CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE ACADE3IT. 19 



fathers ? Nature has spoken to us as she. never did to them ; but we can only pray that our hearts 

 and brains may be strong enough to fulfil our greater trust as well as they fulfilled theirs. 



Professor Botta responded for the Accademia dei Lincei. 



I regret that, owing to the absence of my colleagues, the duty of responding for the Academy 

 de' Lincei devolves upon me. I had hoped that my distinguished associates, Professor Dana and the 

 Hon. Mr. Wells, would be here on the present occasion, either of whom would have fulfilled that 

 office more acceptably ; and when the Secretary informed me, this morning, that I would be called 

 upon, I begged to be excused, as I cannot but find it difficult to extemporize in a foreitrn lanfua^e. 

 It is true that he kindly ga^-e me the choice of speaking in Italian ; but, although you would all 

 doubtless understand me if I spoke in my native tongue, yet you may perhaps prefer to hear my 

 broken English. 



So I bring you the congratulations and the good wishes of one of the oldest Academies of the 

 world. Italy, as you know, is the mother of all scientific academies. She was the first country of 

 modern Europe to establish those institutions, aud it was through them that she kept ali-\e, not only 

 the spirit of intellectual progress, but also the spirit of libertj', through so many ages of despotism. 

 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries almost every city of the Peninsula had its Academy, and 

 chief among them was the Accademia de' Lincei, founded by Prince Frederick Cesi, in 1G03, in the 

 city of Rome, where the establishment of an institution which had for its object the investigation of 

 the secrets of nature was beset with peculiar difficulties. Prince Cesi took the Lynx, remarkable 

 for its keenness of vision, as the symbol of the Academy, and hence its name, the Lincei. 



It is from this venerable institution that I come, a messenger of sympathy and friendship, to the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences on the centennial anniversary of its birth. We are almost 

 two centuries older than you, and for you we feel all the sympathy that old age feels for youth. In 

 a few years we shall celebrate our third centennial, and I am charged to invite you all to join with 

 us on that occasion. It will take place in about a quarter of a century, and I promise that you will 

 be received with the hospitality and the reverence that will be due to you at that time. 



Of the Academy of the Lincei and its illustrious members, both in the past and present, it is 

 unnecessary for me to speak. I will only mention one name, that you all revere ; that of the father 

 of modern science, and of the true scientific method, — Galileo Galilei. He not only founded the 

 method of induction in scientific research, but he invented many instruments by which science has 

 continued to advance to this day ; and the Accademia de' Lincei is entitled to the gratitude of all 

 scientists, if only for the illustrious name of this great philosopher, the greatest of its members. 



It may be of some interest to add that as soon as the Italian government took posses.sion of 

 Rome it made the Lincei the object of its especial patronage, under which it became the national 

 Academy ; and it is now to Italy what tlie Institute has been, and is still, to France. Its original 

 departments were extended, and new ones added, in order to bring it up to the requirements of 

 modern thought. It was at once endowed with an annual subsidy from the treasury, and two j'ears 

 since, on his accession to the throne. King Humbert, from his private purse, founded several prizes 



