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1993.ANNUAL ADDRESS
OF	'
RT. REV. WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE •
ALBANY INSTITUTE,
May 25th, 1895.ANNUAL ADDRESS.
Mr. President and Gentlemen :
I do not often apologize in advance for what I undertake to do; be-
cause, while I constantly have sense of failure to acknowledge at the
end of* undertakings, I do not often begin an undertaking to which I
know I am unequal. When the President did me the honour to ask
me to make your Annual Address this year, he will do me the justice
to say, that I assured him of my inability to do what ought to be done;
but when the choice was put before me to decide between apparent
lack of interest in this truly venerable Organization, and evident lack
of time’.to discharge the duty of this Address, I preferred to risk the
unavoidable evidence of the second fact, rather than the appearance
even of the other; and-so I come, out of the crowd and pressure of
very many things, to speak most unworthily, but most willingly, to my
fellow-members of the Albany Institute and my fellow-citizens of
Albany.
A man’s ancestry ought to be, if it is an honorable ancestry, a her-
itage of power and not a tendency to pride ; and yet it becomes some-
times a hindrance to his usefulness; and the difference is determined
by the use he makes of it. To fall back upon the possession of an
honourable name, as a mere label to a man, is simply to dishonour it.
To recognize its responsibility and realize its value, is to enhance its
honour. The old legend, “ respondete natalibus,” has in it the true
lesson; to live up to one’s birthright; to live answerably to our heri-
tage. We have something fco learn of this as citizens, by birth or by
adoption, of this old City; whose creditable family record of honest
labour, of faithfulness to principle, of care about education, of provi-
sion for religious services, of fair dealing with the Indians, of industry
and energy, of economy and thrift, of civic and national pride, ought
to have handed down to us a similar spirit, to build our municipal gov-
ernment, upon the foundations which they laid. And surely the nata-
lia of this Institute are, in all ways, so high and honourable, that I
venture to run over the story of its birth in order to remind you of the
things that have gone before us.
There is a sort of appeal in the story, like that which St. Paul made to
St. Timothy, about “Lois and Eunice,” calling to remembrance the faith
which first dwelt in them. For this Institute has a mother not only,
but a grandmother. One hundred and one years ago, there was organ-
ized in the State of New York “ The Society for the Promotion of Agri-
culture, Arts and Manufacture.” This was our Lois. She lived only4
Annual Address.
where we are gathered now, two great scientific discoveries were made
I quote from Mr. Meads’ Address in 1871 :
44 Many of us will remember the intense interest with which in the
years 1880, ’31 and ’32, we regarded the long coils of wire more than a
mile in length, running circuit upon circuit, around the walls of one of
the rooms in the Academy, which had been placed there by Mr. Henry
to illustrate the fact that a galvanic current could be thus instantane-
ously projected through its whole length so as to excite a magnet placed
at the further extremity of the line, and thus move a steel bar so as to
strike a bell. In a scientific point of view, this was a complete demon-
stration and fulfillment of all that was required for the magnetic tele-
graph. The science of that wonderful discovery was complete, but it
still needed a suitable and convenient instrument for its practical appli-
cation ; and this was soon supplied by the mechanical and inventive
genius of Morse, who had been long engaged in the work, but had hith-
erto been constantly baffled by his inability to transmit the power to a
sufficient distance. On Henry’s discoveries being communicated to
him, the difficulty was removed and he was enabled' to perfect his
great invention. All honor to the inventor of what is probably the best
mechanical instrument that has yet been devised. His claims to the
gratitude of his countrymen are by no means to be underrated, but let
us not forget the still higher claims of him who made and pointed out
the application of the scientific discoveries upon which the practica-
bility and success of that invention depended. To him we owe it that
the fiction of the poet has become the reality of our own day, and that
Shakespeare’s fairy task of putting a girdle about the earth in forty
minutes, may be accomplished in a higher sense than he dreamt of,
for the girdle thus given to us is one instinct with mysterious life, and
thrilling with an unceasing current of human interests and affections.”
And again, President Colvin, in his paper on our Coast Defenses,
tells this striking story : “ John Ericcson, in his account of the revolving
turreted Monitor, expressly disclaims having originated the revolving
turreted battery, which, on the iron-clads of his designs, gave such
strength to our navy in the late war. Ericcson, after mentioning several
early designs for floating batteries, gives to Abraham Bloodgood of
Albany the credit of having laid before the Society for the Promotion of
the Useful Arts — the first department of the Albany Institute — an
illustration and description of a floating revolving circular battery for
naval warfare and harbor defense. This was in 1807. To a member
of the Albany Institute, therefore, is to be attributed the first idealiza-
tion of the Monitor iron-clad ttfrret, which, perfected by Ericcson, formed
the invulnerable defense of our coasts during the rebellion.”
