The mere fact of so munificent a gift to science
cannot but excite universal admiration. We knew well enough that
it was nothing more than might have been expected from the public
spirit of this great West; but the first view of a towering
snowpeak is none the less impressive because you have learned in
your geography how many feet high it is, and great acts are none
the less admirable because they correspond to what you have heard
and read, and might therefore be led to expect.
The next gratifying feature is the great public interest excited
by the occasion. That the opening of a purely scientific
institution should have led so large an assemblage of citizens to
devote an entire day, including a long journey by rail, to the
celebration of yesterday is something most suggestive from its
unfamiliarity. A great many scientific establishments have been
inaugurated during the last half-century, but if on any such
occasion so large a body of citizens has gone so great a distance
to take part in the inauguration, the fact has at the moment
escaped my mind.
That the interest thus shown is not confined to the hundreds of
attendants, but must be shared by your great public, is shown by
the unfailing barometer of journalism.
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