Exhibition Addresses. 173 



and so on tliroughont the wliole domain of indufitry, can hardly be 

 computed. 



But your periodical exhibitions are promotive of industrial progress, 

 also, by bringing tlie results of the ingenuity of individuals to the 

 critical examination of other minds ; these starting from what has 

 been already accomjilished, are often able to detect imperfections or 

 to suggest improvements which has escaped the original contriver. 

 The possibility or probability of such new advances is greatly pro- 

 moted by the opportunity which these exhibitions furnish, of com- 

 paring a variety of objects, processes, machines or fabrics designed to 

 subserve the same end, but wdiich reach the end by difiering combina- 

 tions. These will here be found side by side, and a judgment of 

 their relative advantages may be formed under the most favorable 

 circumstances. Out of such comparisons there can be no doubt that 

 many valuable improvements originate, of wdiich more than half the 

 credit is justly due to this Institute. 



It may further be said of these exhibitions, that they furnish to 

 multitudes of people a vast fund of healthful entertainment, and of 

 valuable instruction. Especially as schools for the young, they are 

 of priceless Value. To the youthful mind nothing is more exciting or 

 exliilarating than to study the combinations of machinery, or to 

 watch the transformations of matter in the processes of the arts. Here 

 everything is novel, everything is wonderful ; and the curiosity 

 which is so lively a trait of the juvenile intellect finds an endless 

 variety of material for its indulgence. There can, therefore, be no 

 doubt that these exhibitions do much to bring out the latent genius 

 which is slumbering in many a youthful mind, for the mechanic arts 

 especially, and that some of the most distinguished of the inventors, 

 or most successful of the mechanical engineers of our day, may have 

 had their whole course of life determined by their'early visits to those 

 exhibitions. 



The second thought which lias been suggested to me by what I 

 have here observed, is the singular transformation which the indus- 

 trial arts in many of their departments have undergone since the 

 foundation of your Institute, and even witliin the more limited period 

 to which my own acquaintance with your exhibitions has extended. 

 If tliere is in existence a catalogue of one of your annual displays 

 between the years 1830 and 1S40, it would I am sure be a matter of 

 very curious interest to compare it with that of the present. One 

 thing would not fail to strike, at the very first glance. There are 



