peesident's address. 15 



and enjoy the freshness of a lovely autumn morning, and see 

 the sun rise ; and so, sometime before break of day they are up 

 and off to wander along the higher ground of our rocky coast, 

 and walk along the headland in the sweet, cool morning air, 

 when all is still except the slight sea breeze and the ripple of 

 the tiny waves on the rocky shore ; and as they ramble slowly 

 along and commune together of what they have come out to see, 

 they can discern, by the brightening of the sky in the far east, 

 the lovely fleecy clouds piled in the summer air; but — "What 

 is this?" they all exclaim, as from the hoi'izon to the zenith 

 there shoot up lovely golden streams of light, whicli come and 

 go and flicker like the Aurora Borealis in a cold winter's night; 

 and as they stand entranced and watch, the lovely fleecy clouds 

 to north and south of them have their heaving edges all touched 

 with gold most exquisitely. But the panorama spread before 

 them changes each moment. "Ah! what is this?" they all 

 exclaim, as far, far away in the eastern sky a golden streak of 

 much greater brilliancy appears above the horizon, and every 

 tiny wave of the sea has its tip flecked with gold, and these 

 flecks oi gold seem to be floating on an exquisite bed of 

 amethystine blue liquid ; and almost before the eye can take 

 this in, it is changed again, and the whole of the sky and clouds 

 are flooded with a most gorgeous colouring of rose and crimson 

 and gold and purple, and the sea becomes one seething mass of 

 lovely colours, changing every moment, when suddenly, as with 

 a bound, the golden orb of day, which has caused all these mar- 

 vellous effects, rushes above the horizon, and floods this world 

 of ours with his beneficent rays ; and we hear the birds singing, 

 and the ploughman calling to his team, and the lowing of the 

 cattle, and the far-off clang of the hammer, reminding us that 

 we are still in this work-a-day world of ours, for we had almost 

 forgotten, as we gazed on this wondrous scene, where we were, 

 and felt as though we were looking through the open portals of 

 some glorious region into which we were about to enter, and 

 which we had not seen before. Ladies and gentlemen, this is 

 no fancy picture which I have been endeavouring to paint, but 

 one which in younger days I have often seen ; and though it is 



