materials for carrying on their work- the elements of further discovery-surround us on every side. There is no error more gross than that the knowledge of the great truths which form the glory of modern science, must be directly sought from the depths of the heavens above or of the abyss below. And when philosophical analysis enables us, in some degree, to penetrate to the mysteries of the earth we inhabit, or of the mighty universe of which it forms so small a part, it is by virtue of laws and principles exemplified as clearly in the motes that cheaply people the sunbeam, as in the mighty spheres which are held in their orbits by the sun. The law of gravitation was suggested to Newton, not by the magnificent spectacle of a comet drawn down to the sun from the outskirts of the solar system, but by an apple falling from a tree to the earth. The glass which I hold in my hand, with the water contained in it, is of itself a richly stored cabinet of scientific truth. By the ancients, the water, believed to be a simple substance, was no doubt regarded chiefly as the element designed to moisten and fertilize the earth, to quench the thirst of man, to separate Greece from the lands of the barbarians. By a great progress of art, it came to serve for the construction of a clepsydra. Modern science early took note of the expansive powers of steam; the Marquis of Worcester, Savery, and Newcomen attempted, and Bolton and Watt perfected, the machinery which has made the vapor of boiling water the life-spring of modern industry, and in the hands of our own Fulton has converted it into the great means of commerce and communication around the globe. Questioned by chemical science, the same limpid element is made to yield to Cavendish and Priestley the secret of its gaseous composition, and thus becomes the starting point of no inconsiderable portion of our modern chemistry; teaching us at the outset the somewhat startling fact, that aquafortis and the common air we breathe consist of precisely the same ingredients, in proportions a little varied. Physiology here takes her turn; and my friend opposite, who favors me with an approving smile, (Professor Agassiz,) is ready to subject the contents of the glass to the creative focus

of his microscope, and to demonstrate the organization, circulation, and whole animal economy of orders of beings, whose existence is apparent only under the higher powers. Not content with the harvest of science to be reaped from the water, our worthy president (Professor Henry) is thinking of the glass. To his eye it is a tolerable cylinder. His mind runs upon electricity, induction, and the relations of galvanism and magnetism, to the illustration of which he has himself so materially contributed. Here we reach the magnetic telegraph, the electric clock, and their application to the measurement of differences of longitude, and the observation and record of celestial phenomena; an apparatus so wonderful that, as we have heard in the sections, from Professor Walker, a child of twelve years old, who sees it for the first time, can observe and record the passage of a star over the wires of the micrometer, more correctly than it could be done by the most skilful observer in the ordinary way. Thus we are carried back to a more accurate observation of the heavens, by that electric spark which Franklin first drew from the clouds.

But it is time, sir, to think of performing the duty for which I originally rose to address you. It is one of the most pleasing incidents of the present meetings of the Association that they have been attended by so many ladies. Many of the members of the Association, from a distance, have been accompanied with their wives and daughters, who, together with the ladies of Cambridge, have not only from day to day honored our social table with their company, but have given their diligent attention in the sections. The Association has, I understand, been favored in this way for the first time at the present meeting. I am sure I speak for all those who have taken part in the scientific transactions, that they have been animated and encouraged by this unusual presence; and the persevering attendance of our fair friends to the close of the session authorizes the hope that they have been gratified listeners. How much our social meetings in this hall have been enlivened by their presence I need not say. I trust the example which they have set, the present year, will be fol

lowed at the future meetings of the Association. When we recall the names of Caroline Herschel, of Mary Somerville,and may I not add of our own Maria Mitchell? — we need no arguments to show that the cultivation of science is by no means the exclusive mission of man. The time may come, perhaps, when my successor in the duty I now perform will be called upon to return the acknowledgments of the Association, not only to the ladies who have honored the meetings by their presence, but to those who have contributed to the volumes of its Scientific Transactions.

I beg leave, sir, to submit the following motion :

Resolved, That the thanks of the American Association for the Advancement of Science be given to the ladies who have honored the meetings of the Association with their attendance.

The question on this resolution was put by the president, and it was carried unanimously.

THE DEPARTURE OF THE PILGRIMS.*

AFTER Some observations upon the propriety of celebrating the day on which the Pilgrims took their departure from the Old World, as well as that on which they landed in America, Mr Everett proceeded as follows:

It may be added, sir, in favor of a celebration of the seventeenth of September, that it is not amiss that our commemoration of the Pilgrims should have its joyous as well as its pensive aspect. There is a bright as well as a dark side to their story. If we are led by the dreary snows and piercing winds of December to dwell upon the recollection of their sufferings, let us be willing to yield to the influence of the present delightful season, and trace their toils and sacrifices into the bounteous harvest of blessings for which we ought to be grateful to their memory. Of these blessings we are not likely to overrate the importance; nor whether our celebrations are frequent or infrequent, in the summer or the winter, are we at all in danger of exaggerating the consequences of that movement, in which the Pilgrims of New England led the way, I mean the colonization of New England by voluntary emigration from Old England.

I freely admit, sir, that consequences of all kinds, - political, social, and moral, - vitally affecting the Old World and the New, have resulted from that movement which the first

* Remarks at the table at Plymouth, Mass., on the 17th of September, 1849, (Mr Webster in the chair;) this day being the anniversary of the day on which the Mayflower took her final departure from Plymouth in England.

settlers of New England did not anticipate, which it did not enter into their hearts distinctly to conceive. But inasmuch as the movement itself was deliberately planned for objects analogous to those which have been accomplished, and in the natural sequence of cause and effect, it appears to me that the Pilgrims are fully entitled to the honors which we are accustomed to pay to their memories, as the founders of our New England commonwealths, and of so much of our common America as traces its descent to New England. You have justly observed, sir, that Columbus was entitled to the glory of his great discovery from the day he sailed from Palos. What had mere success to do with the mighty conception of his mind? He was entitled to it then or never, for the historical fact of the discovery was an accident. He sailed in the hope of finding a western passage to India; — he found a new world on the way; as modern astronomy, launching into the heavens on a voyage of discovery for a new planet at thirty-six or thirty-eight times the distance of the earth from the sun, found it at thirty. In like manner the Pilgrims sought only a shelter for their own feeble flock; but they are not the less entitled to the credit of founding our six New England republics. The corner stone of the goodly edifice may truly be said to rest on Plymouth rock.

Yes, sir, they were but a handful; just a hundred when they landed from the Mayflower, of whom one half were laid beneath the sods of yonder rising ground, before it was clothed with the next spring's verdure. They were a little community of Christians who, finding themselves wasting away in the country of their European exile, sought only a corner of the earth where they could worship God without restraint or fear; but in this little company were folded up the germs of future states, as truly as the future oak is wrapped up in the acorn.

In fact, sir, before we look with disparagement upon the insignificance of the enterprise of the Pilgrims, and feel disposed to deny them, on that account, a place in the list of Lord Bacon's conditores imperiorum, we should do well to consider, that, in all human probability, the final success of