It  may  seem  a  little  exaggerated  at  its  first  statement,  and
perhaps  alarming,  but  it  will  serve  at  least  to  introduce  my
more  particular  ideas,  to  say  that  the  true  view  for  you  to  take
of  this  larc/e  'provision  of  mental  tneans,  and  of  your  relations


DEDICATION   OF  THE   PEABODY  INSTITUTE. 46'^

to  it,  is  to  regard  yourselves  as  having  hecome  hj  its  lestovj-
ment  permanently  the  members  of  an  institution  vjliich  under-
takes to  teach  you  hy  lectures  and  a  library. Herein  exactly
is  the  peculiarity  of  your  new  privilege. You  are  no  longer,
as  heretofore  it  has  been  with  you,  merely  to  be  indulged  the
opportunity  of  a  few  evenings  in  a  year  to  listen,  for  the
amusement  of  it,  to  half  a  dozen  discourses  of  as  many  dif-
ferent speakers,  on  as  many  totally  disconnected  topics,  treated
possibly  for  ostentation,  and  adapted  only  to  entertain,  —  but,
however  treated,  and  whatever  fit  for,  totally  forgotten  in  an
hour ,  preceded,  followed  up,  and  assisted,  by  no  preparation
and  no  effort  of  t)ie  hearer ;  giving  no  direction  whatever  to
his  thoughts  or  readings ;  separated  from  each  other,  even
while  the  lyceum  season  lasts,  by  a  week  of  labor,  devoted,
even  in  its  leisure  moments,  to  trains  of  thoui^ht  or  snatches
of  reading  wholly  unauxiliar  and  irrelative,  and  for  nine  months
or  ten  months  of  the  year  totally  discontinued. Thanks  to  this
munificence,  you  are  come  to  the  fruition  of  far  other  opportu-
nities. An  institution  of  learning,  in  the  justest  sense  of  the
term,  is  provided  for  you. Lectures  are  to  be  delivered  for
you  through  a  far  larger  portion  of  the  year ;  a  library,  which
will  assuredly  swell  to  thousands  of  volumes,  is  to  be  accumu-
lated under  your  eye,  from  which  you  may  derive  the  means
of  accompanying  any  lecturer  on  any  subject  from  evening  to
evening;  and  this  system  of  provision  is  permanent,  —  hence-
forth part  and  parcel,  through  its  corporate  existence,  of  the
civil  identity  and  privilege  of  Danvers. 