210 Anniversary Address. 



Mournful as is the retrospect of the past year, let us not 

 " sorrow as men without hope;" if the bodily presence of those 

 who were the life and soul of our Club are removed from us, 

 may we not, in all our future meetings, still recall them to 

 memory, and fancy that, though invisible to us, they may still 

 hover around us, and participate, in a more exalted form, the 

 pleasures of which we partake ? May the recollection of the 

 example they have left behind them stimulate each member to 

 increased exertion, so that the Club may not only maintain the 

 position it holds, but that it may go on gathering strength and 

 reputation from year to year. It is the highest honour that 

 we can pay to the memory of our chief, to preserve it in the 

 position in which he bequeathed it to us. The study of Nature 

 is inexhaustible, and it never, when rightly pursued, loses its 

 relish ; and even when life itself is almost gone, memory 



" Will play with flowers, 



And babble o' green fields." 



If an admiration of the works of God raises the mind and cha- 

 racter above the cares and troubles of this world, may we not 

 hope that such a temper of mind may be far more highly grati- 

 fied and exalted in a future state ? Such a hope is in harmony 

 with all our best feelings, and may surely be indulged without 

 mischief or blame, if it does not interfere with that absolute 

 reference of everything connected with futurity to the wisdom 

 and goodness of our Creator, which ought to be not only our 

 duty, but delight. Under the influence of this disposition, every 

 enjoyment and every hope is enhanced ; and He surely cannot 

 be offended by our associating the admiration of His works with 

 any ideas or hopes concerning the happiness in store for us 

 hereafter. 



