YORK INSTITUTE: 

 SOMETHlf OF ITS PAST, Pl[ESENT Af(D FUTUI[E. 



Address delivered March 4, 1884, before the Society. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — 



It is fortunate that the name "York Institute" was 

 given to this society. Had it been any less general, 

 "York County Historical Society" or "York County Nat- 

 ural History Society," the association would have suffered 

 by being regarded by some as too narrow in its designs. 

 Under the former of these titles a few lovers of nature 

 and science would have been repelled, thinking civil and 

 political history to be dry, and to them nearly profitless ; 

 under the latter, others would have been kept away whose 

 fondness was for men, places and events, rather than for 

 God's humbler creatures and lower creations. As it is, the 

 name is non-committal ; in only one respect pointing to 

 the particular, where it seems to confine us somewhat 

 closely to whatever concerns York County. In this re- 

 spect, however, it is only a seeming. 



No one regards this Institute as an assemblage of indi- 

 viduals bent on dealing with special subjects and pet the- 

 ories far above the reach of most persons. On the con- 

 trary, by the wisdom of its founders, room enough was 



