158 
ANNTVEESAEY ADDEESS. 
I was prevented by illness last year from doing this, and my place 
was most ably and efficiently filled by Mr. Evans. I wish he 
conld fill it now. But I could not say that I was ill this time, 
and I therefore resolved to appear, to open the proceedings with 
such remarks as might occur to me, and to ask him, and any 
others who would be sufficiently good-natured, to back me up, 
in order that if your principal dish fails you may have something 
else to fall back upon. 
Having screwed up my courage to the task, and begun seriously 
to consider what remarks I should make, the first thing that occurs 
to me is to become painfully impressed with my own ignorance. 
Geology, botany, meteorology, ornithology, entomology, zoology, 
alas ! I fear that I have nothing but the smallest smattering of any 
one of them, of most of them not even that. What have I been 
learning all my life ? Of course, while I was at school I was 
learning Greek and Latin. But what have I been doing since 
beyond gradually forgetting these ? To do myself justice, I must 
own that I have always been fond of reading. I have read a 
certain amount of history, and I have followed more or less care¬ 
fully the politics of each day for the last quarter of a century. 
But what connexion can this have with natural history ? Some 
people have said that all sciences will be found to be in reality 
connected together if you trace them to their source; that there 
are certain rules which apply to them all; that in the same way as 
heat and motion and force are in reality the same thing, so all the 
sciences will be found to be one. That all branches of science are 
connected together is indicated by the manner in which excellence 
in one branch leads to general proficiency. This last cannot be 
better shown than in the career of one who was accustomed to take 
a prominent part in your proceedings. I refer to the late Mr. 
Gwyn Jeffreys. He was a man whose loss will be felt by many 
others besides ourselves. But I will not allude to his merits further 
than to illustrate my subject. He himself modestly told us some 
time ago that he was a man of one book. This is an exaggerated 
statement, but he had made his great mark by his deep and inti¬ 
mate acquaintance with every detail of the science of conchology. 
Knowing this one branch thoroughly gave him almost without 
seeking it a very good acquaintance with the rest of science. Even 
more than this. It was, I think, by knowing one branch of science 
so completely, and by having gained such distinction in it that he 
had trained his intellect in such a way as to be able so admirably 
to perform all his duties as a citizen, that he acquired so good a 
reputation in every walk of life, and is so universally regretted. 
