46 



ABNER C. GOODELL, Jr., the Vice President of the 

 Historical Department, then delivered an address of which 

 the following is an abstract : 



In commencing, he said that the commemoration of the 

 fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Essex His- 

 torical Society, naturally suggested as a theme befitting 

 the occasion, a consideration of the interdependence of 

 history and the other sciences. The steps in the forma- 

 tion of the society had been so often traced that a fresh 

 treatment of so familiar a topic, would not be expected, 



Returning to pursue the theme first proposed, he insti- 

 tuted a brief comparison of some salient features of 

 every day life, now and fifty years ago, in order to appos- 

 itely illustrate his argument. No doubt the American 

 citizen of 1821 felicitated himself that he was born in an 

 age so auspicious. It was a generation after the Ameri- 

 can Independence had become an accomplished fact. 

 The telescope was then an old invention, and among the 

 actual achievements of that age was the mariner's com- 

 pass, the art of printing, the use of logarithms and the 

 true principles of chemistry, the discovery of the circula- 

 tion of the blood^And other important facts all inven- 

 tions which seemed to complete the busy .progress of 

 civilization. Yet, viewed from the stand-point of the 

 present day, there was a vast difference in physical com- 

 fort and luxury. The speaker pictured the comforts and 

 conveniences of the present day, and said for all this im- 

 provement they were indebted to the progress of science. 

 The discovery of the planet Neptune was an illustration 

 of the perfection, the almost prophetic power of the science 

 of Astronomy. The improved microscope and spectro- 

 scope were also among the mechanical triumphs of mod- 

 ern science. He alluded to the advantages derived from 

 the perfection of the science of chemistry. Within fifty 



