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who were present at the meeting of 1863, and the oppor- 

 tunity now afforded of extending our acquaintances in 

 this goodly place, the President called upon 



Hon. ALLEN W. DODGE, of Hamilton, who responded 

 and said that while he did not profess to be much of a 

 scientific man, he did claim to be second to none in his 

 love for nature and his desire to see the objects of the 

 Essex Institute accomplished. The President had spoken 

 of the death of some who had been identified with us, 

 and we are reminded that men die, but events live. If 

 the man who makes a blade of grass grow where it did 

 not is a benefactor, so is he who introduces a new fruit or 

 a new flower, or who opens up some new view of nature. 

 The last quarter of a century had been one of great 

 progress, and we cannot foresee what the next twenty- 

 five years will bring in the department of scientific inves- 

 tigation. The question may be asked, What good will it 

 do? It will make somebody better; it will make some- 

 body happier. He spoke of the pleasant morning hours 

 he had spent in his garden, and advised any one who did 

 not know by experience what it was to take a little exer- 

 cise before breakfast, to get up some morning at four 

 o'clock, and try the experiment. 



Mr. Dodge then referred to some ancient wills and 

 inventories he had examined, and spoke of the curious 

 insight afforded by probate documents into domestic and 

 social life of the olden times. Our forefathers did not 

 have friction matches, but tinder boxes, or, earlier still, 

 tinder horns. Our maternal ancestors manufactured their 

 own cloth, and made it into garments and bedding, and 

 in those days it required these things in abundance to 

 provide for the large families of children, then called 

 blessings. At that period they raised children, and 



