72 BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



partly under the hospitable shelter of the Essex Institute and partly 

 under that of its sister institution, the Peabody Academy. 



It would have been a real pleasure to me to take part in a celebra- 

 tion in honor of an institution to which I have been so deeply in- 

 debted for sympathy and encouragement at a time in my life when 

 these were most needed. Your institution and personal association 

 with Dr. Wheatland helped me and others to encounter the difficulties 

 that beset the teaching and investigation of science. 



You have set before us as well as the community at large brilliant 

 examples of unselfish devotion to the highest purposes, that have had 

 predominant influence for good, not only upon the institutions with 

 which we have been connected, but upon all similar undertakings 

 throughout this country. The Essex Institute can consequently not 

 only congratulate its members upon the record of the past fifty years, 

 but most confidently look forward to the future in the hope that, 

 with larger means and greater opportunity, it may make the history 

 of the next fifty years even fuller and richer than that of the last 

 half-century of its existence. 



Thanking you for the honor conferred by your invitation and again 



expressing my sincere regret that I shall not be able to give personal 



and fuller evidence of my obligations and interest in the work of the 



Institute, I remain 



Very respectfully yours, 



Alpheus Hyatt. 



Massachusetts Senate, 

 President's Room, State House, Boston, 



Feb. 26, 1898. 

 Mk. Henry M. Brooks, 



Secretary Essex Institute, 

 Salem, Mass. 



Dear Sir : — 



I thank you for the ticket of admission to your exer- 

 cises in commemoration of the founding of the Essex Institute at 

 Salem on March 2, 1898. I should be very nmch pleased to attend, 

 but the Senate will be in Session at that time and there is consider- 

 able business in prospect for next week and, therefore, I think I 

 shall have to decline your kind invitation. 



Yours truly, 



George E. Smith, 



