forces, without a knowledge of the laws.  The true practical, therefore, is the result, or actual, of an antecedent ideal.  The ideal, full and complete, must exist in the mind before the actual can be brought forth according to the laws of science.  Who, then, are the truly practical men of our age?  Are they not those who are engaged most laboriously and successfully in investigating the great laws?  Are they not those who are pressing out the boundaries of knowledge, and conducting the mind into new and unexplored regions, where there may yet be discovered a California of undeveloped thought?  Is not the gentleman from Massachusetts (Professor Agassiz) the most practical man in our country in the department of Natural History, not because he has collected the greatest number of specimens, but because he has laid open to us all the laws of the animal kingdom?  Are the formulas written on the black-board by the gentleman from Cambridge (Prof.  Pierce) of no practical value, because they cannot be read by the uninstructed eye?  A single line may contain the elements of the motions of all the heavenly bodies; and the eye of science, taking its stand-point at the center of gravity of the system, will see in the equation the harmonious revolutions of all the bodies which circle the heavens.  It is such labors and such generalizations that have rendered his name illustrious in the history of mathematical science.  Is it of no practical value that the Chief of the Coast Survey (Prof.  Bache), by a few characters written upon paper, at Washington, has determined the exact time of high and low tide in the harbor of Boston, and can determine, by a similar process, the exact times of high and low water at every point on the surface of the globe?  Are not these results, the highest efforts of science, also of the greatest practical utility?  And may we not, then, conclude that there is nothing truly practical which is not the consequence of an antecedent ideal?

Science is to art what the great fly-wheel and governor of a steam-engine are to the working part of the machinery—­it guides, regulates, and controls the whole.  Science and art are inseparably connected; like the Siamese Twins, they cannot be separated without producing the death of both.

How, then, are we to regard the superb specimens of natural history, which the liberality, the munificence; and the wisdom of our State have collected at the Capitol?  They are the elements from which we can here determine all that belongs to the Natural History of our State; and may we not indulge the hope, that science and genius will come here, and, striking them with a magic wand, cause the true practical to spring into immortal life?

Remarks were also uttered by Prof.  Chester Dewey, President Anderson, and Rev. Dr. Cox.

And thus ended the Inauguration of the State Geological Hall.

We turn to the Observatory, in regular order of succession.