroken. Medi- 
tation, by which above all things the intelligence and the imagination 
are rendered fertile, is not for us. It is to us almost a strange work. 
And yet we have some compensations. We live in a free country 
inheriting the traditions of two of the greatest literary races that the 
