Annual Address. 



25 



and upon the line of eminent men who have been associated 

 with it, and the influence they have had in the advance- 

 ment of science, literature, education and the useful arts, 

 I think we have reason to be proud of the work that has 

 thus been done in the past. Not the lea§t of all the public 

 services thus rendered has been, that here at the seat of 

 government might at all times be found associated to- 

 gether, what might be termed a consultative body of able, 

 learned and disinterested men, to whom the state could 

 always resort for information and advice in all matters 

 pertaining to the interests of knowledge and education. 



It will be seen, from the review we have made, that from 

 the beginning, the work of our societies has always had 

 reference to the prevalent wants of the time. It seems to 

 me that the time has come, when the Institute, without 

 relaxing its efforts in the lines of work in which it has been 

 hitherto engaged, is called upon by all the circumstances 

 of our day and place to meet the new demands of its posi- 

 tion. The great progress we have made in population and 

 material wealth has brought with it a consciousness of new 

 needs. We begin to feel that in addition to the supply of 

 our material wants, we need tastes and employments that 

 will add dignity and refinement to wealth and leisure. 

 We are moreover a nation of travelers, who if not highly 

 cultivated, are at least keen and observant, and we cannot 

 but see how inferior we are to most of the nations of 

 Europe in the means of high intellectual and aesthetic cul- 

 ture. Recent events, too, have given our own city a more 

 assured and commanding importance. The building of 

 our new Capitol marks the commencement of a new era 

 in our municipal history, one that invests us with the dig- 

 nity and the responsibilities of the permanently established 

 capital of a state of four millions of people. It imposes 

 upon us the duty of endeavoring to gather here all those 

 institutions and influences which belong to such a centre, 

 I Trans. vii.~] 4 



