120 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



The Treasurer's report showed receipts from all sources, of $13,281.23, and expenditures 

 of $11,022.93. 



There had been no essays offered in competition for the annual Walker prize. 

 The changes in the officers at the election were in Alpheus Hyatt being chosen Curator 

 of Palaeontology in place of Thomas T. Bouve ; J. Eliot Cabot, Curator of Ornithology, 

 in place of Dr. Henry Bryant, deceased ; and Edward S. Morse, Curator of Conchology, in 

 place of Alpheus Hyatt. 



At a meeting in June of this year, the death of Thomas Balfinch, long a member of the 

 Society, and for six years its Recording Secretary, was announced by the Rev. R. C. Water- 

 ston, with appropriate remarks upon his life and character. 



Mr. Bulfinch was deservedly held in great esteem by all the members of the Society. 

 His faithful devotion to his duty, his genial manner, his loving and sympathetic nature, 

 all conspired to endear him to them and to make his loss deeply felt, particularly to those 

 with whom he was associated in the work of the Society in earlier years. 



On motion of Dr. C. T. Jackson, Mr. Waterston was requested to prepare a fitting trib- 

 ute to the memory of the departed for the Proceedings, which he did by an exceedingly 

 interesting sketch of his life and character, and which may be found in Volume XL 

 The following is a brief abstract from this paper. 



Thomas Bulfinch was born July 14th, 1796, at Newton, Mass. He was the second son 

 of Charles Bulfinch, whose reputation as an architect at that day stood among the highest 

 in the profession. Graduating from Harvard University in 1814, he numbered among his 

 classmates Prescott the historian, the Rev. Dr. Greenwood and the Rev. Dr. Lamson. 

 After leaving college, Mr. Bulfinch was chosen usher in the Latin School. Here he 

 remained fourteen months, when feeling no very strong inclination for either of the profes- 

 sions, he entered upon the active duties of a business life. Two years were thus spent in 

 Boston, when he was led to remove to Washington, where his father was engaged as archi- 

 tect in the erection of the Capitol. Here he resided seven years, when in 1825 he returned 

 to Boston, entering into a copartnership with his relative, Mr. Joseph Coolidge. This con- 

 nection continued until 1832, when he was chosen to a responsible position iu the Mer- 

 chant's Bank, which he held until his death, a period of thirty years. 



Devoted as he was to the duties devolving upon him as a man of business, he had tastes 

 aside from this, yet more congenial to his nature, which he followed with quiet but persis- 

 tent enthusiasm. Thus it was that he became an active member of the Society and its 

 Recording Secretary. 



His mind balanced for a time between science and literature. There was that in both 

 which awakened his admiration and exerted an attractive power. At length, literature 

 gained the ascendancy, though science always continued to possess a peculiar charm. 



In 1855 he published the Age of Fable, in which he relates the stories of Mythology, 

 Greek and Roman, in a way to render them attractive to the lovers of general literature. 

 This was followed in 1858, by a volume on the Age of Chivalry, or the Legends of King 

 Arthur, presenting in the same spirit pictures of a later age. In 1863 he pubhshed the 

 Legends of Charlemagne, or the Romance of the Middle Ages. 



There were other works of less importance, all of which were the fruit of care, written 

 in hours rescued from the pressure of active business. 



