4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Of him we may say what Goethe says of the poet, that 



When nature winds her endless threads along 



The spindles, heedless how they cross or tangle, 

 When all created things, a jarring throng, 



In chaos intermingling, clash and jangle, , 

 He parts them till each living fibre takes 



Its ordered place, and moves in rhythmic time. 

 And in the general consecration makes 



Each unit swell the symphony sublime. 



He reveals to us the macrocosm, and shows us : 



How all things live and work, and, ever blending, 

 Weave one vast whole from Being's ample range, 

 How powers celestial, rising and descending, 

 Their golden pitchers ceaseless interchange. 

 Their flight on rapture-breathing pinions winging, 

 From heaven to earth their genial influence bringing, 

 Through the wide sphere their chimes melodious ringing. 



Like the archangels, he 



On the floating forms of earth and sky 



Stamps the fair type of thought that cannot die. 



Assuming then that the promotion of science, both pure and 

 applied, is a desirable object, I shall now endeavour to show that 

 this Institute has faithfully pursued this object in the past, and is 

 still pursuing it in the present. With a view to investigating the 

 question of our past activity, I have taken the trouble of examining 

 the published " Proceedings of the Institute," from their inception in 

 1852, and I find that in both branches of science, in the field of the 

 patient investigation and accumulation of facts, as well as in that of 

 philosophical deduction and induction, the Institute, in its Journal, 

 has a high record. Here are to be found investigations, more 

 especially into the geology of our own country, in the labours of Sir 

 Wm. Loo'an and Professor Chapman, into its archaeology and philo- 

 logy by Prof. Wilson, Sir J. H. Lefroy, Rev. Charles Dade and 

 others, including two native Indians, Francis Assiginack, who des- 

 cribed the language and customs of the Ottawas, and Oronhyatekha, 

 ■who treated of his own Mohawk language ; in mathematical and 

 physical science we have the brilliant papers of Professors Young 

 and Loudon, which have attracted considerable attention ; in the 

 domain of classical archaeology, Dr, McCaul contributed those remark- 



