28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



logically result from a concentration of those products. All ini- 

 provements are in arithmetical progression. And the great edifice 

 of Invention, is pyramidical in form, each new one rising upon 

 the base of some previously adopted principle in art or physics. 

 The best mathematician works out problems most readily when 

 he has the diagram before him ; and the history of the world is 

 full of instances wherein the physical results of one invention, 

 when given to public inspection, has suggested many others. 

 And the rewards offered for ingenious realizations of theories have 

 again and again accomplished their ends. 



lY. Institutions for the exhibition of the results of industry, 

 are by no means ancient; nor, until quite recently, were they 

 very common. One of the earliest (and the most remarkable, as 

 an adjunct of the times,) was that in France, in 1797, in the 

 chateau St. Cloud, under the auspices of Minister Neufchateau. 

 Napoleon was prompt to perceive the utility of exciting an emu- 

 lation of excellence among his manufacturers, by means of * expo- 

 sitions.' Their annals are familiar to the student of history. But 

 few of these had been held in England, at the grant of your char- 

 ter. Since 1829, these have been held in Spain — Barcelona rank- 

 ing, in respect to them, as the Manchester to Madrid. And every- 

 where has each exhibition proved a period of comparison for 

 neighbors, rivals, and competing localities. Nor is it necessary 

 to the maintenance of the argument on which expositions of in- 

 dustry depend, that there should be perfection in every specimen 

 of skill. We may not turn away from tissues that none can wear, 

 nor curl the lip at beginnings, for every invention, however crude, 

 maybe capable of improvement, and may stimulate to more skillful 

 exercise of duties and craft. More than all, such exhibitions and 

 annual fairs direct mental energies to specialties, and in these 

 again to the minutest point. The knowledge acquired herein, 

 however, becomes the property of the community at large. For- 

 merly, discovery was attended with more or less secrecy ; but the 

 publicity of the present day causes that, no sooner is a discovery 

 or invention made, than it is soon improved upon and surpassed 

 by competing efforts. How often a public caprice suggests private 

 practical industry ! You, who may have studied every step of 

 the journey, by which the annual fairs have traveled from Masonic 

 Hall towards Niblo's and Castle Gardens; and to the Crystal 

 Palace and the Palace Gardens, must have been amazed and de- 

 lighted to note how the gsrms of one year became the bud of 

 another, and the fruit of succeeding ones matured to be yet again 



