A LITTLE RETROSPECT 



Remarks of Toastmaster W. A. Spalding 

 at the Opening Ban juet of the Academy. 



When Samuel F. B. Morse in 1844 sent his first telegram 

 over the experimental line between Baltimore and Washing- 

 ton, he couched it in these words: "What hath God wrought?" 

 The inherent modesty of the inventor, the reverence for his 

 source of inspiration and his concept of the momentous era 

 which he was then inaugurating, were all expressed in these 

 four one-syllable words. A more concise and memorable mes- 

 sage has never been transmitted. 



AA'hen I review the history of the Academy of Sciences for 

 the twenty-three years of its life, I am reminded of the mes- 

 sage of the immortal artist-inventor, and tempted to exclaim 

 again: "What hath God wrought?" For, taking into consid- 

 eration the humble beginning and modest pretensions of this 

 organization, and considering the men who have sustained it 

 and, in a sense moulded their lives into it; and looking at the 

 individual achievements of these men during the almost quar- 

 ter century in review, there is good cause for exclamation. 



My mind reverts to the time when a mere handful of men — • 

 not exceeding ten or twelve — who were sincerely interested in 

 scintific matters and wished to join their efiforts in keeping 

 the lamp burning, got together under the name of the Science 

 Association of Los Angeles. 



This was then a rather primitive and out-of-the way town 

 of perhaps 50,000 inhabitants. It seemed as though we were 

 not in line with any of the great events of the world or any 

 of the notable developments in science. What could be 

 achieved by a little handful of men without position or name, 

 and working for the mere love of scientific truth? In the 

 subsequent time — less than the span of one generation — this 

 question has been answered. 



A\'e now find ourselves in the midst of the most tremendous 

 social development in history. Here, on the Pacific Coast, is 

 banking up the westward rolling wave that started before the 

 day of human records, beyond the Hindu-Kush mountains in 

 far-oft' Asia. Beginning with the first migrations of the Aryan 

 races and traveling down through the history of civilization, 

 this mighty ground-swell of evolution has encircled the globe 

 and seems now entering upon its second cycle. We of the Pa- 

 cific Coast, standing at the meeting point of the old and the 

 new, may, with Tennyson, proclaim ourselves 



" — heirs of all the ages, 

 In the foremost files of time." 



Los Angeles has grown from a frontier town of 50,000 in- 

 habitants to a modern metropolis of half a million. We are 

 in touch with the great flow of commerce and the most ad- 



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