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The approval and respect of our family, our friends and neighbors 

 are essential to our contentment; and the glory of our country, our 

 State, our city, is among the most valuable of our possessions. The 

 past of Albany is not only full of moving incidents, but it involves 

 events and transactions which have, so far as we can judge, alTcctcd 

 the whole course of the history of our State and country. In it have 

 moved and acted and taken counsel together from the dawn of coloni- 

 zation unto our day, no small number of worthies whose names ought 

 to be as familiar to us as household words. This Institute, I am glad 

 to see, purposes the preparation of a "Memorial History of Albany," 

 upon a most admirable plan. But you must pardon me for remind- 

 ing you that Horatio Seymour, who has spoken so truly and so nobly 

 of Albany, is, of all living men the one who is by knowledge and abil- 

 ity best fitted to write its general history — a history as fertile of inci- 

 dent and as important to mankind as that of Thebes or Sparta. May 

 high heaven blesB him, and give him strength and disposition to per- 

 form this noble service for us and for mankind. 



Is it not becoming in Albanians to bear in mind the dignity which 

 the people of the State have conferred upon it? It is the capital of the 

 great State of New York. Here rises that majestic capitol whose 

 gray and massive grandeur is a fit emblem of our institutions and 

 their permanence. It is a splendid recognition by our people of the 

 worth of liberty and law, a rich evidence of their deep sense of the 

 dignity of the aggregated people, and a fit tribute to the glory of New 

 York. 



Here, too, the State has planted one of its normal schools, its inval- 

 uable library, its museum of natural history. Here, too it main- 

 tains two scientists at work an admirable botanist and a geologist, 

 who is justly famous the wide world over. Here, too, is placed the 

 State entomologist, who is well known to you for his successful labors. 

 And now, my friends, may I not say that from these facts flows a 

 manifest duty on the part of Albanians to put all these benefactions to 

 their proper uses, and by their own due use of the facilities and wealth 

 the fostering favors of the State have in part created to brighten the 

 reputation of Albany and advance the interests and augment the 

 glory of the people of our State, by raising the Institute to the high- 

 est pitch of usefulness? I will add that, in my humble judgment, the 

 study of natural history being one of the three purposes for which 

 our charter was granted by the people, good faith requires that the 

 Institute should be so organized and sustained as to pursue it with 

 thoroughness and success. I am tempted to say something as to 

 the importance and the charms of pursuits which make us intimate 



