26 



Meetings, 1885. 



members, and the very little time which most of them are 

 able to devote to the object it has in view, must be taken into 

 consideration. None of us are, what may be designated, 

 gentlemen of leisure. "We all have daily tasks and avocations 

 laid out for us, which sadly interfere with the methodical 

 study of Nature, which is the only one that is sure to bring 

 good results. There is not a better known or truer proverb 

 than that which says that " Time and tide wait for no man." 

 Well, neither do the seasons, with the wonderful creations, 

 transmutations, and transformations of animal and vegetable 

 life which follow in their train ; and he who would successfully 

 investigate these phenomena, must be ever on the watch, ready 

 to profit by every opportunity which each successive day or 

 hour may bring forth. Nature will not wait for the student — 

 he must wait on her, at her own appointed time, whether it be 

 at early morn, noon, or dewy eve, or even when she has drawn 

 her sable mantle over the field to be surveyed. "With such 

 serious difficulties in our way, we can scarcely expect to win 

 any great prize in a competition to which so many are far 

 better prepared than ourselves. All we can expect to accom- 

 plish, until we can qualify ourselves better for the race, is to 

 follow our leaders as closely as we can. Whilst doing this, we 

 may be permitted, however, to benefit largely from their 

 greater success ; for there is this advantage to be derived from 

 all discoveries in the realm of Nature, that no one can take a 

 patent for them, or hold them for his exclusive benefit. He 

 who is fortunate enough to have extended the boundaries of 

 science, is amply rewarded in the consciousness of having 

 obtained a nearer acquaintance with the plans of the All- Wise 

 Creator — of having explained one more hitherto obscure 

 passage of the great book that He has opened before us, for 

 our instruction and study. 



Again, in measuring our work -and especially if we wish 

 to compare it with that of sister societies abroad— other 

 considerations have to be taken into account. I would not by 



