102 the peesident's addhess. 



dents one whose name has long heen familiar to us as an active and 

 efficient officer of one of the learned societies of the Sister Province. 



The meeting of the Legislature will also bring together many 

 who have taken a warm interest in the advancement of this Asso- 

 ciation, and who have given the most substantial proofs of that 

 interest, in the aid and support which they have uniformly extended 

 to us, whenever the question of pecuniary assistance to the Institute 

 has been brought before them in their places in parliament. 



All these are considerations, which supply the strongest possible 

 motives to renewed exertion on our part, and we should endeavor to 

 shew that the countenance and support which have been extended 

 to us, have not been bestowed in vain, or without producing cor- 

 responding fruit. 



And this naturally leads me to the consideration of another sub- 

 ject, which from its importance deserves to be specially alluded to 

 on an occasion like the present. I mean the number and character 

 of the papers which have been read before the Institute during the 

 past session, as this must, after all, afford the surest index of the vi- 

 tality and energy of the Society itself. 



A glance at the list contained in the report will satisfy us, I think, 

 that both in point of numbers and interest they will bear a favorable 

 comparison with those of former years, and what is also very desira- 

 ble, a large proportion were upon subjects connected with the natu- 

 ral history, and the history of the aboriginal races of this country, and 

 the public works of the Province. But there is nevertheless, I fear 

 ground for the complaint made in the report, of "apparent supineness' 

 on the part of the members, as shewn in the fact that the labor has 

 been borne by comparatively few, and that to the members of the 

 Council is due the credit of having furnished by far the largest pro- 

 portion of the papers of the session. 



The members of the Institute should never forget that in the 

 words of one of our first Presidents — "it is not organization which 

 makes the difference between things animate and inanimate, but life. 

 Stone walls do not a prison make — nor do apartments and para- 

 phernalia make the learned society, but learning. It is not enough 

 for us to have combined ourselves to effect certain useful objects, if 

 having done so we, individually, leave those objects to take care of 

 themselves." 



Composed, as an association of this kind must always be, of very 

 many whose occupations do not admit of their devoting any consid- 

 erable portion of their time to the pursuits of literature or science, 

 and who have joined the Society more for the sake of acquiring 