These are but two branches picked at random from our genealogicalAnnual Address.
5
tree. The list of the membership of the Institute through all these
years contains the names of men distinguisned in every branch of study
and research, and you will find upon it the names of all the distin-
guished citizens of this old city ; prominent among them, with a fame
that is world-wide, the name of James Hall, second to no man living in
the width and worth of his geological discoveries and learning.
So much for our natalia, our birthrights, the things we have to live up
to. Are they to be used to pander to the false pride of ancestral great-
ness, or to promote the walking worthily of the men in whose footprints
we stand to-day. There has been no little discussion of late about what,
I thjnk, is miscalled “ greater New York.” So far as I know anything
about it, the descriptive adjective ought to have been bigger not greater;
for it seems to me that it merely meant more territory, more taxpayers,
more tramps, more voters, more miles of streets, more millions of citizens,
than Chicago. We do not want a bigger Albany in that sense; but a
greater Albany we do need, we ought to have, we will have; and I
believe the greater Albany has begun to be. We are not specially con-
cerned to speak of it in connection with business enterprises. Perhaps
the era of great fortune making has passed avray or gone west. Per-
haps we are too near New York, for the carrying on of great schemes of
finance or the establishment of successful commercial ventures; and yet
one feels, that, in the perpetual change of business-centres, and with
more industry, spirit, energy, anything may come here, to a place that
is so favoured in every element of natural situation. And one is proud
to know that in the years just gone, of lowered percentages and passed
dividends, Albany securities held high. Nor are we occupied to-night
with the political honours or dishonours which gather in the Capital
city. There are advantages and disadvantages in the political centre
of a great State; and even if evil or discredit may come here from with-
out, the City of the Governor, of the Court of Appeals, of the State
Library, ought to be and is, in these respects, honoured and honourable.
But the greater Albany of our desires and of our duties is not in these
directions.
I trust I shall not seem to be criticising the conduct of the officers of
the Institute, if I stand here to make suggestions, always easy to make,
to the men whose courage and determination under grave discourage-
ment and difficulties, I greatly admire. But I am sure that they who
know the work and have held to it, through evil report and good report,
feel as strongly as I do that there ought to be larger purposes on a larger
plan. Really great papers read to a handful of hearers in a small
room, and then bound up and put away on shelves, are certainly not a
fulfillment of their purposes or of our possibilities.
As long ago as 1871, Mr. Meads urged the project of a new building,6	Annual Address.
or of suitable rooms for a meeting place and for the care and use of the
library and the collections of the Institute.
It would be scant courtesy not to acknowledge the kindness of the
Trustees of this Academy — twin sister in many ways and sharer of the
honours of the Institute — for their permission to us to use this room ;
but it would be a lack of common honesty to say, that it is sufficient or
suitable, either for our meetings, or for depositing the books and collec-
tions which we have. And growth in these two departments is, of
bourse, absolutely impossible.
We are familiar, all of us, with the suggestion made some years ago,
by one of our most spirited citizens, Mr. George Douglas Miller, fo^ the
development here of a Historical Society, to which, largely because of
his energy and interest, some subscriptions of money have been made;
and to which, by his suggestion, the not inconsiderable sum obtained
from the Historical Pageant, so successfully arranged and carried out
here a year ago, is, I believe, devoted. We have already books, pic-
tures, specimens and collections of various sorts and of varying value,
scattered or hidden away.
There are several associations here of literary and civic aim and inter-
est, unhoused, which might most readily be gathered together under
one roof, each helping to increase and enhance the value of the service
of the other. And there has grown up here, within my day, a greater
company of men of means and leisure, of literary and artistic tastes and
ability, who might and would, I think, if opportunity offered, be organ-
ized not only into unity as to one place of work and meeting, but into
an association for the advancement of the very things, for which this
Institute has always stood and to which their lives are devoted. I can-
not but feel that the Institute ought to be the central gathering point,
both as to organization, and in providing the proper building, to which
these things should gravitate. It seems to me that this would secure
not division, but the unity and variety of interest and thought, which
would greatly enrich, with new blood, the old life of the Institute; and
greatly enlarge not only its directions but its capacities and use.
Albany, too, is a great educational centre. The University of New
York, with its headquarters here, and the office of the Superintendent
of Public Instruction, administering all grades of education from the
Public School, through the High School and Academy, up to the College
and the University ; our own High School and Public Schools, the Nor-
mal College, the Female Academy, the Boys’ Academy, St. Agnes’
School, and the many private enterprises of teaching have gathered here
a body of educated men and women, trained and devoted to teaching;
and a body of learners, equally intelligent and earnest. And teachers
and learners know that education is not carried on altogether in schoolAnnual Address.
