xxvi President's Address for the year 1879. 



in the directions indicated comes out of work done for recrea- 

 tion ; and while it must be admitted there are many among 

 us from whom scientific work might naturally be expected 

 who have either left the ranks or lag behind, the proportion of 

 people here who occupy themselves and spend their spare time 

 in various kinds of scientific observation and research is much 

 greater than in any place I know of in the mother-country, 

 or, I believe, in Europe. Although there are no Newtons, 

 Faradays, Owens, or the like among the pioneers of scientific 

 work in these colonies, there are among our younger students 

 numbers of possible ones, carefully and modestly following 

 the difficult trails of these great men ; and however remote 

 may be the hope that any will ever attain to the eminence of 

 such men, it still remains attainable. Let it be also remem- 

 bered that no occupation, not even that all-absorbing one 

 of " making haste to be rich," which dwells among us here 

 like a burning perennial fever, can confer such real and last- 

 ing pleasure as is experienced by earnest and devout 

 students of nature and God's laws which govern it. 



