Annual Presidential Address. 879 



would be rendered far more attractive if we could now aud 

 then place on our shelves, or better still, upon our table, 

 some of the more recent books on different branches of 

 natural history. I am sure this would be a great boon, 

 more particularly to our younger members. 



But it is easy to expatiate upon the needs of such a Society 

 as this. Every advancing institution has ever increasing 

 needs, and you may be sure that a society without needs is 

 in a state of stagnation. Some of the improvements which 

 I have suggested I had hoped to see carried out during my 

 own tenure of office ; but a year soon rolls by, and what I 

 anxiously hoped to do I must leave to others to perform. I 

 have so many claims upon my time and strength that I now 

 wish to retire to the ranks of this Society, and in doing so, 

 let me thank you heartily for the honour that you did me 

 in making me your President, and for all the kind indulgence 

 that you have shown me during the past year. . Though 

 unwilling longer to hold any office in the Society, I trust 

 that indirectly I may be able to advance its interests in 

 different ways. 



In conclusion, gentlemen, let me remind you of the great 

 satisfaction which everyone may derive from a study of 

 nature, who, as Wordsworth puts it, 



" Never did betray the heart that loved her." 



Sometimes down at the sea-side I fall in with people who 

 tell me that the time hangs heavily on their hands — there is 

 nothing to do — nothing to see ; and yet every wave that 

 breaks upon the beach at their feet is filled with surpassing 

 forms of beauty, whose study would make the hours all too 

 short. 



One man some years ago asked me how I could endure 

 the monotony of such a place as Little Metis. " I like," 

 said he, " to go where I can see horse races every day and 

 fire works every night." Is there pity too deep for such a 

 man ? 



"The soft blue sUy did never melt into his heart." 



The busiest among us are those most in need of change 



