AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF INSTRUCTION. FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING, 1878. JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. FIRST DAY.-TUESDAY, JULY 9. THE forty-ninth annual meeting of the American Institute of Instruction began its first session in the spacious parlors of the Fabyan House, at Fabyan's, White Mountains, N. H., at 9 A. M. A crowded audience attested its interest in the exercises and the occasion. The chair was occupied by Thomas W. Bicknell, of Boston, president of the Institute. The session was opened with the reading of Scriptures and prayer by Rev. W. L. Gage, of Hartford, Conn. The president welcomed the Institute as follows: WORDS OF WELCOME. The American Institute of Instruction greets the birthday of its fiftieth year with unusual vigor, and the inspiration of a young life. In fact, institutions never grow old except as the ideas they represent become effete, and the issues on which they live become dead as the buried Past. For good reasons such institutions as this should never grow old; an eternal youth should be theirs. Education's, like Freedom's battle, never is won. Its grand energies are living forces; its sublime purposes are constantly fulfilling their mission, yet never fulfilled; its vitality is measured by its ability to meet living issues with the unwearying, restless, and uncompromising spirit of truth. To this extraordinary gathering of the American Institute of Instruction, it is my pleasant duty to welcome the teachers of New England and the country, and in behalf of the ancient and present membership, I congratulate you on this auspicious occasion. The place where we convene is at once a lesson and an inspiration. We look out upon these forests primeval, which cover the bases of these rock-ribbed and ancient hills, and wonder and adore as we learn the lessons they teach. We look up to these everlasting hills, whose majestic heights part the clouds and support the overarching firmament, and from their sides and summits read the record of the rocks, written in the grand hieroglyphics of Nature, and interpreted by the high-priests at her altar, like Hugh Miller and Agassiz, whose humble devotion to her impressive lessons have made them also kings and priests unto God. Under the shadows of these mountains, men and women have often found rest and recreation; but never in their history has such a gathering so worthily connected itself with the most inspiring scenes of Nature for the purpose of learning her secrets and of drawing from them the strength and the inspiration for duty which will characterize this meeting of educators. Permit me to suggest at the outset that we have come for a double purpose, and to the fulfilment of each I beg you to devote yourselves most assiduously. One is that of restful recreation among these grand old mountains of New England. You have done yeoman's services during the last twelve months. The unceasing round of daily school service has found you faithful at the year's close as at its beginning. You now come to exchange the school-room for the great world of Nature, that welcomes you to her restful embrace for two short months. Had you thought more of education, and less of glorious recreation now, we should feel that you belonged not to the race called human and the class called mortal, and were quite unworthy the title, teacher. These mountains have had a magnetic force to draw you from your toilsome |