7
rooms cr class rooms or with books.. Our great State Library and our
Museum furnish, of course, two outside places of reference and study,
which are so needful to the completeness of any education. But we
might have beside, gathered into our new home, those great instructors
which line the walls of the Museums of the old world, historical pictures,
casts, portraits, specimens of art or curiosities of nature, relics of the
old phases of barbarism and progressive civilization in our own State ;
many of which are already at hand, but so scattered or hidden that no
one can use them for the valuable purposes which they might subserve.
One must feel, too, that in the rapid and marvellous advance of scientific
study and of the things that make for the aesthetic and artistic sides of
life, a keener and more active energy should be instilled into an organi-
zation, with so large a purpose as the charter of this Institute contains.
» Just as a single illustration :	We have here men and women skilled
in very high degree in the new science of photography, which contains
the wonderful power of reproducing with living accuracy all subjects
that it touches, and brings within the reach of men of moderate means
and of those who stay at home, the wealth and beauty of the world, both
in its natural features and in the noblest results of art. There is no
limit to the value that might come, if we could gather these enthusiasts
to our help, not only in decorating our building, but in developing the
purposes for which we exist. And as I look out upon the increased
intelligence of the men and woman, who are living here, which finds
vent for its energy in special clubs for the discussion of all topics ; as I
consider the persons among us, adepts and experts in almost every
branch of reading and of study, I am quite sure, that what we need, is
to bring a larger life and wider range of topics, a fresher treatment of
subjects, into the meetings and papers of the Institute. Nor can I fail
to feel that in the coming forward, into the ranks and places of active
life, of men who are still in the first flush of unknown powers, there is a
wealth of new strength to be added to our active, membership, which
would enhance in every way its attractiveness and its power for good.
I am struck with the distribution of membership into resident and
active members. There is a sense of “ sitting down ” in that first word
which is displeasing. What we need is to turn resident into active, and
fill the old body corporate with the new blood of fresh life.
Somebody has spoken of “ its habit and instinct of repose ” as one of
the charms of Albany. It is true. It may readily be carried too far.
The sleep of Rip Van Winkle is an exaggeration of this repose. But
the sense of quietness, of leisure, the avoidance of rush and hurry with
no breathing spells, are admirable elements in a people. And it is not
only an element in the possibility of this proposal, but a strong reason
for it, that people, who have time for something besides and better than8
Annual Address,
money-making, should have a place and a purpose for meeting together.
We are broken up largely into sets, not of “the four hundred,” but of
little companies whom neighbourhood brings together. We need to
enlarge these circles, to know more of each other, to talk out what we
are thinking about and reading. Two or three gatherings during the
year of “ all sorts and conditions ” of intelligent men and women, in a
place whose surroundings suggested subjects of intelligent conversa-
tion (small talk and gossip being out of place), would greatly subserve
the social and intellectual advancement of Albany. Now and then an
Art Loan exhibition, with the treasures gathered here, in houses rich
with most artistic things, would instruct and elevate the aesthetic side
of our people. And it would be easy to attract here not the old, only,
but the newer treasures of modern art. And we have here in this
Institute, we have here in the proposal and the promising beginning.of •
the Albany Historical Society, the opportunity to do all this, if the
will and the spirit be ready. As the old historical society of this old
historical town it is for the Institute to take the lead. If we will woo,
I believe the other can be won. And only marriage, not affiliation nor
association, but marriage, that makes the two one, and with one name,
can* attain the end.
Mr. President and gentlemen, 1 hope the answer of Joseph’s brothers
will not be your reply to me, “ Hear what this dreamer sayeth.” If it
be that, I can only say that dreams are often made of most substan-
tial stuff. We have the warrant of the old Greek poet for the saying that
“ the dream is from God” (Kat yap rovap en /hog). And we have the
history of the Hebrew patriarch for proof that dreams, which come to
men who sleep on pillows made of the hard material of labour and pur-
pose, get great fulfillments.
In our neighboring and younger sister city of New York we have a
splendid stimulus and example. The consolidation of the three great
libraries there will realize something that Bodley and Porson would be
content with. President Low’s noble gift, which carries on towards its
crown his noble administration of Columbia College may develop here
what is latent in the minds and hearts of other men. “Nil desper-
andum.” To a man who has for five and twenty years been making
“ bricks without straw,” as I have, and building those bricks into sub-
stantial buildings for great uses, nothing that is right and good seems
impossible. And my earnest hope is that our Institute will learn the
lesson of growing old, not gracefully, but usefully ; and show, by a
successful undertaking of larger things, that it is abreast of the times,
awake to its possibilities, and that it has not the pride only, but the
power of its ancestry, to make the greater Albany a reality and not a
dream.2
Annual Address.
twelve years, and died in giving birth to Eunice, whose name was 44 The
Albany Lyceum of Natural History.” The two great men associated
with these parent societies were Robert Livingston and Stephen Van
Rensselaer; the great Chancellor and the great Patroon. And in 1829,
the Albany Institute came into being by legislative enactment: 44 matre
pulchra, filia pulchrior; ” a daughter fairer than her fair mother; em-
bracing in its membership all the members of the previous organiza-
tions, and inheriting in its sound constitution the vigour of its progeni-
tors. It looked in three directions, for the service it was to render; to
physical sciences and the arts; to natural history; to history and
general literature.
