230 Address by the President. [Sess. 



knowledge, and there is now no drawing back : on the con- 

 trary, you feel an impulse, which is almost irresistible, driving 

 you forward in the quest of fuller knowledge. You feel there 

 are on every side of you mysteries which you wish to unravel : 

 you desire to know the why and the wherefore of the things 

 around you. Hence this striving after knowledge, and as you 

 are indebted to the labours of those who have gone before, so 

 there is an obligation upon you to hand on your own quota 

 to those who come after, and thus to work for the common 

 good. But, for yourselves individually, there should be an aim 

 higher, infinitely higher, than the acquisition of knowledge, — 

 I mean, the formation of character. Never forget that there 

 may be much knowledge and very little nobility of character, 

 and as this latter is the principal thing for the individual, see 

 you do nothing which would injure it in your search for the 

 former. In comparison with nobleness of character the world's 

 highest possessions are poor. Your strivings, then, should be 

 for the formation of a noble character : in your search for 

 knowledge, to love the true and the good and to despise the 

 false and the mean, and to follow its pursuit in the true 

 scientific spirit — the search after truth. In so doing you will 

 no doubt encounter many prejudices, and experience many 

 failures, but do not be disheartened : all true labour is never 

 lost. You may not be able to add much, or anything, to the 

 sum of human knowledge, but you will have your reward in 

 the consciousness that you have tried to do your duty. 



Having by these preliminary remarks succeeded, I hope, in 

 freeing myself from the imputation of one-sidedness, I will en- 

 deavour, in a few sentences, to give some suggestions as to the 

 manner in which I think the objects of our Society may be 

 most practically and beneficially pursued. These objects are 

 set forth in the rules of the Society as " the Study of Natural 

 History in all its Branches." Now the term " Natural History" 

 here, as I understand it, is employed in its widest sense, and 

 as the words themselves imply, " to designate the study of all 

 natural objects indiscriminately, whether these are endowed 

 with life, or exhibit none of those incessant vicissitudes which 

 collectively constitute vitality." If I am right, then the objects 

 of our Society embrace the study of the three great kingdoms 

 or divisions of nature — animal, vegetable, and mineral. The 

 mere statement of the case shows, then, that to enable the study 



