Excerpt from Discourse, on the Objects and Importance of the National Institution: For the Promotion of Science, Established at Washington, 1840, Delivered at the First Anniversary

The duty assigned me on this occasion is of such a character that I regret it has not devolved on some one more capable of performing it. To do justice to the subject requires more knowledge than I possess, and more leisure than I now enjoy; and I feel constrained to solicit your indulgence, while I explain the origin of the Institution for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts, and attempt to describe, as plainly and briefly as the subject will permit, its objects and im portance.

The lovers of science, literature, and the fine arts, residing in this District, felt sensibly the absence of those resources which are found elsewhere, and are necessary for the attainment of knowledge. They were mortified to perceive that the great advantages possessed by the public authorities at Washington were neglect ed, and that, at the seat of Government of this great nation, there existed fewer means than in any other city of the Union of prosecuting those studies, which, while they impart dignity and enjoyment to existence, lead to the most useful practical results. They believed it to be their duty to arouse the attention of Government to these deficiencies, and, at all events, to address themselves to the task of supplying them, as far as could be done by their individual and combined exertions. For these purposes they have formed an association, and applied themselves to collect specimens of geology and mineralogy, and other Objects of natural history, and, for the short period of its existence, the efforts of the Institution have been eminently successful. They have entered into correspondence with other learned societies, and have been encouraged to proceed by their appro balion, and have profited by their generous coopera tion. They have invited the assistance of their fellow citizens in the most distant States and Territories, and hope, by their aid, to collect documents and facts illus trative of the early history of our country, specimens of its geology and of its mineral and vegetable produc tions, and, if not to preserve the animals and plants them selves, which are passing away before the progress Of settlement and cultivation, at least to perpetuate their forms, and the memorv of their existence. They hope to be able to illustrate these subjects and others con; useted with them by a series of gratuitous lectures, and entertain a confident expectation that numbers, whose duties compel them annually to assemble here, will view with interest collections of the natural prod no tions of America, drawn from every State and Terri tory in the Union, and, becoming sensible Oftheir utility, will contribute on their return to swell their amount, and to spread throughout the country a taste for literary and scientific pursuits.

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