JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 1 7 



" History and Antiquities of the country." It would not be ex- 

 pedient for me to dwell at any length on the value of the cultivation 

 of Science, Literature and Art, for that has already been very fully 

 done before by my predecessors in their inaugural addresses, but I 

 will reiterate what has been said, that in this busy age of ours we are 

 too often assailed with that question of expediency that is advanced 

 as regards anything beyond mere money-grabbing by the average 

 man or woman. For even our lady friends are too prone to let their 

 peculiar cares become too pressing, whether they are engaged in 

 business or feel themselves bound down by domestic ties. Hum- 

 boldt in his Cosmos refers very aptly to the value of a study of the 

 Arts and Sciences, and although written forty years ago his opinions 

 are still pertinent ; he says as follows : 



" An equal appreciation of all branches of the mathematical, 

 physical and natural sciences is a special requirement of the present 

 age, in which the material wealth and the growing prosperity of 

 nations are principally based upon a more enlightened employment 

 of the products and forces of nature. Those States which take no 

 active part in the general industrial movement, in the choice and pre- 

 paration of natural substances, or in the application of mechanics 

 and chemistry, and among whom this activity is not appreciated by 

 all classes of society, will infallibly see their prosperity diminish in 

 proportion as neighboring countries become strengthened and in- 

 vigorated under the genial influence of arts and sciences." 



But better, perhaps, even than these remarks, apt though they 

 are, is a consideration of what we witnessed last year in the class of 

 men who took part in the British Association meeting in Toronto, 

 for what do we find ? An array of business men who also take an 

 interest in scientific matters, notably the President, Sir John Evans, 

 a man without a university education as regards an ordinary arts 

 course, but a member of many scientific societies, and so one of our 

 visitors told us in Hamilton, the only man, or one of the few, who has 

 read the Encyclopaedia Brittanica through. Another good example is 

 that of Sir John Lubbock, who, although an active member of the bank- 

 banking firm of Robarts, Lubbock & Co., is better known as a popular 

 writer and lecturer, and of whom Punch used the following parody: 



"How doth the busy banking bee 

 Improve each shining hour," 



in allusion to his investigations on the subject of Ants and Bees. 



