224 ADDRESS DELIVERED AT 



ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE SIItKBECK 

 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 ^ggischhorn ; 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 



