MT: ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 
encourage the workers in the acquisition of knowledge of that Nature, each of whose secrets may 
become the prize of him who shall make one of her mysteries the special subject of thought. 
America already bids fair to rival France and Germany in the number of her experts. Canada may 
certainly have her share in producing those men whose achievements in science have more than 
equalled in fame the triumphs of statesmen. These last labour only for one country, while the 
benefits of the discoveries of science are shared by the world. But widely different as are the qualities 
which develop patriotism and promote science, yet I would call to the aid of our young association 
the love of country, and ask Canadians to support and gradually to make as perfect as possible this 
their national society. Imperfections there must necessarily be at first in its constitution—omissions in 
membership and organization there may be. Such faults may be hereafter avoided. Our countrymen 
will recognize that ina body of gentlemen drawn from all our provinces and conspicuous for their ability, 
there will be a centre around which to rally. They willsee that the welfare and strength of growth 
of this association shall be impeded by no small jealousies, no carping spirit of detraction, but shall be 
nourished by a noble motive common to the citizens of the republic ofletters and to the students of 
the free world of nature, namely, the desire to prove that their land is not insensible to the glory 
which springs from numbering among its sons those whose success will become the heritage of 
mankind. I shall not now further occupy your time, which will be more worthily used in listening 
to the addresses of the presidents, and of those gentlemen who for this year have consented to take 
the chair at the meetings of the several sections. 
The President of the Society, Dr. J. W. Dawson, then addressed the meeting as follows: 
My Lord and Gentlemen ; Ladies and Gentlemen,—We meet to-day to inaugurate a new era in the 
progress of Canadian literature and science, by the foundation of a body akin to those great national 
societies which in Great Britain and elsewhere have borne so important a part in the advancement 
of science and letters. The idea of such a society for this country may not be altogether new; 
but if broached at all, it has been abandoned from the inability of its advocates to gather together 
from our widely distributed provinces the elements necessary to its success. Now it presents itself 
under different and happier conditions. In the mother country, the reign of Queen Victoria, our 
gracious Sovereign, has been specially marked by the patronage of every effort for the growth of 
education, literature, science and art, not only on her part but on that of the lamented Prince Albert 
and of the members of the Royal family. It is fitting that here too the representative of Royalty 
should exert the same influence and our present Governor—General has undoubtedly a personal as well 
as a hereditary right to be the patron of progress and culture in literature and science. Besides this, 
political consolidation and improved means of intercourse have been welding together our formerly 
scattered provinces and causing much more intimate relations than formerly to subsist between men 
of letters and of science. 
We are sometimes told that the enterprise in which we are engaged is premature, that, like some 
tender plant too early exposed to the frost of our Canadian spring, it will be nipped and perish. But 
we must remember that in a country situated as this is nearly everything is in some sense premature, 
It is with us a time of breaking-up ground and sowing and planting, not a time of reaping or gather- 
ing fruit, and unless this generation of Canadians is content, like those that have preceded it, to sow 
what others must reap in its full maturity, there will be little hope for our country. In Canada at 
present, whether in science, in literature, in art or in education, we look around in vain for anything 
that is fully ripe. We see only the rudiments and the beginnings of things, but if these are healthy 
and growing, we should regard them with hope, should cherish and nurture them as the germs of 
greater things in the future. Yet there isa charm in this very immaturity, and it brings with it 
great opportunities. We have the freedom and freshness of a youthful nationality. We can trace 
out new paths which must be followed by our successors; we have the right to plant wherever we 
please the trees under whose shade they will sit. The independence which we thus enjoy, and the 
originality which we can claim, are in themselves privileges, but privileges that carry with them 
great responsibilities. 
