13 



the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Historical So- 

 ciety of Pennsylvania oh, my friends and asso- 

 ciates, my mind is full of these precious associations, 

 and I have not time to give them full utterance. But 

 pointing you to the records of the Society, I ask you 

 to have the same interest in them that has given me 

 so much enjoyment, and if in this hour I can awaken 

 you to more affection for the old Society than you now 

 have, and bring you to think of it in the same favor- 

 able light in which I do, I will have accomplished a part 

 of my work as your President. 



Our industrious Secretary, Mr. Henry Phillips, Jr., 

 has prepared two pamphlets, being registers of the 

 subjects of the essays that are to be found in the 

 Transactions and Proceedings of the Society. You 

 will wonder when you look over them at the diversity 

 of objects which have been under the care of the So- 

 ciety, that have occupied its attention, that have stimu- 

 lated its members in their various paths of life, 

 and which have enabled them to throw additional 

 light upon the concerns of the world, and to open up 

 the treasures of science to those to whom they had 

 not previously been given. 



It is fortunate for us that the Society recovered from 

 the great difficulties of a pecuniary character under 

 which it labored in the year 1837, and has been able 

 to accumulate a handsome permanent fund, which, with 

 its rentals, enables it to publish in an attractive form 

 all the valuable essays and contributions of the mem- 

 bers, not only of its resident members, but of those 

 cherished associates who reside abroad and are prose- 

 cuting their labors in the various fields of human 

 knowledge. It will be criminal, indeed, for us to hold 



