48 



ADDRESS ly Hon. Wm. R. Martin, President of the De- 

 partment of Public Parks. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



To-day the promises of the past four years are performed. 

 You are in a completed building, its six stories filled with 

 treasures. Yet it is the opening only to a great future. 



As you approached, you saw that the building is but a 

 section of an unfinished whole. It is bordered by avenues 

 unregulated, by excavations for future foundations, by sub- 

 graded park work, and yet, within, it is a royal abode for 

 science. The collections, complete as they seem, when you 

 listen to the men who are making them, are but their begin- 

 nings royal though they be. The satisfaction we all feel, this 

 day, is supported by the promise of that which is to come. 

 All that is not behind us is before us, and the future is better 

 than the past. 



I think I interpret the feelings of all, when I say that the 

 strong impression made here is, that we stand in the presence 

 of something which shall endure. At the moment, the scenes 

 we have left outside seem transitory ; the spectacle in which 

 we participate becomes sublime. It is because we are in the 

 presence of Science — of nature, whose history and whose 

 mysteries the hand of man has discovered and unveiled. The 

 breadth of her dominion is opened to us. The lines of her his- 

 tory are written in these rocks, her beauty gleams in the 

 plumage of these birds. The whole earth is filled with her 

 glory — how much more this house which we have made. 



It is needless for us to say whether the great teacher makes 

 the great University, or whether the great opportunity pro- 

 duces the great teacher. It is enough that they live together. 

 It is the pride of the great city of New York that it has 

 created the Central Park for the health and enjoyment of the 

 people, and in doing so, has made it by the adornment of Art 

 as beautiful as it could be made. But this is not all ; it has 

 led to an appreciation of Art and of Science. As you tra- 

 versed the Park you saw the beginning of a Meteorological 

 Observatory, a place for History, and on either hand, two tern- 



