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To us who are suiTounclcd by all the blessings which 

 our ancestors bestowed upon us, this fact has long been 

 familiar. This institution, whose twenty-fifth anniversary 

 we now celel)rate, busy as it always is in keeping the 

 history of this city and of Essex County fresh in the' 

 minds of the people, forms a part of a system of educa- 

 tion, study and investigation, which attracted the earliest 

 attention of our people. The establishment of institu- 

 tions of learning occupied much of the thought of our 

 ancestors ; and we point with pride to the fact that not 

 only to the common school but to the higher seminaries 

 of learning, to the Lyceum, and to the Library, and the 

 Historical Societ;y , and the Scientific Association, did this 

 city turn its attention in the very commencement of its 

 prosperity, and when she was obliged to set an example 

 to others, instead of finding an example ready at her 

 hands to follow. 



That this tendency to intellectual enterprise grew out 

 of the more commonplace virtue of industry in material 

 afiairs, who can doubt? Our fathers were a busj^ race. 

 They believed in labor, and a constant exercise of their 

 faculties in every good work. They were true to that 

 fine principle of society laid down in those admirable 

 volumes, Sandford and Merton, which we prized so 

 highly and read so constantly when books were few, and 

 newspapers were weekly, where the call of Mr. Barlow 

 upon his associates to join him in founding a colony is 

 recorded. Even our first governor had an impulse in the 

 direction of toil ; and John Endicott exerted himself to 

 plant the single pear tree which now bears his name, be- 

 fore he abandoned the fields of agriculture, and entered 

 upon the harder service of statesmanship. I rejoice in 

 the industry and vigor of those men who gave us a com- 

 mmiity, and whose precepts have not yet been forgotten 