I had before me last night two recent volumes of the published Trans-
actions of the Institute, covering only a period of ten years; and their
range of research is as wide and varied as the departments thus con-
stituted demand : 44 The Origin of Force ; ” 44 Physical Sciences as Pro-
moters of Civilization; ” 44 Meteorological Studies; ” 44 Magnetic Obser-
vations near Albany; ” 44 Weeds; ” 44 Fossils of the Utica Slate and of
the Niagara Forms; ” 44 Progress in Insect Studies; ” 44 The First Man; ”
44 The Principles of Ventilation; ” 44 The West India Company and the
Walloons.” And besides these, what is difficult to classify as either
natural or physical, 44 Christian Science,” which is against nature and
takes no physic, and has little science in it and less Christianity; and,
by way either of the arts or general literature, as you please, 44 Grave
Stones iEsthetically and Ethically Considered; ” and44 Whittington and
His Cat; ” a wide range certainly, 44 from grave to gay, from lively to
severe; ” but they are indications of the broad sweep of the discussions,
as embracing subjects of equal interest and variety. And the earlier
numbers of these valuable volumes of 44 The Transactions ” not only
cover the same great ranges of thought and study, but they bristle with
the names of most distinguished men—Joseph Henry and T. Romeyn
Beck, George Clinton, and Amos Dean, Daniel D. Barnard and Dr.
Howard Townsend, and others of whom the time would fail me to
tell. Such learning is part of our birthright.
The heritage of this Institute is rich, too, in the names of its founders,
officers and members. I may not speak of its living presidents, whose
names and personalities are part of the reputation of our city. And I
do not go back to that distinguished roll of the men who made it, and
who led it in the earlier days. But in my own time here, there are
two names which I have good right and reason to mention, as part of
the distinction of your Albany citizenship and mine; worthy successors
to Livingston and Van Rensselaer—John V. L. Pruyn and Orlando
Meads; the one a typical citizen, dispensing most gracious hospitality
with most generous hand; an office-holder in. the days when officeAnnual Address.
8
sought men, not men office; foremost in everything that promoted the
interest and the honour of the city and the State ; whose later life, as I
knew it, was spent in the unselfish devotion of wealth and leisure and
large cultivation, to the public good. And the other, my very dear and
intimate friend, rich in the literary and artistic tastes and treasures of
his mind, devoted to every good work of education, culture and religion,
and answering most admirably to his own description of Simeon
De Witt, 4 4 his dome-like head whitening with advancing years; with
a calm, benignant, intellectual look, in which the shadows of coming
age had touched the lines of thought and old experience, and mellowed
them into the serene and gentle aspect of wisdom.”
There are two names intimately associated with my connection both
with the Institute and with the Academy, of which my personal feeling
compels me to speak. Dr. Thomas Hun, foremost in the old days in every-
thing that concerned the Institute, still lives, thank God, withdrawn
from active service, but with all the old, racy richness of his mind and
strong, well-balanced evenness of his judgment, in the enjoyment of the
well-earned admiration and affection of innumerable friends; to whom,
as “ the beloved physician,” the delightful companion, the wise coun-
sellor, and the gracious friend, he has endeared himself with a dearness
that increases with advancing years. And Paul Fenimore Cooper, heir
of a great name, himself a living illustration of thorough mental train-
ing, of literary cultivation and taste, of professional honour and success,
was another of the old citizens of Albany, who never failed to give his
powers to the furtherance of all things that are “ pure and lovely and of
good report.” It is hard to say to those of us who knew him, in which
phase of his long life he was the most attractive ; in the bright and
clever sparkle of his well-stored mind, his keen and kindly wit, and his
power of conversation; or, in the later years, when, withdrawn to a large
degree from the interchange of thought, he lived in the inner circle of
his family, a great reader, a constant student, and happy in the com-
panionship of his books, while to all of us he set the example, in the
pathetic dignity and cheerfulness of his patience, of a scholar,>a gentle-
man, a Christian man.
It is no small part, too, of our heritage of honour, that the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute of Troy, which stands foremost to-day among the
scientific schools of America, is, in a sense, a daughter of the Albany
Institute; due to the large agricultural and scientific interests and
studies, as well as to the liberal giving of our second President, the old
Patroon ; and besides this, that we gave to the Smithsonian Institute
in Washington its most distinguished secretary, Joseph Henry.
Nor must we fail to recall with pride that out of the brains of the men
who made the early story of the Institute, and in the very building