George G. Pursey, the Secretary of the Recreative Science Club, has been so closely identified with the Society for the past thirty-seven years, that it seems desirable to refer to him for a moment. Born in Walton, Somersetshire, March 18, 1831, he received his education in the church school, there being no day school in the village. He joined with five other boys to raise a fund to buy books, the first of which to fall into George Pursey’s hand was one by Robert Owens on industrial reform. Emerson’s “Essays” followed, and when the books were distributed, the essays of the Concord Sage fell to the lot of our friend. They are still in a good state of preservation. I have seen the volume, which is now about seventy years old.

The day when he heard Elihu Burritt lecture was a red-letter day in the boyhood of George Pursey. He came to Canada in 1857. When the Recreative Science Club was organized, besides being Secretary, he was in charge of the department of General Literature. His contributions to the proceedings were ever char­acterized by grace of diction and a far imaginative sweep. He was a charter member of the Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto when it was incorporated in 1890.

For nearly eight years, he made daily drawings of those sun­ spots which were visible in Toronto. His apparatus was home­ made. He made his own telescope. He is still living, victory­ winged, in his home at No. 137 Helendale Ave., a shrine to all those who love idealism and the lofty simplicity of great souls. A lover of stars and trees and flowers, to him

"The meanest flower that blows
Can give thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

And yet, he loves people far more than stars, and meets ail lovers on the open roads of life. Is not this life of poise and peace the only real life?