It has become a practice of late years in this Society for one of the
Vice-Presidents to read an Annual Address on some topic or topics
connected with Archaeology. I appear here to-night more in compliance
with this custom than with any hope of being able to state aught to you
that is likely to prove either of adequate interest or of adequate
importance for such an occasion.

In making this admission, I am fully aware that the deficiency lies in
myself, and not in my subject. For truly there are few studies which
offer so many tempting fields of observation and comment as Archaeology.
Indeed, the aim and the groundwork of the studies of the antiquary form
a sufficient guarantee for the interest with which these studies are
invested. For the leading object and intent of all his pursuits is--MAN,
and man's ways and works, his habits and thoughts, from the earliest
dates at which we can find his traces and tracks upon the earth, onward
and forwards along the journey of past time. During this long journey,
man has everywhere left scattered behind and around him innumerable
relics, forming so many permanent impressions and evidences of his march
and progress. These impressions and evidences the antiquary searches
for and studies--in the changes which have in successive eras taken
place (as proved by their existing and discoverable remains) in the
materials and forms of the implements and tools which man has from the
earliest times used in the chase and in agriculture; in the weapons
which he has employed in battle; in the habitations which he has dwelt
in during peace, and in the earth-works and stone-works which he has
raised during war; in the dresses and ornaments which he has worn; in
the varying forms of religious faith which he has held, and the deities
that he has worshipped; in the sacred temples and fanes which he has
reared; in the various modes in which he has disposed of the dead; in
the laws and governments under which he has lived; in the arts which he
has cultivated; in the sculptures which he has carved; in the coins and
medals which he has struck; in the inscriptions which he has cut; in the
records which he has written; and in the character and type of the
languages in which he has spoken. All the markings and relics of man, in
the dim and distant past, which industry and science can possibly
extract from these and from other analogous sources, Archaeology
carefully collects, arranges, and generalises, stimu