ADDRESS. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :-In being selected to deliver the first Annual Address before the Pennsylvania Institute of Philadelphia, I acknowledge that I have felt myself greatly honored and deeply gratified. The personal satisfaction connected with the performance of which duty, is only alloyed with a sense of personal unfitness for the task, and the regret that the choice had not fallen upon one better fitted for it. The peculiar duties connected with my profession, and the studies to which the ministers of Christ are mostly confined, not being such as to make them familiar with the works and the walks of the Mechanic or Inventor. Yet personally I must confess to a peculiar fondness for mechanical pursuits. The sharp edge of the well ground chisel has always shone before my eyes with a lustre more fascinating than that of the useless but ornamental diamond, whilst a well proportioned or skilfully adjusted Lathe or Engine has to me an attractiveness, as great as the well formed racer in the eyes of the Breeder and Trainer. In fact I do not think that the Sportsman ever seized his gun with greater avidity, than I do the hammer and saw; when after a day's toil and labor in the arduous and exhausting duties of my ministry I seek recreation. I have great respect for a tenpenny nail: and knock him on the head with a feeling of personal complacency as great as that with which the Sportsman bags his bird. Even in my youth I can remember the exquisite delight that I experienced when I was permitted to take charge of the old Kitchen clock. Nor shall I ever forget the great laugh that I and the old wag had together; as he put his hands over his round sunny face to hide his broad smiles, when after doctoring him for some internal disorder; (which even oil could not remove,) I set him agoing; and found the old gentleman struck me dumb for he went backwards. I have had many a hearty laugh with other two-legged machines that go on "tick" but I look back with pleasure unalloyed, upon that hearty laugh enjoyed between me and the old kitchen clock. The Institution whose first yearly exhibition has just been closed. Whilst it is in many respects similar in character to the American Institution of New York, the National of Washington, and the Franklin Institute of this city. Yet differs from all |