596 BALCH— SOME FORMER MEMBERS. [April i8, 



and Oliver Wendell Holmes. And let us not forget that a Philadel- 

 phian, George H. Boker, minister to Russia and author of Francesca 

 di Rimini, was elected a member. Surely it is our loss that Samuel 

 L. Clemens (Mark Twain) was not: his was a case of the " quarante 

 et unieme fauteuil " of the French Academy, for the name of Mark 

 Twain will be remembered as long as our country lasts. 



I should much like to speak to you of our living townsmen here, 

 as well as in other parts of the country, who are members and have 

 gained distinction in the world of letters ; but there is not time to 

 mention them all, and it is too difficult and ungracious a task to 

 choose among them. 



From the foregoing men whom we have learnt were members of 

 this notable society, we see that in its bounds it has embraced all 

 knowledge, and awarded the honor of its membership not to a single 

 class of scholars or even to members of a few groups, but to savants 

 to whatever branch of learning they may have devoted their time and 

 powers. Membership in this society is an honor justly prized among 

 scholars. And not the least of the causes for the esteem in which 

 membership in the American Philosophical Society is held, is that 

 it is so universal in its scholarship. 



The greatest thinkers of the world were men whose mental hori- 

 zon was not limited by the thought that that study upon which they 

 devoted their best powers was vastly more important than any other, 

 but recognized that knowledge extended in all directions and took an 

 interest in many channels. 



One of the best and most notable examples of a man whose 

 learning was not confined only to his special branch, but who sought 

 by every means in his power to gain as an aid to his cherished aim 

 knowledge in every sphere of human activity, was the ablest of the 

 Carthaginian generals, Hannibal. Master of everything that was 

 known in his time that pertained to the carrying on of war, Han- 

 nibal was not only the school master of the Romans in the art of 

 strategy, an art which he practically originated and drilled thor- 

 oughly into his Roman pupils by inflicting upon them all sorts and 

 kinds of reverses, but also he was a scholar. For splendidly edu- 

 cated by the direction of his father, Hamilcar, he knew almost every- 



