2 Inaugural Address. 
or eminent for their learning, and it would therefore have been . 
most difficult for me to reconcile to myself my occupation of 
this place had I not felt assured of your recognition in me of 
those more humble, but perhaps not less useful qualities which 
may aid our common object, but in the language of one who 
had far less reason for using it under circumstances not unlike 
the present. I repeat that “in zeal for the welfare of this 
Association, in intense interest for the accomplishment of its 
object, I yield to none, and if these may suffice, I hope I shall 
not be found unworthy of the trust you repose in me.” Yet 
it is no common responsibility with which you have charged 
me, for this Association is one of the great powers which the 
altering phases of this world have called into action; yet a few 
years since and it could not have existed ; and even now some 
persons are found unable to appreciate its worth or understand 
Its purpose. 
And now may I be permitted to urge the necessity of that 
mutual support and co-operation upon which the progress and 
ultimate success of the Society is entirely based. From as 
simple an origin have the noblest institutions of our parent 
lands had birth, where their founders, however few their 
numbers, have shown that earnest perseverance which is the 
sure index of success; nor need we doubt our success in 
securing the same issue, for whilst every other interest is 
progressing with no ordinary rapidity, we may rest assured 
that the facilities for experiment and observation will become 
daily more attainable. 
If we look back upon the early history of the human 
family, when the arts of husbandry reigned alternately with 
those of warfare; and if we compare the comforts of life, 
and the means of intellectual enjoyment in those ages, with 
those of the present day, we shall perceive how vain it 
would be to attempt to measure the advantages which have 
resulted from the pursuit of knowledge and the ou of the 
natural sciences. 
