b BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



who value culture for itself; growing up, with a sponta- 

 neous life, out of what seemed to be a recognized popular 

 demand ; the Institute has waxed sturdy and strong, and 

 now would seem to have reached a crisis in its career. 



The people of Essex County — the people interested 

 in Essex County, living here or elsewhere — have come 

 to regard the Institute as a place of deposit where every- 

 thing typical of our heroic past, everything that can em- 

 balm the personality and keep alive the memory of actors 

 in the scenes of long ago, may well repose in consecrated 

 security forever. Not only valuable books and rare his- 

 torical papers — the natural accretions of a great library 

 — have been gathered here, but relics and manuscripts 

 and pictures and ancient records — a priceless legacy to the 

 antiquary and the student of local annals, rich material 

 ready to the hand of the historian — have poured in upon 

 us until our receptivity is overtaxed. Buried under the 

 indifference or lost sight of in the greed of the modern 

 Philistine, these relics spared by the tooth of time would 

 have no ministering value to the public ; but when res- 

 cued for the cabinets and archives of a well arranged col- 

 lection, they become parts and most important parts of a 

 great representative exhibit, picturing as nothing else 

 can do — neither word nor pen nor brush — the actual 

 domestic life of the New England that is gone. To rear 

 and worthily to care for such a mausoleum to the past 

 requires labor and thought and funds. Especially does it 

 require ever-growing space. Thus far our collections have 

 increased unchecked. Still the monumental pile mounts 

 higher. Would we have it less ? Does the pride of an- 

 cestry in Essex County — does the love of the heroic in 

 Essex County crave nothing further? Have we a surfeit 

 of hereditary honors ? Shall we cry, hold 1 enough! Only 

 ten years ago, the munificence of the late William Burley 



