Address by Professor Baldwin. xxv 



later they reported that while the customary entertainment might 

 be " an elegant and agreeable relaxation after the severer exercises 

 of the meeting " and afforded a pleasant opportunity for social inter- 

 course, yet, to quote their words, " that the indulgence of the sen- 

 sual appetites never made a philosopher ; that animal pleasures 

 and indulgences are unbecoming and unsuitable in the conven- 

 tions of scientific men for scientific purposes ; that such festivities, 

 late in the evening, are generally injurious to health ; that the 

 expense and trouble of preparing them are very considerable and 

 unequally fall on only a part of the attending members ; that 

 these festivities are becoming more and more luxurious and expen- 

 sive, and cannot easily be kept within moderate bounds ; and 

 lastly that they are a bad example to be exhibited in the vicinity 

 of the college : they afford to dissipated students a plausible 

 excuse for their midnight revels, and tend to paralyze the efforts 

 of the college officers to restrain their pupils from debasing and 

 expensive carousals." 



The report was accepted, and so in Christmas week of 1842 the 

 modest suppers of the Academy came to an end. Tradition says 

 that President Woolsey never attended another meeting. 



There is, in truth, a certain and altogether natural and right 

 attraction to almost every man, now, as fully as in the days of 

 Cicero, in the pleasures of the table, enjoyed in moderation and 

 in congenial company. The Academy had thrown away what 

 had been a real magnet, and its meetings as years went on became 

 more formal, and not infrequently were without a quorum. 



One may sometimes read between the leaves of history more 

 than the page contains. I am inclined to think that President 

 Woolsey 's attack and Professor Larned's report came in part — 

 though no doubt half unconsciously to themselves — from the fact 

 that their wants in the direction of such social entertainments had 

 been better met by an institution, now become a venerable one, 

 founded in 1838 by eight gentlemen of the city, all, I believe, 

 members of the Academy, and still known, by right of primogen- 

 iture, only by the name of " The Club." 



This was a company of personal friends, by 1842 somewhat 

 enlarged in numbers, who took tea, in the old New England 

 fashion (what the housewives call a " high tea ") at each other's 

 houses in succession two or three times a month, and afterwards 



