US 



Our Retrospect. 



and unimpeachable. There are, of course, departments of knowledge 

 other than those of science into which we can enquire; but of these 

 there must he much to be said in way of limitation. It should never 

 be forgotten that we are accumulating material for the future, aud 

 that whatever can have no value for the future can be looked upon 

 with little favor, in the making up of our records. There are intricate 

 problems in history to be unraveled; and, whenever a statement of 

 well-known events is presented with such comments as will throw new 

 light upon them and give the world even an inkling of original 

 thought, that will surely be acceptable to the Institute. But we can 

 care very little for the pen that superficially transcribes well-known 

 facts from the cyclopaedia and simply re-arranges them, however ar- 

 tistically and pleasantly the task may be done. A hitherto unpub- 

 lished Macaulay essay, brilliant and sparkling, yet provocative of no 

 new suggestion in the way of historic philosophy should have for us 

 less value than the exhumation of a new fossil. The story of travel 

 that simply tells a pleasant sequence of wandering in strange lands 

 must fail to meet our needs; yet if it gives information about hitherto 

 unknown customs among aboriginal tribes, or in any way adds to our 

 geographical knowledge, it must always be welcome. And random 

 comments upon civil or social problems that have already been abun- 

 dantly discussed in the public journals and with or without debate 

 will always adjust themselves in a few years, can have no cordial recep- 

 tion among us; yet, on the other hand, cannot fail to be welcome if 

 treated with such broad and generous method as to incite new or en- 

 larged reflection. With every question brought before us, there 

 should either be fresh facts in the way of discovery, a disinterment of 

 old facts that have intrinsic value and have only been lost to sight from 

 lack of adequate setting, or new germs of philosophic thought that, 

 properly applied, will give peculiar interest to a re-discussion of the 

 subject. This policy we have so far mainly pursued; and if we would 

 preserve our well-earned reputation among other societies, we must 

 continue to pursue it to the end and not be too hasty in admitting 

 what is crude or commonplace. It were better to occupy another 

 fifty-nine years bringing out eleven additional volumes of Transactions 

 compiled with shrewd discrimination, than to publish a new volume 

 yearly in haste and with superficial material. 



This then is our record,— these eleven volumes of Transactions, 

 well selected. I do not think that we need feel dissatisfied with 

 them. If they are not as full as we might wish, our failure is merely 



have stricken out. I think we know very well the value of what 



record which 



would wish 



