44 



cultivate those Christian virtues of integrity, honesty, indus- 

 try, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord which 

 are at once our ornament and our protection. 



Bless this city of our habitation, our whole country, the 

 President of these United States and all magistrates, that we 

 may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all honesty and godli- 

 ness, knowing that this is acceptable unto Thee through Jesus 

 Christ. Thus by all methods of our education here on the earth, 

 prepare us for an abundant entrance into that city not made 

 with hands, eternal in the heavens, where no 'longer with 

 dim and imperfect vision, but with open face, we shall behold 

 the glory of the Lord, and changed into his image shall be 

 with him and like him forever. All which we ask in the 

 name of Jesus Christ, to whom be all glory forever. Amen. 



ADDRESS by Robert L. Stuart, President of the Museum, 



in behalf of the Trustees. 

 Ladies and Gentlemen : 



We have assembled for the purpose of opening to the 

 public, the collections of our Museum, and the Building which 

 the city has erected for their preservation and exhibition. 



This day, when our collections are displayed for the 

 first time, begins a new and most important era in our 

 history — and it will be proper on this occasion, to review 

 briefly the generous efforts put forth by our municipality, 

 and its citizens, in this way, for the public good, and to indi- 

 cate some of the fields of usefulness which this Institution 

 is evidently destined to occupy. 



For many years, those of our people who were privileged 

 to travel abroad, were constantly reminded of the fact, that 

 in our own wealthy and influential metropolis there were 

 no such institutions for the higher cultivation of the people, 

 and their instruction and recreation, as the Museums existing 

 not only in the capitals of Europe, but even in places of 

 moderate population. Many of the students of natural 

 science, who grew up in our midst, moved away to the neigh- 

 boring cities, which possessed such attractions, and New York 

 came to be regarded as so given over to the accumulation of 

 wealth, as to be too sterile a soil for the cultivation of the 

 higher branches of education. 



