PEOF. DEWEY'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen t 



We have listened with unalloyed pleasure to the distinguished 

 lecturer ( Prof. Agassiz), as he has shown us " Nature as an in- 

 telligent whole." Universal homage is paid to him, and his praise 

 has been beaming from a thousand eyes. To him, in the wise ar- 

 rangements of the committee, an hour, and more, was assigned, 

 which he has admirably employed and filled. But several are to 

 follow him ; and as time is short and flying, the same committee 

 have kindly allotted to some of us fifteen minutes, to some ten, 

 and to some five. Consider this, I pray you, ten minutes for a 

 speech on this splendid occasion : ten minutes allotted to — what 

 do you call him — an Old Fogie ? I accept the designation, for 

 more than ten minuter. For, what is a Fogie 1 I ask. As one of the 

 Scientific Association, and an the authority of its " Linguical 

 Committee," T answer for the advancement and diffusion of know- 

 ledge, a Fog-ie is one who has got out of the fog, and an old fogie 

 has long been out of the fog. From the constitution of things, if 

 there are old fogies, there must be young fogies. As it has been 

 finely said that " the boy is father to the man," so the young fogie 

 is father to the old fogie. The ladies will please to take this into 

 special consideration. 



Looking upon this brilliant scene in reference to the objects 

 contemplated, the diiferent state of things near the close of the 

 last century seems hardly credible. Let us look at the facts, and 

 briefly trace the history. 



Then, only about half a dozen men in the Union understood 

 even the elements of the geology of that day. Not a collection of 

 minerals existed in any college or in private hands, and the very 

 few which curiosity had picked up were unnamed and unknow-n. 



