114 



Our Retrospect. 



mentioned in its due order is a discourse delivered at the First Anni- 

 versary of the Institute after its incorporation by the Legislature, by 

 Benjamin F. Butler,— distinguished in his day as one of the great 

 lawyers of the State, — at one time partner to President Van Buren, 

 Commissioner to revise our statutes, then Attorney- General of the 

 United States, and for a short period acting Secretary of War. It 

 is a well-written discourse upon the purposes and duties of the In- 

 stitute and occupies 53 pages, to which is a supplement of 26 pages of 

 closely-printed notes. Whether he delivered the whole paper at one 

 sitting or whether a portion of it was " considered as read," we cannot 

 now tell. But we must remember that those were times in which the 

 world did not hurry as much as now, and in which by practice men 

 gained the happy faculty of sitting patiently beneath preachings of one 

 or two hours' duration; and therefore we may assume that much might 

 be allowed in favor of an orator who offered such an excellent con- 

 tribution. 



I have made this rough digest of the contents of our first volume 

 without any intent to continue it through the subsequent volumes. 

 My object has been simply to show the method of the Institute upon 

 starting on its course of publication,— to let it be seen how heartily 

 members who then and afterward achieved wide reputations entered 

 into the spirit of the undertaking, and to serve as a basis of compari- 

 son with subsequent work, so that it can be determined more easily 

 whether we have improved upon or degenerated from the method of 

 our beginning. Therefore we will pass hastily over the succeeding 

 volumes, merely stating that the work seems to have been carried on 

 thenceforward with equal ability, sound treatises being contributed 

 for a while by many of the same men who had appeared in the leading 

 volume, and their places becoming filled, as one by one they passed 

 away, with men of similar culture and scientific acumen. But we 

 must linger a moment over the fourth volume, for this in point of 

 date if not of numbering comes about midway in the series, containing 

 papers contributed from 1858 to 1864. Nearly thirty years therefore 

 were occupied in the production of four volumes, — a point to be con- 

 sidered by such as now chide the delay in our publications and call 

 for a yearly volume, and do not realize as they might, the importance 

 of leisurely discrimination in our offerings to the public. 



We find in this volume a very great change; not in the nature or quality 

 of the contributions, which still maintain their high character, but in 

 the membership of the Institute which, as shown in the earliest roll of 

 officers, is very different. Death has been exceedingly busy, and of 

 the former list, but few remain. We have now for President, John V. 



