
The President’s Address. 129 | 
history of its structure; like the striking fact, admitted by zoologists, 
that the teeth of each animal have a necessary connection with the 
entire organization of its frame, so that within certain limits we can 
predict the entire organization by simply examining the tooth. 
When the true path of enquiry has once been indicated the rest is 
comparatively easy. Archzologists, by their labours, are collecting 
materials for the history of man, the noblest, and at the same time 
the most arduous of all pursuits. 
‘¢ Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, 
The proper study of mankind is Man.” 
I want to rescue archeology from the general charge that has been 
made of its being a mere idle pastime. Let me glance at the merits 
and advantages of our own Association. Wiltshire is rich in objects of 
antiquity, and possesses a mass of illustrations. We have castles and 
towns of different periods, ages, and races; tombs, barrows, and Druid- 
ical temples, tessellated pavements, Roman villas, great, Roman roads, 
abbeys, with specimens of Anglo-Saxon architecture, like Malmesbury 
Abbey Church; Norman arches and shafts,abbeys of the Early English 
like Bradenstoke; and of the florid English, like Lacock ; stone crosses, 
preaching crosses, market crosses; some of the finest specimens of 
civil and domestic architecture, like South Wraxhall; and ancient 
bridges, and bells ; and ancient historians, like Aubrey, Sir R. Hoare, 
and Britton, and our present most worthy historian and chronicler, 
Canon Jackson. With such materials before us we have all the 
temptations requisite to induce us to become archeologists. But 
we do not stop here; we offer in addition pleasant excursions, 
cheerful company, and very frequently the most attractive hospitality 
and sumptuous refreshment, in order to relieve the more arduous 
labours—so that the Wiltshire archeological life, like the human 
life, considered as a whole, may be said to have two distinct branches, 
one branch being characteristic of pleasant excursions and modern 
social life, and the other of the march of knowledge by the study 
of the habits of men and manners of preceding centuries. Perhaps 
some of the present company are not aware of the simile, and have 
never considered that they have a double existence. Plants may 
