MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 117 



series of ages successfully resisted every external agency if we learned too 

 late that that vigor and energy for which ours stands confessedly preemi- 

 nent among the races of the world were being undermined by a secret but 

 irresistible agency, the offspring of our own neglect, against which science 

 and humanity had warned us in vain." 



After the delivery of the inaugural addresses, the association separated into 

 sections, and attended to the reading of papers, and to discussions on appro- 

 priate subjects. 



