88 . TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



mere vain-glorious boasting, for the executive board under which 

 the- light-house system is now placed, and at the head of which is 

 the Secretary of the Treasury, invited Mr. Babbage here that he 

 might mature and practically apply his great designs. 



Here memory brings back upon me a bright but mournful 

 recollection. Indulge me, that I cannot pass it by. Known to 

 many in this community as a writer of pure and elevated mind, 

 as a lecturer on themes of English poetry and history, as the 

 devoted friend and admirer of Wordsworth, and perhaps his most 

 successful delineator, he is not so generally known as having had 

 full and glorious sympathies with science and with scientific men. 

 Henry Reed had a mind and a head capable of embracing both, 

 and if he loved literature more he did not appreciate science less. 

 He it w^as, who, in conjunction with a young and zealous astrono- 

 mer, (Dr. Gould,) almost shook the determination of Babbage to 

 avoid or to defer visiting us. The melancholy loss of the accom- 

 plished envoy in the " Arctic," was a reason the more for the 

 philosopher's decision not to cross the Atlantic. 

 Sydenham Palace. 



The removal of the great London Crystal Palace to Sydenham, 

 and its conversion into a receptacle for the permanent exhibition 

 of the arts and sciences, constituted an epoch in our century. 

 Here, upon an elevation overlooking the fertile plains of Kent, 

 this palace of knowledge was permanently reared and dedicated 

 to progress. Its grounds reckoned in acres, their slopes and ter- 

 races laid out with consummate skill in beautiful forms and in 

 the contrasts of the gardens of Italy, France, and Britain, in the 

 utilitarian representation of mines and of their working, and in 

 the wonders of the earth and of the great deep, in epochs antece- 

 dent to the creation of man. Its interior, in ample development, 

 shov/s the physical geography of the globe : America, with her 

 mighty lakes and rivers, her varied vegetable and animal life. 

 The plains of the African desert are found in place, and the boar, 

 and tiger, and giraffe occupy their characteristic haunts. The 

 Chinese and Persian marts are displayed to the admiring gaze. 

 Europe, in its Alpine grandeur and its English beauty — Europe, 

 in its arms and its arts. The visitor dwells for a moment in a hall 

 of Egypt, surrounded by those sphynxes whose very expression 



