No. 216.] 533 



Each field and garden, by enlightened cultivation, is made to 

 yield, year after year, more generous harvests. 



It is to those who are chiefly instrumental in producing these im- 

 provements, to those who have given the impulse, and still continue 

 to urge on and lead forward; it is to the fellow citizens of the la- 

 mented Buel, to the associates and pupils of Tallmadge, that it is my 

 duty to speak. 



Anniversaries are usually held to commemorate some former event, 

 some occurrence gone by, on which history has set its seal, and 

 which we must contemplate as it is, unchanging and unchangeable; 

 a great fact, towering up in the distant past, which no man can 

 alter, or conceal, or question. 



We commemorate the great deed by which we became freemen; 

 we commemorate the no less important event of the landing of the 

 persecuted Pilgrims on the unknown and silent forest shores of this 

 great continent. Such things as these are usually the subjects of 

 annual or other celebration. But this occasion is not of that nature. 

 We do not meet to gaze in admiration and gratitude on the great 

 actions of others; to recall to our minds the fixed events of the his- 

 toric past. This is an anniversary of progress — an anniversary of 

 motion, not of rest. 



You are moving — you are pursuing a glorious but diflScult and 

 ascending path; pushing farther and higher towards brilliant re- 

 sults; each hour securing some, and confident that others still grand- 

 er, but now quite beyond the reach of sight, are yet to be attained. 

 At stated intervals you halt and turn to view the advance you have 

 made, the difficulties you have overcome, the points you have reached 

 and passed; and then, with renewed courage and hopeful zeal, you 

 resume your never-ending course. You have no pilot, no guide to 

 €ry out to you, " Italiaml" " Italiam!" Your journey's end, your 

 " Italy" recedes as you advance. 



Long, long may you continue upon your bright way, bearing high 

 the appropriate banner of " Excelsior," scattering good things all 

 around as you proceed, and leading on continually to better and 

 greater! 



This Society was founded for the purpose of " encouraging and 

 promoting domestic industry in this State and the United States, in 



