MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TREADWELL. 445 



January 26, 1860. Collier and Hamilton's Shakespearian Controversy. 



May 10, 18(30. Instinct of Bees. 



April 11, 1861. Jleasiire of Force. 



January 30, 1862. Captain Eodmau's Book on Guns. 



It will be seen that most of the subjects are those which Mr. Treadwell had long 

 studied. The subject at the first meeting was the cannon upon whicli he was then 

 laboring. To the other subjects, as force and those relating to the arts, a great 

 part of his life had been devoted, and the results printed in the Proceedings of the 

 Academy. 



Of one of his papers, an essay on tlie Discovery of America, he says, "Wilfullv, 

 and you will probably say unwisely, by disregarding the aphorism that has been two 

 or three times quoted in the Club, ' Let the cobbler stick to his last,' I have deter- 

 mined to present you a medley, for which I must deprecate any severity of judgment, 

 if for no other reason, at least, that it is so fiir from my usual objects of pursuit." 

 Tlie views and suggestions of this paper were in his mind after a second reading of 

 Washington Irving's Life of Columbus. The following extracts are from his con- 

 cludinor remarks. 



D 



" We have here a frreat work produced, namely, a continent discovered ; a great mind labor- 

 ing with theories, opinions, and designs to produce it, and a certain stock of raw materials, 

 namely, the facts that had been collected and the theories or opinions that were supposed to be 

 established. These, that constituted the knowledge of the time, were elaborated by the mind of 

 Columbus, and somehow or other a new world came out of them. I have spoken of the discovery 

 of America as the most important since the period of authentic history. . . . Not mere geograph- 

 ical discovery, but discovery in any branch of human pursuit ; I tliink I may go further, and 

 extend the signification of the word discovery so as to include all the productions of human 

 invention, and still claim for the discovery of Columbus that it has had, is having, and is destined 

 to have a greater influence upon the condition of our race than any discovery or invention made 

 by man since the period of authentic history. . . . An examination of the life, labors, and fame 

 of Columbus is likely to suggest to any one a comparison between him and another great man 

 whose name is most indelibly printed upon this continent, — Washington. No man can ever 

 hereafter stand in the relation which Columbus aud Washington sustain in connection with 

 America. This continent can never have another discoverer, nor can any individual hereafter 

 have the glory of being the principal leader of the founders of the first great American republic. 

 ... To pass from the question of personal qualities to that of the probalilc fame in after ages of 

 Columbus as compared with Washington, we can conceive of notliing that can take place in or 

 out of the country that shall diminish the importance of its discovery. Exactly as the popu- 

 lation of America increases, the interest in the history of its discovery will increase. Xew States 

 may arise and old ones may be revolutionized, the present order of things overturned, and tlie 

 very frame of civilization new moulded, without changing the interest of its inhabitants in the 

 liistory of that great event which ostablishod this race of man upon this continent. Can we be 

 assured that an equally intense interest will always be maintained for the foundation of the great 



