INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS 



OF 



HON. R. J. WALKER, OF MISSISSIPPI, 



DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 



This is the first general meeting of the friends of science ever convened in 

 Washington. It is assembled at the capital of the Union, upon the call of the 

 National Institute. This Institute is located at the home of the Federal Govern- 

 ment, and its operations are designed to embrace the whole Union. Rising above 

 local and sectional linfluences, it appeals to the friends of science throughout the 

 nation, and asks the support of all, with a view to the general diffusion of know- 

 ledge, and advancement of American science. It is not designed to impede the 

 progress or impair the usefulness of any present or future scientific institutions or 

 eocieties in any of the States, but would desire to establish between them and this 

 Institute the most cordial relations, together with reciprocal aid and encourage- 

 ment. Experience has proved that no one institution, however distinguished, of 

 any State, can bring to its aid the combined efforts and support of the whole 

 Union. Each State will desire the advancement of its own institutions; and here 

 only can all meet beyond the limits of all the States, and unite, as Americans, in 

 erecting and maintaining an institution which shall be truly national, not only in 

 its location, but in all its operations. Whilst the hopes of this Institute are most 

 elevated for the future, its present pretensions are truly humble. It does not 

 claim to have established the character or assumed the position of a scientific in- 

 stitution ; it does not pretend to teach the men of science of the nation, but seeks 

 instruction from them, and appeals to them, for light, and aid, and encourage- 

 ment. It asks them to come forward in a patriotic spirit, and make this Institute 

 worthy of the great nation at the seat of whose Government it is placed, and 

 where only the now scattered lights of American science can converge at a com- 

 mon centre, and radiate thence throughout the circle of the whole Union. 



The power and glory of a nation greatly depend upon its advance in science ; 

 and whilst upon its imperishable records should be preserved the deeds of its war- 

 riors and statesmen, upon the same record should be inscribed the names of tha 

 untiring votaries of science, whose conflict has been with the elements of nature, 

 and who have subjected them to the wants and comforts of man. Nearly all that 

 we know of the world which we inhabit, of its magnitude, form, and motion, and 

 of the elements of which it is composed, is the result of scientific research and dis. 

 covery. The results of science are around and about us, enlarging our knowledge, 

 elevating our views, and increasing our pleasures and our comforts. Nor have 

 those researches been confined to the world which we inhabit, but have carried us 

 myriads of millions of miles through universal space, marking the orbits of our 

 own and other planets, and of the sun, the moon, and wandering comot. Science 

 has taken as a base line the diameter of the earth's orbit, and with it spans im- 

 mensity, and triangulates the shadowy verges of receding space. All who have 

 contributed to those great results, of whatever age or clime, deserve our gratitude ; 



