from such of them as should choose to elect them, were to form a central board of agriculture. Such was the outline of the proposed organization. In January, 1820, the presidents, or delegates, from twenty-six county societies, already organized, met at the capital in Albany, and elected Stephen Van Rensselaer president of the board. The life of this board of agriculture was made a very brief one by law, and when the legal limit was out, it was suffered to expire. It lasted long enough, however, to demonstrate the inappreciable value of legislative aid and encouragement to the agricultural interest; and it raised to itself an enduring and noble monument, by the publication of three very valuable volumes of transactions and memoirs. Each of the first two volumes of the board contains, amongst other things, a very curious and remarkable paper. These papers present a complete view of the geological and agricultural features of the counties of Albany and Rensselaer, as gathered from accurate and minute surveys, and from actual and extensive analyses. They are the reports of distinguished scientific gentlemen, employed, exclusively at the expense of the president of the board of agriculture, to make the examinations and surveys, the results of which are here embodied. It was believed then, and it is believed now, that these were the first attempts made in this country "to collect and arrange geological facts, with a direct view to the improvement of agriculture."

The laws for the encouragement of agriculture expired, as I have said, by their own limitation; but Mr. Van Rensselaer, though without any convenient society, or board of agriculture, under cover of whose name he might pursue his plans for the benefit of the state, had only just now entered on a series of extraordinary efforts and experiments for the advancement of science, of education, and the public prosperity, which he afterward prosecuted with equal perseverance and effect. After the surveys of the counties of Albany and Rensselaer had been completed, under bis direction, presenting, besides a view of their geological formations, a thorough analysis of their soils, in all their principal varieties-on a plan new at the time, and since extensively approved and employed-and accompanied, particularly in the survey of Rensselaer county, with a view of the proper methods of culture adapted to the various soils; and after he had caused the surveys to be published, at his own cost, in a separate and convenient form, for extensive and gratuitous distribution; he next turned his attention to a more extended scientific survey, to be carried through the entire length of the state, on the line of the Erie Canal. This was commenced and prosecuted, under his orders, in

the fall of 1822, by Professor Amos Eaton, aided by two competent assistants, and completed in 1823. The plan embraced a particular examination of the strata and formation of American rocks, by the survey of a transverse section, running across the great primitive ranges of New England, and the transition and secondary ranges of Eastern and Western New York. Professor Eaton's section extended from Boston to Lake Erie, a distance of about five hundred and fifty miles, stretching across nine degrees of longitude, and embracing a belt about fifty miles wide. At the same time, Professor Hitchcock was employed to make a similar survey of a section across New England, a few miles north of that taken by Professor Eaton. In 1824, a publication was made, containing the results of these surveys, with maps exhibiting a profile view of the rocks in each of the sections. Attention was strongly attracted, both in this country and in Europe, to the very creditable and faithful labors of Professor Eaton, prosecuted under the direction of his munificent patron; and this example it was, unquestionably, which has led, at last, to the adoption in several of the states, and this among the number, of plans for exploring their territories at the public expense, in search of scientific facts, and of the mineral riches, and other substances of economical value, to be found upon or beneath the surface of their respective portions of the earth.

But the crowning effort of this good man's life was in behalf of the dearest interest of his country, and of mankind; it was an effort to advance the cause of education and human improvement. He had satisfied himself that there were great defects in the ordinary and prevalent systems of instruction; at any rate, he saw that some of the most useful subjects of human knowledge were scarcely communicated at all, in quarters where they seemed most needed for the practical purposes of life; and he determined that the proper remedy, if possible, should be applied.

His first movement was to employ Professor Eaton, with a competent number of assistants, to traverse the state, on or near the route of the Erie Canal, with sufficient apparatus, specimens, and the like, and deliver, in all the principal villages and towns, where an audience of business men, or others, could be gathered, familiar lectures, accompanied with experiments and illustrations, on chemistry, natural philosophy, and some or all of the branches of natural history. This scientific and educational progress through the state was made, in the summer of 1824, at his cost; inconsiderable contributions only having been made in the villages where lectures were delivered. The experiment was entirely successful; a prodigious interest in behalf of

natural science had been excited; and he was encouraged to prosecute a plan of operations which he had meditated for a considerable time.

He had long been accustomed to send the schoolmaster abroad among the poorer portions of his numerous tenantry; and he had been led to observe, as the result of these experiments-having been obliged to employ persons, for this service, of very slender qualifications, for want of better that the improvement of the masters, as a general thing, was much more considerable than that of their pupils. It was from this hint, that he was led to consider, and finally to digest, a plan for a school; the leading feature of which should be, that the learner should himself take the place, and perform the regular duties, of teacher or instructor, in all the business and exercises of the school. Securing, in this way, as he believed he should, the most ready and thorough improvement of the students, he proposed that the chief business of the school should be to furnish instruction "in the application of science to the common purposes of life." He declared one of his principal objects to be "to qualify teachers for instructing the sons and daughters of mechanics, in the application of experimental chemistry, philosophy, and natural history, to agriculture, domestic economy, and the arts and manufactures."

