THE president's ADDRESS. 87 



able management of the editor and the editing committee, has reflected 

 honor upon the Institute, and has been one of the chief means of 

 making the society known beyond the Hmits of the Province, and of 

 estabhshing for it something more than a mere local reputation, I 

 think therefore that a sense of gratitude to those who have labored so 

 zealously and eifectively, should incite us each in our several degrees 

 to assist in the work, and I would join with the Council in earnestly- 

 inviting a more active co-operation on the part of the members gene- 

 rally, both in contributing to the Journal, and to the subjects for dis- 

 cussion at the weekly meetings. 



I may fairly presume that it is the earnest desire of every Canadian 

 that his country should at least keep pace in its intellectual progress 

 with its growth in wealth and advancement in material prosperity ; and 

 we can doubtless point to our colleges and universities to prove that 

 we have not been unmindful of the claims of letters, and that the 

 generation, not yet passed away, which found Upper Canada a wilder- 

 ness, and by their energy and industry converted it into a thriving and 

 populous Province, were not so absorbed in the mere material interests 

 of the day, as to preclude their taking thought for the higher interests 

 of learning and science. But, admitting all this, it can scarcely be 

 denied that the study of the physical sciences has, until very lately, 

 made but comparatively little progress in Canada, and if we would 

 establish for our country an honourable standing in the world of 

 science, it behooves us to use our best exertions to aid and foster those 

 associations which tend to encourage a spirit of enquiry, awaken a 

 taste for scientific pursuits and investigations, and assist in promoting 

 those observations and experiments Avhich but for some such organiza- 

 tion would perhaps never be made. Now in this Institute we possess 

 just such an organization as we require — a centre into which the trea- 

 sures gleaned by the experience, the observation, and the discoveries of 

 active and intelligent minds amongst us, should naturally flow, to be 

 there digested and arranged, and thence again diffused throughout 

 the length and breadth of the land. 



In this wondrous age of mental activity and scientific research, we 

 need to task all our energies to keep pace with the progress of discov- 

 ery. Every year new fields are thrown open for the researches of the 

 geographer, the naturalist, and the geologist. Countries hitherto 

 almost inaccessible, either from the natural obstacles which interposed 

 themselves to their exploration, or rendered so by the jealous restric- 



