8 Inaugural Address. 



yet, arid I hope we shall not entertain, at our meetings, any 

 discussions on such abstruse questions as these. 



We have, then, done well in following the example of the learned 

 Societies of the sister Colonies. Let us now trace the coinci- 

 dences. The Royal Society of Victoria sprang from the Philoso- 

 phical Institute. The Eoyal Society of Tasmania rose on the 

 pedestal of that useful Association, the Tasmanian Society, having 

 adopted, for the addition " of Van Diem en's Land," the more 

 euphonious and correct designation by which it is now known. 

 As a humble Corresponding Member of the latter, I hail with 

 pleasure, in the person of our present Treasurer, a late I ellow of 

 the same. 



The Eoyal Society of "Victoria did not, however, advance so 

 rapidly, per saltum, as did the Tasmanian Society. It went 

 through three stages before it became full fledged. For, the 

 Yictorian Institute, the Philosophical Society of Victoria, and 

 the Philosophical Institute of Yictoria, all lent their aid towards 

 the completion of the Society as it now exists. 



Our own Society has had its changes also. At first, in the year 

 1821, it commenced as the "Philosophical Society of Australia," 

 a very lofty title for its dozen founders and members. It then, 

 in 1850, after a long interval of silence and inactivity, came out 

 as the "Australian Philosophical Society," till in 1856, still 

 contracting its territorial limits, it became represented by the 

 " Philosophical Society of New South Wales," merging itself in 

 that which now represents it, on the 1st May, 1866. 



It has been said (an imputation to which I alluded before) that 

 some of our members aspire to follow the example of the sister 

 Society, and to assume the distinctive letters F.R.S. If that is 

 our ambition, it is not one of a very high order. We must win 

 our spurs before we wear them, waiting for a charter to confer 

 that by right which ought not to be assumed without authority. 

 Such a privilege, if it be supposed to confer any distinction (and 

 without that it would be valueless), ought not to be made depen- 

 dent on sufferance or merely on the payment of a guinea annual 

 subscription. 



We are, and have been hitherto, only a small Association. 



May I venture to add that, being small, it would be well if our 

 little hive contained only working bees ; though, perhaps, our 



