made for all subjects to get a treatment — for all persons 

 to have a hearing should any desire to be heard, or 

 should any subject seem to require discussion. York 

 Institute, notice, is almost the only public place in these 

 two cities where a free discourse on anything may be de- 

 livered, or where a free debate of any question may be 

 had. It affords a grand privilege to all, and it is simply 

 surprising that more do not avail themselves of the ad- 

 vantage. 



Under the general name, then, of "York Institute" are 

 banded together a number of gentlemen, who, while pri- 

 marily organizing a scientific society for the collection, 

 orderly arrangement, and preservation of samples of ev- 

 erything of scientific value belonging to this county, and 

 for the regular giving of addresses on any and all scien- 

 tific subjects ; also did not forget that man is the chief of 

 all created things, and that his history possesses higher 

 and greater attractions in proportion as he is higher and 

 greater than any of the creatures below him. These gen- 

 tlemen, therefore, very wisely enlarged the scope of what 

 otherwise might have been only a Museum of Natural 

 History, and included as a part of its original design a 

 department given to the civil and political history of the 

 county, and State ; so that the Institute was prevented 

 from becoming special, and, at once, was made general. 

 It reaches out in every direction for additions to its many 

 collections, and its lectures and conversational discussions 

 take a wider range each succeeding year of its existence. 



You have heard that all knowledge is of two kinds, 

 classified and unclassified. Not only has York Institute 

 desired to have presented classified knowledge, or true 

 science ; but also some unclassified knowledge has been 

 allowed to creep in among the sayings of this room. For 

 example : the remark that "a banyan tree big enough to 

 cover the whole of the City of Saco" had b-en seen by 



