98 THE president's address. 



notions of wliat ought to be attempted and may be aecomplislied by 

 sucli means as are in our power, as well as to estimate our actual state, 

 our prospects, and our just claims upon the public. 



Since man is a social being, it is natural that he should seek aid from 

 his fellow-creatures in most of his objects, and should be disposed to 

 combine with some of them in most of his plans and labours. Civili- 

 zation increases mutual dependence, and draws closer the^ social bond, 

 thus disposing us the more to that association, of which it greatly 

 increases the power to secure advantages and iacilities. Where popu- 

 lation, wealth and high cultivation most abound, we are astonished at 

 the multitude of distinct objects for which men have combined together 

 in special societies. Every where they find this the means both for 

 improving in and enjoying their pursuits, with most economy as well 

 as the greatest success. Hence Keligion, the most important of the 

 pursuits of an intelligent and accountable being, extends and strengthens 

 its influences by association; and this method, though felt by all to be 

 natural and almost necessary, was not left to be adopted by our own 

 choice, but was from the first provided as part of a divine system, fitted 

 to meet human wants. At the other extreme we see mere amusements 

 cultivated by means of societies, and even the conveuieut supply of 

 ordinary wants creating a demand for clubs, whilst every needed form 

 of charity, every section of party polities, we may almost say every dis- 

 tinct profession or pursuit in life, has its own society. 



Is it then to be wondered at that the lovers of knowledge, which, 

 next to religion, is the noblest and the most valuable of the pursuits of 

 man, should also be disppsed to enter into combinations, and should find 

 in them both mutual encouragement and entertainment, and a most 

 efficient means of extending scientific tastes, calling forth in this direc- 

 tion the energies of those who needed only a slight stimulus to enlist 

 them in a glorious service, increasing the variety of rational and inno- 

 cent pleasures, which are so much needed amidst the labours of active 

 life; and pointing attention to those practical applications of science 

 which are of daily utility, and often of national importance ? It would 

 be wasting words to defend the principle or prove the value of scientific 

 societies, but it unfortunately happens that in a complicated social state 

 there are so mauy interfering objects that it is a real difficulty to fix the 

 proper position and establish the just claims of each. 



Our Society takes the highest ground which can be occupied by such 

 a body, in its aspiration to represent in some degree to the world the 



