126 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



upon this model, in America, if not in the world. States and 

 counties are following your example. We may hope that the time 

 is not distant when there will not be a State or county in the 

 Union, deprived of the benefits of such a society, and these socie- 

 ties, in their turn, more or less tributary to their original. 



One thing, Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Institute, your 

 association seems to demand, and that is, a convenient, adapted, 

 and permanent depository for the offerings confided to your charge. 

 What structure so suited to your object as this arch of crystal that 

 stretches now between us and the clouds ? Well christened was 

 it for such a purpose. Let it become the perpetual home of 

 American genius. Hitherward tend all the contributions of 

 American invention, so that if any one would know what America 

 is, and can become, let him bend his steps to this Temple of Uses. 

 If a new Whitney shall arise, whose throbbing brain shall start an 

 idea to improve the condition of every man in Christendom, let 

 some perpetual niche be assigned him in these halls. If some 

 modern Fitch, or Fulton, or Evans, shall descry some undiscovered 

 force to whirl us o'er land or main, let his monument be erected 

 here, within tliis enduring network of iron lace. If some un- 

 known Whittemore, with intense but bafiled industry, strives for 

 a great discovery which yet eludes him, till the heavens, in kind- 

 ness, let in the secret to his soul in the visions of the night, here 

 let his production stand to catch the gaze of the future. When 

 ever a Blanchard, a Perkins, a Bushnell, or an Eckford arises, on 

 the scroll of this Institute let his name be recorded. If Colt or 

 Sharp infuses six times additional power into an arm of our na- 

 tional defence — if Hobbes aifords us new security from violence— 

 if Steers shall launch new models of fleetness and beauty to glance 

 upon the waves — if Morse shall invade the arcana of the sky, and 

 bring the very bolts of heaven to do oiu- bidding — here let their 

 achievements be displayed and their titles vindicated. 



