G 
PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 
morbidly so to the prestige of seniority. Of course, a Society whose 
members are confined to the elements found in the mutual improve- 
ment class of a public school cannot be expected to rank with sucli 
an one as ours ; but, on the other hand, a Society in which none 
but the grey-headed receive an appreciative hearing will soon 
degenerate into fossilised senility. 
The importance of young members taking up a special line of 
research cannot well be over-estimated. Doubtless there are many 
amateur naturalists who derive a great amount of enjoyment by 
culling the cream from all branches of the subject, but they never 
accomplish, except under very special circumstances, much in the way 
of solid and enduring work : they are mere dilettanti, and as such 
remain to the end. Of course a man who takes no interest what- 
ever in other branches of natural history outside his own, if such 
an one exists, cannot be taken as a desirable model for imitation. 
All-round knowledge is admirable, but very few of us can aspire to 
be all-round men. When a young man starts with that enthusiasm 
which success demands, working on any special line of research, he 
is only too apt to receive disparagement, and therefore discouragement, 
from his candid friends. He is almost certain before he has been 
long at work to be asked, what is the good of all this labour which 
he is taking 1 He will not find it easy off-hand to give a satisfac- 
tory answer to his would-be mentor, unless he follows the good 
old plan of when in doubt speaking the truth, and saying that he is 
working because it gives him pleasure — for if his investigations are 
not a genuine source of enjoyment to him he will never succeed in 
accomplishing anything of importance. Benefits to humanity may 
arise from his work, but they may not. He works for the love he 
has of his work. If he be incited to some extent by a desire of 
acquiring a certain amount of renown, do not let us judge him too 
harshly : it is not a dishonourable motive : it is not the prime 
force actuating him, and is it not preferable to attain distinction 
in such a manner than in many others 1 He will be told times and 
often that he is wasting his time, and that his talents and energies 
would be better employed in his business or in his profession. But 
is this the easel Is the man who concentrates his whole energies 
