Perspectives in Prehistory: Presidential Address

Extract

The Presidency of the Prehistoric Society to which you have done me the great honour of calling me, differs from that of some other societies in that, though the period of office is four years the President is only required to deliver one Address. No doubt we owe this mercy to the fact that our customs have taken shape during an age, which it would be tempting providence to call more humane, but which is at any rate less tolerant of some forms of avoidable boredom than some previous ones. Yet even in these less rigorous times I suppose we should feel uneasy if we allowed our Presidents, or ourselves, to escape scot free: one year in four we must undergo the rite and trust that in some obscure way it will help us to avoid the evil eye and ensure at the cost of an hour's suffering a further spell of prosperity and well-being for the Society.