xiv Centennial Antiiversari/ 



delphia under a charter from the State of Pennsylvania, incor- 

 porating it as the x\merican Philosophical Society for the Promo- 

 tion of Useful Knowledge. Of this Franklin was the first 

 President, and it has ever since maintained an honorable position 

 in the republic of letters. 



In like manner the Academy, whose centennial we meet to-night 

 to celebrate, was founded on the ruins of an earlier organization, 

 the Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences. In 1779, Benjamin 

 Guild, a Harvard tutor, who was then planning the foundation of 

 the American Academy at Boston, on his way back from Phila- 

 delphia, where he had probably made himself acquainted with 

 the constitution and methods of the American Philosophical 

 Society, stopped over at New Haven to see one of its early mem- 

 bers, President Stiles. The establishment of academies both at 

 Boston and New Haven was talked over at length, and each soon 

 made earnest efforts in that direction. A few montlis later, Mr. 

 Guild was able to send Dr. Stiles a copy of the charter granted 

 by Massachusetts for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

 In Connecticut, however, a less friendly spirit was shown. The 

 relations between the State and Yale College were somewhat 

 strained. That institution had become a body of great and grow- 

 ing importance. It was self-governing. The fellows or trustees 

 were all Congregational clergymen, and perpetuated themselves 

 by filling vacancies, as they might arise. No power of visitation 

 had been reserved in terms to the State, when the charter was 

 granted, and none was admitted to exist by the College authori- 

 ties. It was obvious that any academy of arts and sciences which 

 might be incorporated would naturally gravitate towards the 

 College, and come ultimately under the leadership of the same set 

 of men. 



There were those also, even among the Congregational clergy, 

 by whom the College was viewed with some distrust. President 

 Clap had been a Calvinist of the old school, but President Stiles 

 was what in those days was denominated a Latitudinarian. He 

 was of opinion that the true theory of Christian redemption was 

 that — to use his own words in a letter to Dr. Franklin — a " happy 

 immortality " had thus been " purchased for the virtuous and 

 truly good of every religious denomination in Christendom, and 

 for those of every age, nation and mythology, who reverence the 



