1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 5 



plored for a long time the absence of adequate facilities for these 

 persons to' meet, become acquainted with each other, and by 

 attrition of thought and interchange of knowledge and opinion, 

 foster a true literary and scientific spirit. When the Carnegie 

 offer of $100,000 was received, the opinion was expressed in some 

 quarters that Ottawa's wealthy citizens should have been ap- 

 proached, and that, had this been done, the appeal would have 

 been adequately answered. The public library is built, but we 

 want, Ottawa wants, Ottawa requires, an institution that shall be 

 a home, a meeting place, open daily, for its literary and scientific 

 people; consequently the generosity of our wealthy men need not 

 go in search of an opportunity of bestowing on the city a further 

 very material benefit. I do not like to make comparisons between 

 ourselves and the people living to the south of us, but we must 

 admit that their opulent citizens appear to vie with each other in 

 donating moneys for the public weal directly, as in the case of 

 public libraries, or educational institutions, and indirectly through 

 facilitating the work of such societies as ours. 



A building such as I have in view could be erected for $50,000, 

 and its further maintenance could undoubtedly be borne by those 

 interested in intellectual progress. 



Think of the number of literary and scientific men in Ottawa 

 who now are merely entities, no link, no binding element between 

 them, no gravitating point, no magnetic field surrounding them, 

 but compelled as individual atoms to float through space and off 

 the stage without having discharged their duties and responsibili- 

 ties to themselves and to their fellow citizens as they ought. Such 

 men as a rule have but slender means, and in any large undertaking 

 must look for assistance to the wealthier men of the community. 

 I am not pleading exclusively for the Ottawa Literary and Scien- 

 tific Society, I am pleading for all our men and women who are 

 devoting much of their time to intellectual work, be it of a literary, 

 historical, economic or scientific character. The day of the recluse 

 is past; co-operation, commingling of thoughts, combination of 

 efforts, are the watchwords for advancement ; and let no one for a 

 moment imagine that the advancement of an}^ part of the com- 

 munity, and particularly of its intellectual class, does not influence 

 and affect beneficially the whole social body, and in ever widening 

 circles permeate the life of the nation. 



Our distinguished premier. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, declared many 

 years ago that Ottawa should become the intellectual centre of the 

 Dominion; and nothing I take it, would sooner bring about that 



