10 Wisconsin Academy of /Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



tion, both demanded and encouraged tlie employment of agen- 

 cies calculated to rapidly advance it to a condition of material 

 prosperity and power, it was no less demonstrable that true 

 greatness could only be assured by tlie timely adoption and 

 earnest use of measures looking to higli intellectual and social 

 development. 



"What then is the status of Wisconsin as a civilized State ? 

 was a question that demanded attention. And since the de- 

 velopment of a people is illustrated and measured by its cul- 

 tivation of Science and the application of it to the numberless 

 uses of political, social and industrial life, as well as by its 

 achievements in Literature and Art, it was a question that 

 could be answered — a question, indeed, that must be answered, 

 if new agencies for the advancement of the commonwealth 

 were to be wisely planned and put into successful operation. 



To the question. What has hitherto been done in the vari- 

 ous departments of Science — that is, for Science and by means 

 of it ? the answers were these : 



In Pliilosopliy^ which may be called the science of Science, 

 and is the common, though unseen, source in which all the so- 

 called sciences have their origin, — in Philosophy, distinctively 

 considered, almost nothing, so far as had appeared to the pub- 

 lic through the medium of any publication ; unless, uj)on the 

 one hand, by the application of established principles, to con- 

 firm past deductions, or, on the other, to supply facts for new 

 generalizations. Indeed, we have learned of but a single im- 

 portant contribution to Philosophy made by a citizen of our 

 State, and even that was a contribution to its literature rather 

 than to Philosophy itself, to wit : 



Upon the Pkesekt Stand-point of Philosophy. By Dr. K. S. Bayr- 

 HOFFER, Ph. D., late of Green County, Wisconsin. Published by the 

 PhilosopJiische Moiiatshefte of Berlin, Germany, Vol. III., Nos. 4 and 5; 

 Vol. IV., Nos. 4 and 5. 



