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tute ; and you can well understand that the occasion to which you in- 

 vite me would prove most attractive. The presence and sight of 

 your fellow laborer [Prof. Packard] in connection with the Institute, 

 the other night, at the dinner at Delmonico's in honor of Tyndall, 

 brought back to me delightful memories of the evenings when we 

 used to gather at the rooms in the Plummer building, and Putnam, 

 Morse, Cooke, Goodell, Emerton, Johnson, et alios, alas ! Peabody, 

 Huntington, Davis, possibly others gone hence, were choice spirits 

 in our discussions. These are memories deeply cherished still ; and 

 I count it not the least among the privileges of my residence in old 

 Salem, to have been associated with such as these, much more to my 

 own advantage as was the connection, than it could have proved to 

 my fellow members of the Institute. 



I again thank you, my old friend, for your courtesy, and beg to ex- 

 press the wish that your celebration, in all its features of instruction 

 and good fellowship, may prove all that you desire. 



Believe me always, faithfully your friend, 



GEORGE D. WILDES. 



NEW HAVEN, CONN., FEB. 17, 1873. 

 Dear Sir : 



I have to thank you, and through you, the Committee of Arrange- 

 ments, for the kind invitation I have just received to a banquet on the 

 evening of March 5th. 



I should take the greatest pleasure in being present, if I could so 

 arrange as to leave home at that time, but as I fear that will be im- 

 possible, I am obliged to forego the pleasure, and so gratefully decline 

 the honor. 



The continued prosperity of the Essex Institute is a matter of satis- 

 faction to all the naturalists of the country, and it is to be hoped, and 

 indeed expected, that its brilliant example will be followed in many 

 parts of the land. 



Anything that will show to our money-loving nation that there is a 

 truer and higher expression of value than the sign of the dollar, $, is 

 a thing which will in the end advance the whole people in their ideas 

 of essential and permanent usefulness. 



Even the professional advocates of a purer and more unselfish prac- 

 tice of religion will always find a great gain to themselves and their 

 cause from the careful study of Natural History, for only in this way 

 can they learn how it is that all natural phenomena, " creeping things 

 and flying fowl, fruitful trees and all cedars " fulfil the design of the 

 great Creator, and give back a clear and unmistakable response to the 



