For myself, gentlemen, I can bring to the discharge of the duties of this station nothing but the most earnest wishes for the success of your institution; an institution, whose laudable design is to save from oblivion whatever is interesting in the natural, civil and literary history of our country; to rescue from unmerited obscurity the many interesting papers which may throw light upon our annals; and to concentrate in its "transactions" the materials now scattered through the land, which at some future day may assist the researches of the historian or the speculations of the philosopher. It is neither my purpose nor my province here to dilate upon the benefits of such an institution. That duty was performed on a former occasion, by one who is now no more, with distinguished ability. Yet I trust I may be excused for a very cursory allusion to this interesting topic. It is not required to whet your purpose or to stimulate your exertions. But it is not amiss that we should occasionally advert to the powerful motives which impel us to sustain this infant institution. Do we look to the reputation of our ancient and beloved commonwealth; to her progress in the arts and in the cultivation of that literature which softens the manners and gives its finest polish to society? How then can we hear unmoved the taunts of others at her supineness? How can we listen without an ingenuous blush, to the reproaches of those who are ever ready to cast into our teeth our inglorious neglect of the noble cause of literature? Throughout the civilized world, the lovers of learning and of science are on the alert. Academies and societies for their promotion are no longer confined to Europe. They have long since found their way across the Atlantic, and have been growing and extending in our sister states for half a century. Some of them have grown to maturity and no longer totter in a state of infantile weakness. Those of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts particularly rest upon a basis stable and enduring, and have attained a noble elevation that does honor to their founders. And what has Virginia done? Absolutely nothing, until the spirited efforts of a few individuals first gave existence to this institution. She has aroused indeed from her slumbers at the voice of internal improvements, and has caught the enthusiasm with which they seem to have inspired the world. Her canals and her rail roads are sustained with all the zeal of patriotic feeling, backed by the less meritorious, but more steady influences of pecuniary profit. In every direction those arts and enterprises which promise to pour their rapid returns of wealth into the lap of the adventurer, are pursued with an eye that never winks, and a step that never tires. _Their_ progress is as rapid as the speed of a locomotive. But literature--neglected literature, still lags at a sightless distance behind. While companies spring up in a day for the excavation of a