sturdy ox, that bends his willing neck to take the yoke, as 

 well as from the subtle forces and elements that have arrested 

 our attention and challenged our progress ; and there is abun- 

 dant cause for thankfulness to the bountiful giver of all good, 

 that we can meet together at this beautiful season of the year, 

 under this autumnal sky, and surrounded by such auspicious 

 circumstances, to greet each other with such cordiality and 

 friendship. For more than the display of our flocks and 

 herds, or of our fruits and flowers, and more even, than the 

 display of the products of genius, or the mechanism of man 

 or maiden, more, and better than all of these, is the meeting 

 and the joyous greeting of old friends. It is this that gives 

 to our society more than half of its power. As the old Ro- 

 mans looked forward to the return of their harvest festival 

 with supreme delight, so we of old Essex look forward to 

 our annual feast, through all the swift flying days of the year, 

 not as the old Romans, to ofier sacrifices to their idol gods, 

 but to meet together as fellow- workers, in a common calling, 

 to give and to receive the congratulations of our friends, and 

 to examine and admire the works of God and man, to look 

 into the faces that have browned under the summer sun, and 

 brightened under the harvest moon, and if we do not fill our 

 halls with idol gods, we do what is better, for we bring with 

 us our sons and our daughters, our wives and our mothers ; 

 and this feature of our feast is all the more enjoyable when 

 we reflect on the fact, that we bring together the best minds 

 and the best hearts, the best men and the best women, of 

 Essex County. 



In the midst of our congratulation, with some of us at 

 least, our hearts like mufiled drums are beating, as we think 

 of those who have fallen in death the past year ; for the fatal 



