IN TR OD UC TION. 



Association to the support of scientific men. The 

 labors of the Association are, however, entitled to 

 serious consideration in other ways, and the actual 

 results of the work done are as astonishing as the 

 unprecedented quickness of growth of the Association 

 in numbers and influence. 



The originator of this enterprise has done some- 

 thing permanent toward developing and spreading a 

 taste for self-culture in an almost new sense, so far as 

 the majority of people are concerned. He has shown 

 that there is a practicable method by which the aver- 

 age intelligence and self-reliant character of the peo- 

 ple outside of the schoolroom, as well as in it, can be 

 effectively increased. He has taught thousands how 

 to work with whatever means were at hand, not only 

 for their own intellectual improvement, but for that of 

 their children and neighbors. This must also even- 

 tually affect the curriculum of the public schools in 

 many places, through the creation of a demand for 

 better and more natural methods of instruction. If he 

 devote the remainder of his life to carrying on and per- 

 fecting the system he has originated, he can do nothing 

 more desirable for the interests or science in this coun- 

 try, or more likely to secure future happiness and per- 

 sonal satisfaction for himself, as well as for many thou- 

 sands of his country-people of all ages and both sexes. 



I shall also take the liberty of saying that material 

 returns should not be wanting, in order to secure 

 the enjoyment of something more than the personal 

 satisfaction of having done good work, and that the 

 Association should be placed on a permanent basis, 

 and its work secured, now and in the future, by means 

 of large invested funds. 



Respectfully yours, 



ALPHEUS HYATT. 



