vate flowers, keep a stud and kennel, bury himself in Greek and Latin literature, collect pictures, minerals, do anything which will really interest him and keep him out of the way of railroad men and railroading, and do it with his might, with enthusiasm, even to fatigue, and do it for at least four years, and by that time his cerebellum will be all right again.
Now, what the unintermitting responsibilities of the railroad official do for the destruction of the constitution of his cerebellum, just that the overstrained exercise of the creative imagination does for the demoralization of the brain of the man of science, especially if it be as it commonly is, accompanied by business anxiety. And his only way of escape from a predestined break-down is through the monotonous but interesting occupation of his perceptive faculties in the field and at his office-table. In both he will enjoy that solitude which resembles sleep in being a medicine for the weary brain. But it is a solitude peopled with unexceptionable friends—in which Care sleeps and Pleasure wakes—a solitude in which the soul multiplies itself by alliance with all the possibilities of number and all the actualities of form; a solitude from which a man returns to the society of his fellow-men sainted by the blessing of Nature and equal to the duty of existence.
In conclusion, I must express the wish that this meeting of our association may be as delightful and as useful as any that it has ever held. Those who remember how hard we used to work at them, what a harvest of mutual confidences we used to gather at them, and what a glow of fresh enthusiasm we carried away with us from them, will know what such a wish implies. Those who come fresh to this meeting will find themselves made at home in half a dozen worlds of science at once. That is the particular character and special charm of this association, wherein it differs from all local societies, and from all conventions of workers in special branches of science and art. And, as each meeting furnishes a panoramic view of the present state of human knowledge as a whole, so, at each meeting, the old and the young in science are mingled in such friendly and confidential intercourse that the prospect extends both backward to the beginnings of inquiry and forward to its possible achievements. All good tradition is precious; and so is well-trained current inquiry, and so is sound prophetic calculation. At such a meeting as this, we enjoy the rare privilege of assisting at all three; and, when we scatter to our homes, we can hardly fail to take with us something effectual for lightening and sweetening another year of work.
