Gentlemen,—I have three important duties to perform this afternoon. The first is once again to offer you a most hearty welcome to the City of York and to the Retreat. The second duty is an equally pleasurable one, namely, to thank you, from the depths of my inner consciousness, for your courteous thoughtfulness in spontaneously offering to revisit York this year, in celebration of the Retreat Centenary, and for your great goodness in conferring on me, just before my retirement from office, the high honour of the Presidentship of our Association. The third duty, however, is more difficult; indeed, the thought of it has been ever present with me during the past year. The more I have thought of the best subject for a presidential address, and the more previous presidential addresses I have re-read and studied, the more difficult and onerous my task has seemed to me.