Clinton's introductory discourse. 49 



The first society of the kind in this country was the American Philo- 

 sophical Society, held at Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowledge, 

 which was founded in 1 769 ; its principal promoter was Dr. Franklin :* 

 it has published six volumes of transactions. The American Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences was incorporated in Massachusetts in 1780; and 

 the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was established in 1799. 

 All these institutions have given to the world several useful and inte- 

 resting memoirs. The United States Military Philosophical Society 

 was founded at West Point, in this state, in 1802, by Colonel Williams, 

 Chief of the Corps of Engineers, and Military Academy. The whole 

 corps of engineers were the original members, and its number has been 

 increased by the admission of others from different parts of the United 

 States. This attempt to diffuse science has been attended with remark- 

 able success, and was worthy of the gentleman who inherits the investi- 

 gating mind as well as the blood of Dr. Franklin. The Travels and 

 Discoveries of Pike, the History of Louisiana by Stoddard, the Code 

 of Martial Law by Macomb, a Treatise on the Organization of Artil- 

 lery by Morton, several important military memoirs by the president 

 of that institution, and the system of maritime defence adopted, and 

 now visible in our harbour, may be considered as emanations from it. 



Such associations are productive of great individual and collective 

 benefit : they stimulate the mind to exertion, produce emulation, and 

 form habits of observing with accuracy, and of reading with attention ; 

 they elicit powers that would otherwise lie dormant, and collect know- 

 ledge that would otherwise be scattered. " Science, like fire, is put in 

 motion by collision."! The communion of cultivated minds must always 



* See Note F. f Transactions of the Literal and Philosophical Society of Manchester. 



9 



