20 



and assumed that tliey had all been put on the same 

 footing. 

 Presidential But to whatever decision we may each come on these 

 clifficulties. controverted points, one thing appears clear from a 

 retrospect of past experience ; viz., that first or last, either 

 at the outset in his choice of subject, or in the conclu- 

 sions ultimately drawn therefrom, the President, accord- 

 ing to his own account at least, finds himself on every 

 occasion in a position of " exceptional, or more than 

 usual difficulty." And your present representative, 

 like his predecessors, feels himself this moment in 

 a similar predicament. The reason which he now 

 offers is, that the branch of Science which he repre- 

 sents is one whose lines of advance, viewed from a 

 Mathematician's own point of view, offer so few points 

 of contact with the ordinary experiences of life or modes 

 of thought that any account of its actual progress which 

 he might have attempted must have failed in the first re- 

 quisite of an address, namely, that of being intelligible. 

 View of Now if this esoteric view had been the only aspect of the 



Mathematics g^]3Jgc^ which he could present to his hearers, he might 

 well have given up the attempt in despair. But although 

 in its technical character Mathematical Science suffers 

 the inconveniences, while it enjoys the dignity, of its 

 Olympian position ;] still in a less formal garb, or in 

 disguise, if you are pleased so to call it, it is found 

 present at many an unexpected turn ; and although some 

 of us may never have learnt its special language, not a few 

 have, all through our scientific life, and even in almost 

 every accurate utterance, like Moli^re's well known 

 character, been talking Mathematics without knowing it. 

 It is, moreover, a fact not to be overlooked that the 

 appearance of isolation, so conspicuous in Mathematics, 



