30 THE HISTORY OF THE CONGRESS 



In the name of the many Austrians present at the Congress I express the thanks 

 of my compatriots to the Committee which summoned us, for their invitation and 

 the hospitality so cordially extended. . . . 



I congratulate the authorities upon the idea of opening this Congress. How 

 many world-expositions have already been held without an attempt having been 

 made to exhibit the spirit that has created this world of beautiful and useful 

 things ? It was reserved for these men to find the form in which the highest results 

 of human thought Science represented in the persons of her representatives, 

 could be incorporated in the compass of the World's Fair. The conception of this 

 International Congress of all Sciences in its originality and audacity, in its univer- 

 sality and comprehensive organization, is truly a child of the " young- American 

 spirit." . . . 



After this Congress has come to a close and the collection of the lectures de- 

 livered, an unparalleled encyclopaedia of human knowledge, both in extent and 

 content, will have appeared. We may say that this Fair has become of epochal 

 importance, not alone for trade and manufactures, but also for science. These 

 proud palaces will long have disappeared and been forgotten when this work, a 

 monumentum aere perennius, shall still testify to future generations the standard 

 of scientific attainment at the beginning of the twentieth century. 



Short acknowledgments were then made for Russia by Dr. Oscar 

 Backlund, of the Astronomical Observatory at Pulkowa, Russia, and 

 for Japan by Prof. Nobushige Hozumi, of the Imperial University at 

 Tokio, Japan. 



The last of the Vice-Presidents to respond to the addresses of wel- 

 come was Signor Attilio Brunialti, Councilor of State for Italy, who 

 after a few formal words in English broke into impassioned eloquence 

 in his native tongue, and in brilliant diction and graceful periods 

 expressed the deep feeling and profound joy which Italy, the mother 

 of arts, felt in participating in an occasion so historic and so magni- 

 ficent. Signor Brunialti said in part : 



I thank you, gentlemen, for the honor you have paid both to my country and 

 myself by electing me a Vice- President of this great scientific assembly. Would 

 that I could thank you in words in which vibrate the heart of Rome, the scientific 

 spirit of my land, and all that it has given to the world for the progress of science, 

 literature, and art. You know Italy, gentlemen, you admire her, and therefore 

 it is for this also that my thanks are due to you. What ancient Rome has con- 

 tributed to the common patrimony of civilization is also reflected here in a thou- 

 sand ways, and a classical education, held in such honor, by a young and practical 

 people such as yours, excites our admiration and also our astonishment. By giant 

 strides you are reviving the activity of Italy at the epoch of the Communes, when 

 all were animated by unwearying activity and our manufactures and arts held 

 the first place in Europe. I have already praised here the courageous spirit which 

 has suggested the meeting of this Congress a Congress that will remain famous 

 in the annals of science. Many things in your country have aroused in me grow- 

 ing surprise, but nothing has struck me more, I assure you, than this homage to 

 science which is pushing all the wealthy classes to a noble rivalry for the increase 

 of education and mental cultivation. t 



You have already large libraries and richly endowed universities, and every 

 kind of school, where the works of Greece and Rome are perhaps even more appre- 

 ciated and adapted to modern improvements than with us old classical nations. 



