norance of every-day subjects is, they know not how to go to work at 

 them. 



This much, gentlemen, as to the objects of our organization. We 

 do not meet here as a social school, as some people have supposed. 

 We do not come here to do our work, but to compare our works, to 

 criticise them, to aid each other in our diflficulties, to preserve what- 

 ever we may have gathered. And this leads me to the one thing 

 which we must bear in mind : That we are to work. Our meetings 

 are not to be playspells ; nor are we to work carelessly. First-class 

 work is the demand — work done carefully, conscientiously. Treat our 

 subjects thoroughly. We have a superabundance of science for pop- 

 ular use ; altogether too much scientific work, so-called, done when 

 one has wandered into the fields and seated himself on the velvet moss 

 beneath the leafy canopy of some umbrageous oak ; too many scien- 

 tific Fourth of July orations. The need is of accurate, complete 

 work, independent work- — ^reliability must characterize it. We must 

 be an authority in our field. 



