24 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



The President's Address. 



AN ITALIAN ACADEMICIAN. ' 

 H0NRY CRI^W 



The mission of an academy of science is a function of the 

 ag-e in which it flourishes. The ancient academies accom- 

 plished a work now performed by the universities. The Ital- 

 ian academies of the Renaissance, variously estimated at from 

 500 to 700 in number, represented different purposes almost as 

 numerous as the institutions themselves. Rut in general they 

 were literary and scientific clans; they belonged to a period 

 when learning was the possession of the few, to a period when 

 one might still take all science for his domain. 



The modern academy is, as a rule, closely allied with the 

 sovereign power of some state, whose interests are promoted 

 by it, consciously and unconsciously, in a variety of ways. 

 The service which it renders is sometimes political, some- 

 times literary , sometimes scientific, sometimes social. But, so 

 far as I can see, they have, in common, these two ends, name- 

 ly, the encouragement of the individual and service to the 

 community. 



The triple purpose of the Illinois State Academy of 

 Science is clearly stated in the second article of its consti- 

 tution as being "the promotion of scientific research, the dif- 

 fusion of scientific knowledge and of the scientific spirit, and 

 the unification of the scientific interests of the state"; just' 

 how this object can best be secured is the interesting subject 

 of an after-dinner discussion this evening. 



I leave this problem, therefore, with the single remark that 

 the importance of cultivating individual initiative and of hand- 

 ing on to the community the best there is in the achievements 

 of science is not likely to be overestimated. 



Symonds(l) points out that Athens and Florence owed 

 their wonderful intellectual, artistic and literary success main- 

 ly to the fact that they nourished the individuality of their citi- 

 zens ; while Sparta and Venice, comparatively barren of per- 

 manent results, illustrate the lack of such encouragement. 



I now invite your attention to one of the earliest mem- 

 bers of the venerable and thankworthy Academy of the 

 Lyncei, a man who represents in the highest degree the indi- 

 viduality then cultivated in Tuscany, a man whose impress 

 upon his students was so deep that shortly after his death 

 they united to form one of the most productive and justly 

 celebrated of all the Italian academies, (2) a man whose written 

 works fill twenty splendid quarto volumes, (3) a man who in 

 his efiforts to put before the people the best science of his 



