224 ADDKESS DELIVERED AT 



ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE BIRKBECK 

 INSTITUTION ON OCTOBER 22, 1884. 



OUE lives are interwoven here below, frequently — ■ 

 indeed most frequently — "without our knowing it. 

 We are in great part moulded by unconscious inter- 

 action. Thus, without intending it, the present repre- 

 sentative of the Birkbeck family in Yorkshire has helped 

 to shape my life. In 1856, or thereabouts, Mr. John 

 Birkbeck aided in founding on the slope of a Swiss 

 mountain the /Eggischhorn Hotel. The success of this 

 experiment provoked in the neighbouring commune a 

 spirit of rivalry and imitation, and accordingly, upon a 

 bold bluff overlooking the great Aletsch glacier, was 

 subsequently planted the Bel Alp Hotel. To the Bel 

 Alp I went in my wanderings. Seeing it often I liked 

 it well, until at length the thought dawned upon me of 

 building a permanent nest there. Before doing so, how- 

 ever, I imitated the birds — chose, and was chosen by, 

 a mate who, like myself, loved the freedom of the 

 mountains, and we built our nest together. 



From that nest I have come straight to the Birkbeck 

 Institution, so that the following chain of connection 

 stretches between Mr. John Birkbeck and me. With- 

 out him there would have been no iEggischhorn ; with- 

 out the ^Eggischhorn there would have been no Bel 

 Alp ; without Bel Alp there would have been no Tyndall's 

 nest, and without that nest the person who now 

 addresses you would undoubtedly be a different man 

 from what he is. His bone would have been different 



