THE jnilTIl OF INVENTION. 611 



We arc assembled to glorify the tirst century uC American ])atcntvS. 

 A few months ago the disc-iples of Dagnerre met in our city and set up 

 in the ISTational ]\Iuseum a monument to the inventor of i)liotography. 

 I do not know that there is another memorial in Americai to an 

 inventor. There is no bettei- way to insnre for posterity the recollec- 

 tion of this day than by stimulating among the great industries tiie 

 desire to continue this good work of memorializing their founders. 

 Perhaps you nniy not build your monument of stone or bronze; you 

 may set n[> a library, yon may solicit a corner in the National ^Mnsenm 

 or Congressional Library, or you nuiy secure a better Patent building. 



In our public i)laces we set np statues of the destroyers of mankind 

 and erect monuments in our national cemeteries to tlie anonymous 

 dead. When we go to hang garlands npini the eulogium-beariug 

 tombs we do not forget to scatter flowers npon the mansolenm of the 

 unknown. 



We can not gather from the fonr corners of the world the bones of all 

 the great inventors and honor them with a costly burial. Even their 

 names have j>erished from the records of mankind, but their works 

 endure. What better can we do than to gathei- these and guard them 

 in our great museums, mute witnesses of anticjuatcd arts. I can imag- 

 ine these anonymous inventors looking upon us to-day and glad of this 

 tardy recognition of their vicarious suflerings. 



With loving leccollection of your labors I ])lnck a flower from my 

 heart ami strew its i)etals over your neglected graves: 



111 freta diiui flnvii fuireut, dum iiioiitihiis uiiiln;i' 

 lustrabuiit oonY«;xii, poliis duiii sidcra puMtct, 

 semper lionos nonien([ue tiiiun laiidescine iiiauelmnt, 

 (jiiin me (11111(1 iKi vocrtiit terra'. ^Kneid, 1, <J07. 



