THE FIRST HALF CENTURY OF THE INSTITUTE. 9 



be done ? The eminent men who founded our school system 

 never meant it for a finality. They made it as far reach- 

 ing, as ehistic and as comprehensive as they might, but 

 they meant to leave broad vistas open towards something 

 beyond. A voluntary association like this which trusts 

 so largely to personal initiative and leans so little upon 

 mechanical aids, — which avoids so well the Scylla of 

 sciolism whilst yet escaping the Charybdis of conventional 

 mannerisms and methods, — must be of all others the 

 accepted means to hold in check the school machinery of 

 the State, should it ever turn its energies to stamping the 

 dead-level impress of the numerical majority upon all 

 alike. 



What we have accomplished may be briefly told. Our 

 published Historical Collections have reached their thirty- 

 fourth volume. Since 1859 we have published yearly, 

 besides occasional monographs, about three hundred pages. 

 These contain material of a character common to such 

 issues, except for this, that it is strictly local to Essex 

 County. These volumes are cited with respect, and their 

 high authority will be recognized when I say that they 

 are the work of such contributors, of more than local 

 fame, as Professors Herbert B. Adams of Johns Hopkins 

 and Emerton and Wendell of Harvard, of the Reverends 

 Jones Very and Charles T. Brooks, of the two Uphams, 

 father and son, of the Honorables Leverett Saltonstall 

 and Eben F. Stone, of Captain George H. Preble, of the 

 United States Navy, of Dr. Joseph B. Felt, of Henry 

 Wheatland, of Henry F. Waters, of Abner C. Goodell, 

 of Matthew A. Stickney, and of William G. Barton. The 

 temptation to recite the list of local authorities to whom 

 we owe so much of our success, is well-nigh overmaster- 

 ing, but I must refrain. A score or two of the most 

 approved writers this neighborhood has produced in our 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XXX 1* 



