REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 
For the fourth time it devolves upon the Council of the Bristol Naturalists' 
Society, to present its Annual Report. 
Four years of active operation, certainly affords ample proof and test 
of the powers and performances of a Society, — yet at the close of each 
year, your Council have had the satisfaction of finding abundant material 
whereon to base their Report, and of recording the favourable progress of 
the Society ; nor are fair indications of its future activity wanting. 
To set one's house in order at stated periods, is the wise regulation of 
all prudent householders ; for the actual balance of gain or loss is best 
gathered from the accumulated transactions of the year, when a time has 
been set apart for retrospect, free from the heat and burden of the day. 
Such a regulation is even more necessary in the case of a literary or 
scientific association, than in ordinary affairs, whether private or public, 
inasmuch as it is not held together by any bond of external or internal 
exigency. A Society cannot live on the inheritance of the past j its exis- 
tence depends on the self-consciousness of present active powers, rather 
than on the credit of past achievements. Hence it is that the retrospect 
which its Annual Report affords, is valuable in direct proportion to the 
assurance which it may give of present usefulness, and of future promise. 
With the fulfilment of these conditions such a retrospect may indeed offer 
every encouragement to perseverance, and the best guarantee of permanent 
prosperity. 
The substantial benefit of a Report, can, however, only be attained by 
business-like simplicity of statement, and by moderation in its confidence. 
The prospects and promises which it holds out, must be broadly based on 
the community of interest and scientific order of the Members of the 
Society ; for a Society changes its complexion more rapidly than an indi- 
vidual, decay begins as soon as present activity fails, and its decay is 
followed by oblivion, even before it officially dissolves. Every Society that 
pursues purely scientific aims, and that is dependent solely on voluntary 
effort, has of necessity a critical constitution and an uncertain vitality, 
and therefore is in constant need of extended and sustained support /rom 
