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this world, as measured by intellectual enjoyment, are open to almost 
all who care to taste of them. The daily routine of a man’s labour 
may be closely hedged, and his time of leisure small, yet the stories 
that nature hides in her bosom need not be strange to him. If he be 
an archfeologist, the vanished cities of the past appear to him in all 
their grandeur, and the habits and customs of bygone races rise up 
before him to people the deserted places. If he be a naturalist, he 
may trace in every plant and insect, the history of a past that is incon¬ 
ceivable in its immensity, to which the time of the archfeologist is 
but as yesterday ; or if he be a geologist, then the time of the naturalist 
sinks into insignificance, and he sees the world peopled with successive 
races of animals and plants, and travelling ever backward, perceives 
the origin of life on the earth, or, beyond this, the seething mass from 
which its solid crust has been formed. Then, having become a 
partner in these pursuits, he may confer with those who prefer wisdom to 
ignorance, and who choose to walk in light rather than darkness ; he 
may take part in their counsels when they speak of those hidden facts 
which it has been the joy and pleasure of their lives to unfold. Or, 
if these things charm him not, he can sit with the grand old fathers 
of prose and verse, and can ponder over the literature that shows that 
the thoughts, the aims, and the aspirations of our race form one 
continuous whole, the same to-day as thousands of years ago. He 
can trace how the mites of humble workers have made up the, dare I 
say, stupendous, whole of our knowledge of to-day. The man, I say, 
who has joined ours and kindred societies has shown that he has in 
him the true intellectual thirst which is born in few, and which is 
independent of wealth and station, and, having become conscious of 
this greater gift, he knows and lives a grander life than that given by 
mere worldly wealth and possessions ; he worships at an older and 
more inspiring shrine that those found in temples built with hands ; 
he is richer by far in his own self-reliance, and in the consciousness of 
the best that is in man, than any “merchant prince or railway 
monarch.” 
I am afraid, gentlemen, that I have wearied you, and yet I would 
make a final appeal to each and every member to do his best to make 
this Society worthy of its traditions and its name. To you I appeal 
with confidence to make the next year's work bear more than a satis¬ 
factory comparison with the past. I would earnestly beg every member 
to increase our present membership. This is one means of improving 
our position. I have already pleaded for the formation of a separate 
publication fund, so that we may increase the scientific value of the 
work sent out by our Society. I trust that I shall not plead in vain, 
and I feel sure that if every member will serve his Society to the best 
of his ability in these directions, he will be more than satisfied when 
he sees that we can then bring our work to a fuller fruition, and make 
it more valuable by leaving it in such a condition that it may be useful 
to those who come after us. 
A vote of thanks to the President terminated the proceedings. 
