6 Inaugural Address. 



One of our happiest thoughts in connexion with our Society is 

 that of the pleasant and instructive meetings which we hold from 

 time to time. We may well look forward to a repetition of these 

 pleasures in the future, and all those who are concerned in our 

 welfare may well strain a point to make their own attendance at 

 these meetings as frequent and as instructive as possible. 



Then, again, we may hope to be still favoured occasionally, as 

 of old, with the visit of some luminary from another sphere. 

 Depend upon it such visits are of no slight advantage. We all 

 know what general interest is excited by the appearance of a 

 comet in our hemisphere. I do not mean a poor unsubstantial 

 telescopic comet which reveals itself only to the glass and the 

 understanding of the astronomer, but a real, big, blazing comet, 

 which " flames in the forehead of the morning sky," and is obvious 

 to the naked eye. People not only view it with wonder and 

 admiration, but they begin to enquire about the facts of astronomy, 

 and have a new source of intellectual pleasure opened to them. 

 Such should be the effect of the visit of a scientific comet to our 

 regions. It is good to have seen such a comet. It shows us what 

 bright results lie at the end of those studies of which we are only 

 at the beginning. It reveals to us new fields of intelligent interest 

 and sympathy. It may serve to fire some young ambition. The 

 mere presence of such a comet renders the produce of our humble 

 vintage more abundant and racy, and when it departs, whatever its 

 prototype may be suspected of doing, it leaves no baneful influence 

 behind it in its tail. 



But comets if they were every day appearances, though they 

 would still be beautiful, would excite no more sensation than does 

 the Great Bear, or the lustrous Orion. Add to this that, though we 

 may hope for, we can never reckon on, their coming. We must 

 fall back on our own constellations, and our fixed stars, for the 

 staple of the light that is to illuminate our darkness. And so, to 

 drop the metaphor, it is to the members of our Society themselves 

 that we must look for the steady supply of papers to carry on its 

 work. And this suggests another hope, which is due to our 

 increasing years. It is this. All old Harrovians are fond of visit- 

 ing and doing a good turn to Harrow. It would be very pleasant if 

 we should find that sometimes an old member of our body felt it a 

 real delight to come back to us and read us a paper on some sub- 

 ject which he had pursued further than he did when he was at 

 school, or on some new matter which had arrested his attention 

 since he was transferred to " fresh scenes and pastures new." 



But, as I said before, the present generation must do its own 

 work, and our hope is that it will do it manfully. It can look for 

 nothing more than rare and occasional aid from other and older 



