1880.] ^®i [Lesley. 



and the real meeting wonlrl apparently begin. There was 

 little or nothing strictly philosophical- to stay for ; but racy 

 anecdotes and sometimes very clever jokes would go round 

 the semi-circle; and a good many of them made my young 

 unhardened cheeks burn. 



Is it possible, thought I, that men the report of whose 

 wisdom and learning is in every mouth — for whom all the. 

 seed of past ages has been sown — to whose eyes the mys- 

 teries of the universe have been in part unveiled — for whom 

 the awful future waits — can turn so noble an institution 

 as this into a jest? Can these portraits on the wall fail to 

 restrain levity and arouse enthusiasm? Is such air as this 

 to be spoiled with the odor of earthiness? I understood it 

 better after hearing the sad story of the Chinese Museum 

 speculation, which had swep't off like a flood all the savings 

 of the Society and left its Library and Cabinet in the 

 sheriff's hands. I cannot help wishing the whole of this 

 story were written and published for the warning of the 

 members in future years, a perpetual protest against, all 

 attempts or suggestions to alter the thrifty policy of the 

 Society, and a cogent argument against the founding of a 

 museum or the erection of a pretentious edifice. 



But my allotted time is out. I have missed the track 

 of my remarks. All that has passed away. Our meetings 

 now are as full of life as they seem to have been in the days 

 of Franklin, Rittenhouse, Hopkinson, Hutchinson, Samuel 

 Vaughn, Evving, Rush, and Timothy Matlack, a hundred 

 3^ears ago. And the life of our meetings-is genial as well 

 as dignified. Every wholesome and thoughtful utterance 

 is openlj T welcomed. Perfect equality, cordial friendship 

 and honest science seem to make our evenings what they 

 should be. Yet I sometimes wonder whether the traditions 



