82113 NOV 21 1904

MR. PAYSON'S ADDRESS.

MR. PRESIDENT,

We somewhere read of a Roman citizen, whose income from a small farm and garden, greatly exceeded that of his neighbors from their ample possessions. Envious of his prosperity, they brought this accusation against him-that by Sorcery and Witchcraft, he had transported the fertility and increase of his neighbor's fields into his own. A peremptory summons called him before the assembled tribes, and his defence is a noble commentary upon the character of an honest, manly, independent farmer. Placing in full view of the people, his plough and other implements of agriculture—his plump, well-fed oxen and his daughter—not an improved woman—the lady that fashion manufactures-but a woman in shape and feature such as she was made by her God-neatly clad in garments which her own hands had wrought, he turned to the assembled tribes, and thus addressed them. "Behold! my Masters, the sorceries, the charms and the only enchantments which I use. My own daily toil, my early rising and late sitting up, the painful sweat which I endure, these I am not able to present to your view. I cannot bring them with me into this assembly." When the people had heard this, they unanimously pronounced him "Not Guilty."

We meet to-day, to celebrate the twenty-ninth Anniversary of our Society, the purpose of whose existence, is to encourage and promote the same sorcery, for the practice of which, that old Roman came near answering with his life. He who has practiced these enchantments with the most success, is the man whom to-day we most delight to honor. Proud as the County of Essex may be of her prosperous industry in the work-shop, the manufactory, or upon the ocean-which under the guidance of intelligence and sound morali