CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE ACADEMY. 17 



Nor must I fail to express, in a single word, our grateful acknowledgments to all the kindred 

 Associations in foreign lands, and in other parts of our own land near and remote, which have sent 

 us their greetings and congratulations, either by delegates or by formal responses to our invitation. 

 Welcome to all who are present, and thanks to all who have remembered us ! Success and gratitude 

 and honor to the votaries of Art and Science throughout the world ■ 



Mr. Wintlirop called first for a response from the American Philosophical Society 

 of Philadelphia. Mr. Phillips, one of its delegates, presented, in a few words, its 

 congratulations upon the past of the Academy and its best hopes for the future that 

 awaited it. Mr. Price, another delegate, followed, expressing his thanks for the kind- 

 ness that had been shown his brother delegate and himself, and then read the follow- 

 ing address, written by Frederick Fralet, LL.D., President of the society: — 



It is with great pleasure that I reply to this call. As the elder sister of the Academy, the 

 Americau Philosophical Society may well rejoice on the occasion that brings us together. "While 

 the society that I have the honor to represent dates its organization from 1743, its corporate exist- 

 ence was only a few weeks earlier than that of your association. Both were established by tlie 

 patriotic men who shared in our revolutionary history, and botli were made corporations wliile the 

 din of arms and the uncertainty of battles occupied public attention. I have looked over your list 

 of corporators and early members, and there I find many names which were the common property 

 of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, that even in those early days took the broad and comprehensive 

 name of American. These two societies, starting under what might seem unpromising begin- 

 nings, soon won their way to places in literary and scientific repute, and after the lapse of more 

 than a century hold their honors with undiminished lustre. The corporators of your Academy 

 begin witli Adams and end with Winthrop ; and the names between, glorious in memories, have 

 their present representatives not only in the Academy, but also wlierever the Old Bay State needs 

 a man to speak for her. So, too, of Pennsylvania ; the golden roll of the American Pliilosophical 

 Society bears, amid the new blood that has gradually been injected into its veins, the names of the 

 descendants of the fathers, M'ho manifest the same love for science and the same patriotism that 

 fired their ancestors. 



But turning from these pleasant memories, and taking a brief survey of the century, what abun- 

 dant causes have we for felicitation ! Some of us can look back over three-fourths of the time with 

 aU the vivid realizations of its great events and discoveries. To them, all that is past seems as of 

 yesterday, so rapidly has the world moved in the present century. We have made innnense gains 

 in the knowledge of and the control of the material world, and in great additions to personal com- 

 fort and enjoyment ; but have we to anything like the same extent impro\xd our kno^\■ledge of our 

 moral and intellectual nature ? A few days ago I read the preface to the first volume of tlie Memoirs 

 of your Academy ; and the noble words and sound maxims with which it sets forth the objects and 

 aims of the institution are like " apples of gold in pictures of silver." It struck me, while so read- 



