206 Canadian Record of Science. 



is certain to lead to an actual and real co-operation in scien- 

 tific work. In furtherance of this, I am glad to see here 

 to-day influential representatives of most of the British 

 Colonies, of India, and of the United States. We welcome 

 here, also, delegates from other countries ; and though the 

 barrier of language may at present prevent a larger union, 

 we may entertain the hope that Britain, America, India, 

 and the Colonies, working together in the interest of science, 

 may ultimately render our English tongue the most general 

 vehicle of scientific thought and discovery, a consummation 

 of which I think there are, at present, many indications. 



But, while science marches on from victory to victory, its 

 path is marked by the resting-places of those who have 

 fought its battles and assured its advance. In looking back 

 to 1865, there rise before me the once familiar countenances 

 of Phillips, Murchison, Lyell, Forbes, Jeffreys, Jukes, 

 Eolleston, Miller, Spottiswoode, Fairbairn, Gassiot, Carpen- 

 ter, and a host of others, present in full vigor at that meet- 

 ing, but no more with us. These were veterans of science ; 

 but, alas! many then young and rising in fame are also 

 numbered with the dead. It may be that before another 

 Birmingham meeting, many of us, the older members now, 

 will have passed away. But these men have left behind 

 them ineffaceable monuments of their work, in which they 

 still survive, and we rejoice to believe that, though dead to 

 us, they live in the company of the great and good of all ages 

 who have entered into the unseen universe where all that is 

 high and holy and beautiful, must go on accumulating till 

 the time of the restitution of all things. Let us follow 

 their example and carry on their work, as G-od may give us 

 power and opportunity, gathering precious stores of know- 

 ledge and of thought, in the belief that all truth is immortal, 

 and must go on for ever bestowing blessings on mankind. 

 Thus will the memory of the mighty dead remain to us as a 



power which — 



"Like a star 

 Beacons from the abode where the eternal are." 



I do not wish, however, to occupy your time longer with 

 general or personal matters, but rather to take the oppor- 



