LeCanto.] oi ^ [MarcU15, 



citizens an act of incorporation constituting them "the 

 American Philosophical Society," and to this name was 

 added, " held at Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowl- 

 edge." 



It seems appropriate on this occasion, when we are met to 

 do reverent homage to the memory of those founders of the 

 Society, to enquire what were their objects, and what was 

 then, and is now, considered " useful knowledge." 



Before doing this, let us review, briefly as the time per- 

 mits, the names and objects of some similar societies in older 

 countries. Two examples will suffice : 



In the first years of the seventeenth century there was 

 founded at Rome the " Accademia dei Lincei," or the Acad- 

 emy of the Sharp-seers, for the general promotion of higher 

 intellectual culture; this has since developed into a full 

 Academy, under governmental protection, consisting of co- 

 ordinate branches for different departments of learning. 



Three score and ten years later was organized in Germany 

 the Leopold-Caroline " Academia Naturae Curiosorum ;" 

 persons curious about Mature. Its objects related chiefly to 

 medical art, and are declared to be the study of Anatomy, 

 Botan}-, Pathology, Surgery, Therapeutics and Chemistry. 

 The transactions were published as "Miscellanea curiosa." 



These names are now far from expressing the aims of 

 scientific thought; yet in them may be discerned the linea- 

 ments of the embryo of modern science, whose sudden ap- 

 pearance and influence parallel the ancient myth of the 

 birth of Minerva. These names accentuate the difference, 

 not between the old and the new philosophy, but between 

 mediaeval scholasticism and modern observation. The 

 former, constructed from the' depths of its own conscious- 

 ness, gave answers to all physical and spiritual enigmas, 



