ISOF.J ^g-J- [T.i'.slf.y. 



University of I'ennsylviinia. This nddress was nfterwards 

 published for the Academy, It recounts the prosfress of the 

 Academy from its beoinning-, wlien, in the shop of an apoth- 

 ecary, at the nortli-cast corner of Marliet and Second streets, 

 John Speakman called about him the intelligent scholars and 

 amateur naturalists which Philadeli)liia already then possessed, 

 raakino- his shop a centre of literary and scientific gossip, and 

 then with Jacob Gilliams, Troost, McMahon, Mann, John Shinu 

 and Parmentier, organized regular meetings in Mercer's Cake 

 Shop near the corner of Market street and Franklin place. He 

 described the groidh of the Museum, from the time of its re- 

 moval to the corner of Twelfth and George streets, 1828, until 

 it filled with its treasures the rooms it occupies now to over- 

 flowing. 



An apology for such an institution follows naturally in the 

 course of his address. It was not an uncalled for display of elo- 

 quence. The fine sciences and fine arts cannot flourish in the 

 open air of a democratic commonwealth. The}" need the hot 

 house culture which the concentrated power of an autocracy, or 

 the exclusive privileges of an oligarchy, alone seem competent 

 to afford. The splendid monuments of Egypt and India rose at 

 tlie bidding of tyrants, invested with priestl^^ omnipotence. 

 The glories of Athens and of Rome appeared at sunset of their 

 republican lilierties. The learning of Islam was the culture of 

 the Caliphs. Norman and Gothic architecture was imported from 

 the Orient at the close of Crusades, which destroyed the peerage 

 of feudalism, and constituted empires from its ruins. The com- 

 merce of Genoa and Venice manured the ground, but the Dorias, 

 Yiscontis and Medicis, planted and reaped the first crops of that 

 art and that learning which we now enjo}'. The Paris of to-day 

 is a monument of irresponsible power in the hands of a man. 

 The London of to-day is a monument of irresponsible power in 

 the hands of a class. But the Philadelphia of to-day builds no 

 monuments. It builds private stores, private churches, and 

 private mansions. Its great lack is an absence of centralization. 

 Its democratic polity is that of an army without head quarters, 

 111 natured criticism would have too much reason if it said 

 that it belonged in the division of the Articulata, Its intellect 

 and taste, like scattered brands, cannot blaze and spread into a 

 general flame. Our citizenship plumes itself, not on realizing 