On the 5th of November, 1824, having provided a suitable building at Troy, and employed an agent to procure the necessary apparatus and library, he inclosed to the Rev. Dr. Blatchford a set of orders for the government of the school, and requested him to proceed to its organization, and act himself as president of a board of trustees, whom he named. He named, at the same time, a senior and a junior professor, whom he endowed with liberal salaries. The senior professor was Mr. Eaton, who had already been engaged to take the charge of instruction in the institution. The school was soon after "organized, and put into successful operation. In 1826, it was incorporated, and is now known as the Rensselaer Institute. Its success, under the care of the veteran Eaton, was complete-but with a very heavy and continued outlay on the part of its generous patron. Instruction in the sciences is wholly experimental and demonstrative, and it is always, therefore, practical and thorough.

In 1828, after having, at his own cost, established and liberally endowed this school, and while he was bearing from his own purse not less than one-half of its current expenses, caused an invitation to be given to each county in the state, to furnish a student, selected by the clerk of the county, for gratuitous instruction at the institute.* * He, however, imposed on these students a condition-the benefits of which would, of

The invitation was accepted in nearly all the counties, and that large number of persons, within less than three years, was sent forth from the institute, with a complete practical education, obtained without the cost of a dollar to them for tuition.

Mr. Van Rensselaer first proposed to himself to sustain this school, as an experiment, for three years, with a reasonable expectation certainly that, at the end of that time, if successful at all, public attention would be sufficiently attracted toward this novel method, to enable him to hand it over to the community, with a confident reliance on the patronage of the public to support and perpetuate it. But all observation shows that no improvements are so slow in gaining adoption and support at the hands of the community, as improvements in the methods of education. In this case, almost of course, while he saw, at the end of three years, that the advantages secured by his methods and course of instruction were great, beyond all his original expectations, he yet saw that the public must continue to enjoy them. if at all, for years to come, chiefly at his cost. He submitted to the sacrifice, and thus was continued this invaluable institution for upward of fourteen years.

It is impossible to compute, or perhaps to give any rational conjecture, about the amount of good which has already been effected through this munificent and skillfully devised charity-much more impossible is it to compass, in thought, the benefits which coming generations must reap from that system and plan of education, of which the example was first set, and the eminent utility satisfactorily tested, in the Rensselaer Institute. Schools have been set up on the Rensselaer method, in various and distant parts of our country; and it has been stated as a fact, from calculations actually made, that the institute has itself furnished to the community more experimental teachers and professors, state geologists, principal and assistant engineers on public works, and practical chemists and naturalists, than have been furnished, in the same time, by all the colleges in the Union. If the half of this statement be true, the result, in this single particular, is a proud one for the memory of the founder, through whose almost unknown munificence it has been effected.

In December, 1823, General Van Rensselaer took his seat, for the first time, in congress, as a representative from the city and county of Albany. He was continued in his place by re-election for three successive terms, and retired on the fourth of March, 1829. During his whole congressional service of six years, he held the station of

course, go to the community-that they should instruct in their own counties for one year, on the experimental and demonstrative method.

chairman of the committee on agriculture. In March, 1824, he made a valuable report to the house, in answer to a resolution of inquiry touching the effect of the tariff laws on the interests of agriculture. In February, 1825, the imposing ceremony of an election to the presidency took place in the house of representatives. His vote determined that of the delegation from this state in favor of Mr Adams, and, as it resulted, produced the election of that gentleman on the first ballot. He never mingled in the conflict of debate; but he was not, for that reason, the less valuable or influential member. His faithfulness, his integrity, his eminent honesty, his kindness of manner, his ready perception of the true and right in all questions presented for the action of the house, and his freedom from the prejudices and trammels of party, gave him a standing and influence in the house, far beyond what ever belongs, in such a body, to the mere ability, however distinguished, to conduct a skillful argument, or pronounce an eloquent harangue. The great moral sway which character alone, commanding general admiration and respect, bears in a deliberative assembly, was never more conspicuous, than in the case of Stephen Van Rensselaer, in the American House of Representatives.

Our brief review of this eminent man's life is drawing to a conclusion; and, as yet, no distinct notice has been taken of certain particulars, by which he was more known and distinguished in the popular estimation, than by any thing else; namely, first, his connection with. various societies, foreign and domestic, particularly with those whose objects were benevolent; and his private charities. These have not been forgotten, but they can not be enumerated in this brief memoir. It may be mentioned, in general terms, that he was an honorary member of many and various learned associations, at home and abroad; some pursuing particular branches of science, of arts, or learning, and others more comprehensive and general in their objects. He was the president of several local societies, designed for charitable or religious uses; while, of the great institutions of the day, so general as to be designated American, and employed to aggregate immense numbers, and combine their united strength for the prosecution of great christian enterprises, there was scarcely one, perhaps not one, with which he was not, or had not been, connected by membership, and frequently by the highest, always by high, official station.

In regard to his private charities, there are two difficulties in the way of any attempt to particularize them; one is, that they were private, and they are, therefore, to a great extent unknown; and the other is, that, so far as known, they are numberless. It would be