What Made the Institute Possible. 325 



complete ; as it is, we can only wait in hope until our method shall 

 obtain its proper development. Our volumes thus prepared and circu- 

 lated may, for a while, stand idle upon dusty shelves ; but perhaps 

 only for a -while. The connection of the sciences is often apparently 

 arbitrary and without reason, and their influence upon each other is 

 not always capable of being definitely forecast. The trifling item 

 garnered up in one generation may become essential in the next, as 

 the link necessary to establish an important principle; and the trival 

 paper of to-day may, in a century hence, be seen to have been of more 

 value than could possibly have been anticipated by the most sanguine 

 scientist. And wlio can tell what might, not now be the addition to 

 our sum of knowledge if the same system of annotation and exchange 

 had prevailed throughout the scope of past history ? What if in 

 old records we could discover a scientific minute of the blazing star 

 that was superstitiously said to have forewarned Caesar of his assassi- 

 nation ? What if we could obtain a fuller account than that which the 

 younger Pliny gave of the destruction of Pompeii ? What if we could 

 have a rational exposition of many of the great phenomena that are 

 mentioned in history, and which live in credulous minds as portents 

 of change and disaster ? We are now doing what could not then be 

 done, the conditions of former society having been so incomplete and 

 uncertain. In future centuries our efforts may be looked upon with 

 thankfulness, just as we would now regard a similar labor in the 

 past, had it been practicable. 



And now, what encouragement can we have for believing that the Al- 

 bany Institute will remain true to its past record ? And what have we 

 to induce a belief that it may even gain in credit and usefulness ? In 

 my opinion, there is much to be looked forward to, as giving promise 

 of our continuance in success. There have been times when our 

 meetings were lightly attended, and our interest in ourselves seemed 

 almost to have died away ; but we must believe that these were merely 

 the usual oscillations toward weakness which every institution must at 

 certain periods experience. I do not say that even at this moment 

 we are doing full justice to our purposes, or to our anticipations of a 

 prosperous future. But I believe that any present apathy is only for 

 a time ; and I base my assertion upon the fact that the influences 

 which created and have sol ir u tuned is —an aggregation of talent 

 devoted to different departments of art and science, and imperatively 

 demanding some proper medium for ude development — are destined 

 to continue and probably increase in volume. I think that the char- 



