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be a burden heavier than I have strength to bear, if I were not 
supported, as I trust I shall be, by the same friendly confidence which 
has for so long a time lightened my labours as Secretary of the Council 
and Secretary of the Academy. The general concurrence of your suf- 
frages in my favour is a proof that you expect me to use, for the benefit 
of the Academy, the experience which half a lifetime has enabled 
me to acquire. For nearly a quarter of a century I have been a mem- 
ber of this society, seldom inactive, and always deeply interested in 
what concerns its welfare. This acquaintance with the affairs of the 
Academy has been, I doubt not, my chief recommendation to you. 
Perhaps I was believed to possess another claim upon your favourable 
consideration. It was supposed that my own habits of thought ren- 
dered me capable of sympathising in the studies of members belong- 
ing to the different sections of the Academy. In this view, at least, 
my friends are not mistaken. Whilst I look up with respect to the 
attainments of brother Academicians who are my superiors in every 
separate department of science and literature, I have with them alla 
community of sentiment which enables me sometimes to cooperate, and 
always to sympathise; and thus I may be capable, in some degree, of 
representing that principle which was paramount in the minds of our 
founders. The Academy was designed to foster studies differing in 
their directions, but tending towardsa common point. It was believed 
by those who laid the foundation of the Academy that its end would be 
best promoted by the alliance which has been here established between 
men of science, men of letters, antiquaries, and historians. To this belief 
I cling; and whilst I am permitted to hold the office which you have just 
conferred upon me, I hope I shall never do anything to loosen the bonds 
which ought to unite us. We have all witnessed the great advantages 
which result from the cooperation of persons engaged in like pursuits. 
We enjoy that advantage here, and many can bear witness to the plea- 
sure and profit with which our members exchange information on the 
subjects of their common study. But we must not lose sight of, nor 
underrate, the benefits flowing from intellectual converse between par- 
ties engaged in pursuits of different kinds. Between all the various 
branches of study there is a wondrous correlation. In their actual mat- 
ter and substance they are so connected, that every day furnishes some 
fresh instance of discovery made in one science or art by reference to phe- 
nomena observed in another. But, besides this, there are characteristic 
peculiarities in the methods of investigation used by scientific men, the 
knowledge of which would be most precious to persons engaged in re- 
searches of a wholly different kind. The antiquaries among us have 
been indebted to our mineralogists,’chemists, and physiologists, for es- 
sential aid in the prosecution of their studies; I might even mention 
cases where the mere mathematician has come to their assistance. The 
boundary which separates archeology from polite literature is so faintly 
marked, that we are sometimes at a loss to determine to which of the two 
classes a paper belongs. But, over and above all this, there are cases 
where the antiquary, too hasty in forming hypotheses, and too prone to 
