1841.] THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION, 113 



ries, amusements, and even the secrets of the private life of that people, for nearly 

 two thousand years before Christ ; and all by the study of rude pictures, toilsome 

 researches among tombs, and hieroglyphics on monuonents and sarcophagi '. 



Would it not then be a most laudable employment for Americans to gather and 

 interpret the memorials of their own continent's history ; and is it not most fitting 

 that a National Institution like ours, growing up at the seat of Government, should, 

 speedily after its formation, devote itself to the Aborigines who are so rapidly fall, 

 ing before the march of corruption and civilization ? As yet, literally, nothing has 

 been done by us ; we have been guessing and groping in the dark, whilst all the 

 European Governments have been at work with liberal expenditure of money, in 

 this interesting branch of learning, and, having almost exhausted the Old World, 

 are now looking to the New for more triumphs of industry, research and science. 

 Let them not snatch this field from us, to our shame and discomfiture ! 



Mr. Stevens (if I remember correctly) seems to think that individual efforts, 

 unaided by our Government, cannot alone be successful in these inquiries ; let us 

 then take up the thread where he was forced by circumstances to drop it, and allow 

 me to assure you of my sincere wish to cooperate with you in your efforts, acting 

 either under your judicious advice, or by the orders of our Government itself should 

 you be so fortunate as to enlist it in your behalf. 



I trust the day is not distant, when at least some of the relics of Copan and 

 Palenque, or authentic copies of them, will be found within your walls, and that my 

 countrymen will thus have the opportunity of seeing with their own eyes what 

 Stevens has so graphically described, and Catherwood so beautifully drawn. The 

 Present can make no more gracious bequest to the Future than the memorials of the 

 Past, especially when those memorials embalm the history of a people who perhaps 

 perished, by the inscrutable will of an all-wise Providence, to make room for the 

 advance of a more extended civilization and freedom, which we are permitted to 

 enjoy. 



Your most obedient servant and friend, BRANTZ MAYER. 



The following communication was read : 



Columbian Institute, July 17, 1841. 



Whereas the charter of the Columbian Institute, for the promotion of arts and 

 sciences, expired on the 20th day of May, 1838 ; and whereas a new society has 

 been formed by voluntary association, by the name of the National Institution for 

 the Promotion of Science ; and whereas the said National Institution has, by a 

 resolution passed on the 12th day of July, 1841, invited the members of the Colum. 

 bian Institute to become members of the said Institution, and to deposit with it 

 the effects, books and papers of said Institute : 



Resolved, That the said invitation be, and the same is hereby accepted. 



Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be communicated to the said Institu- 



""'*■ ASBURY DICKINS, 



Secretary of the Columbian Institute. 



