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Athens to prevent the acquisitions of large fortunes, yet when 
men acquired them they used them for the public good, and 
when it happened, as sometimes it did, that there was a citizen of 
Athens who was not, according to the public sentiment or judg- 
ment, using his wealth wisely, the citizens got together in the 
Agora and they discussed the situation and held an experience 
meeting on his case, and it usually ended by voting that the citi- 
zen should build a trirema or some institution for the public 
benefit, and the citizen thus admonished always went and wisely 
acted on the hint, lest his latter end might not be so agreeable as 
his beginning. 
Now the relations of the citizens of New York as a corporate 
body and of the citizens as individuals to this institution and its 
sister institution, the Museum of Art, are to my mind not only 
felicitous, but most suggestive as to the proper use of the grow- 
ing wealth with which this country is endowed. Mr. Jesup has 
explained to you that the city is the owner of this building and 
of the Museum of Art ; that it has paid for this building, that it 
has entered into a contract with certain of its citizens to admin- 
ister the bounty of the city in the public good, and that these 
citizens, mostly men of wealth — not all, but all men who ought 
to be rich — have agreed on their side that to the extent the city 
will supply the accommodations they will cause it to be filled 
with worthy collections in art, in science, in every branch of 
human knowledge which it is good for the citizens of New York 
to study and possess. 
Now this suggests what I regard as the fundamental idea 
which should govern the City of New York in the administration 
of its revenues and the rich men of New York, in the disposition 
of their wealth. There never will come a time I trust when it 
will be necessary to call a public meeting in the City Hall Park 
to pass upon the duty of the rich men of New York, because so 
far as my own experience goes, extending back to a half a cen- 
tury, there never has been a worthy object presented to the rich 
men of New York which was not promptly executed by their 
willing beneficence. 
My young friend, President Low, who has been elevated in his 
early life to the most responsible position which can be occupied 
