82 



Records of preceding meeting read. Several donations to 

 the Library,— from G. F. Cheever, H. M. Brooks, C. L. Flint, 

 secretary of Mass. Board of Agriculture, J. C. Holmes, sec'y 

 of Mich. State Agri. Soc'y, and L. M. Boltwoon of Amherst, 

 were duly announced ; — also, to the Cabinets, — of which was a 

 specimen of a skull of Uria, from Barrow's Island, South 

 Pacific, by Henry Upton, accompanied by several implements 

 of savage life among the same islands. 



The chair presented a brief botanical account of the Clove 

 ( Caryophyllus aromaticAis^ upon specimens presented to the 

 Herbarium bj Henry F. Shepard. 



Charles M. Endicott premised the offering of the follow- 

 ing Resolution, by some valuable remarks, viz : 



Before introducing to the consideration of the Society a 

 certain Preamble and Resolution, touching the records of mar- 

 riages, births and deaths of the several towns in this State, I 

 propose to speak a few words upon the subject of New-England 

 genealogy^ that is, the genealogy of the first settlers, the puri- 

 tan fathers of New-England, 05 a duty, — a duty, not so much 

 we owe ourselves as a debt of gratitude due to the memories and 

 characters of our puritan ancestors, and thereby rescue from 

 total oblivion, among their posterity, the contemporaries of 

 Winthrop, Dudley, Bradstreet, Conant, Palfray, Balch, and 

 others, — names already known to fame, and co-workers with 

 them in the same cause, and partakers alike in all the priva- 

 tions and hardships incident to the settlement of a new coun- 

 try. " All things," says Master Wace, in his chronicles of the 

 Norman Conquest. " hasten to decay; all fall; all perish; all come 

 to an end. Man dieth. iron consumeth, wood decayeth ; towns 

 crumble, strong walls fall doAvn, the war horse waxeth feeble — 

 gay trappings grow old;— all the works of men's hands perish. 

 Thus we are taught that all die, both clerk and lay ; and short 

 would be the fame of any after death, if their history did not 

 endure by being written in the book of the clerk." But the 

 objection may meet us here — what good will these investiga- 

 tions do ? What will it profit a man to know about his ances- 

 try ? What have we, plain republicans, to do with armorial 

 bearings and heraldic honors 1 What good will it do us to 

 know that our ancestors were born within sight of Kenilworth 

 Castle, or were baptized in York Minster 1 I would answer 

 all these objections in the words of Edward Everett, to the 



