ADDRESS. I CONGRATULATE you, my friends, upon the present meeting, as the result of your successful exertions to establish Lyceums in your respective towns, and to form a County Association to co-operate with them, in the noble work of mutual improvement and the diffusion of useful knowledge. In this Introductory Address, nothing more will be attempted, than to offer some remarks upon the design of Lyceums, their leading objects and advantages, the value of knowledge, the importance of education, especially self-education; and to glance at a few of the great variety of topics, which may be usefully discussed or investigated in these institutions. As the Essex County Lyceum owes its existence to the local Lyceums of which it is the representative, so it is especially designed to advance their interests and usefulness. This it will be enabled effectually to do, in the simple manner pointed out in its constitution; the principal object of which is to provide for keeping up a friendly intercourse between the several Town Lyceums, within the County, and for collecting from all of them, as well as from other sources, such valuable facts and information, as may be usefully transmitted, in a sytematized form, to each Lyceum in return, that each |