4Q& PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
The following Address was then delivered by th$- 
President : — 
Annual Address of the President, 
■ E. J. Lechmere Guppy, F.L.S., F.G,S., &e., 6cc. , 
On the /present condition of the- Trinidad Public Library - y 
With Suggestions for ^Improvement and Development 
of that Institution, 
u "We allow that if we were to assume a power of 
drawing a more perfect straight line or circle 
• im than any one else by superior steadiness of 
hand, or acuteness of eye, it would lead to a 
comparison of talent ; but if one merely 
assert that he can draw a more perfect line 
or circle with a ruler or compasses than ano- 
% ‘ ther can by his unassisted hand or eye, ho 
surely cannot be said to boast of mucin” — 
'Nov. Org. I, exii. 
I propose, by way of address, on the occasion of 
vacating the chair, which I have had the honor to fill 
during the past twelvemonths, to call your attention to 
' some matters’ of high interest to all who desire the ad- 
vancement of our community. As the progress of the hu- 
man race is shown by science and history to be inevitable, 
we shall only be consulting the interests.and happiness of 
oufsVlves in endeavouring to follow in the footsteps of those 
nations which are confessedly 4 the foremost in civilization. 
It has before been mentioned that this Association has, 
, without any aid from public funds, carried out, so far as 
its small means allowed, most of the objects for which the 
Corresponding Committee of the Society of Arts was insti- 
tuted in this Island with an annual grant from the pub- 
lic funds of £400 a year. As the means of the Association 
