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from public and private virtue. The true greatness of a 

 community is in its moral worth. The desire to give our 

 children a better education and better advantages in every 

 respect than we ourselves were permitted to enjoy, to test 

 and make the most of the intellectual and moral powers of 

 every human being — this is an omen of the most encour- 

 aging promise. Jealous of. each other, jealous of our 

 neighbors, we may be ; but what parent is there who is 

 not anxious to secure for his children the privileges that 

 will best fit them for life's duties? Intelligence, earnest- 

 ness in the search for truth, desire for something purer and 

 better — these are among the real signs of prosperity. 

 That you have not been unmindful of this nobler good I 

 find testified by what 1 see around me. The twenty-fifth 

 anniversary, which we have assembled to-night to com- 

 memorate, is an indication that the improvement of the 

 citizens of Essex has not been neglected. The happy 

 and valuable influence of this society has been felt in 

 every town of the county, and we may reasonably indulge 

 the hope that it will continue to be felt for many long 

 years to come. When I look upon its President, growing 

 gray in his honorable wt)rk, and reflect that his power for 

 good is not to be computed by figures, 1 cannot but wish 

 that some way Avere devised for retaining the benefit of 

 that power after the machinery which now propels it is 

 worn out. You do wisely in preserving the records of 

 his labor. He will pass away to the great company of 

 those who have given your town its worthy name in our 

 history, but the fruit of his endeavors will live and be 

 perpetuated from generation to generation, not only in 

 these beautiful records, ])ut in the lives and labors of the 

 tlunisands of young men and young women of Essex who 

 are even now reaping the results of his work. They con- 

 stitute the new machinery which will preserve and keep 



