Excerpt from Memoirs of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 1: Part I But this object is necessarily temporary and local. The main design of the Iristitution is more widely-extended. At its com mencement, a scheme was drawn up, reported, and approved, in which the attention of its members was invited to every method of improving the science, arts, and happiness of their country, so far as the general state of its concerns, and their own leisure, would per mit. Knowledge, both speculative and practical, was here, In all its parts, recommended to their attention, as the great field, in which they are requested to labor for the common benefit. No limit is prescribed to the excursions of the mind, or to the employment of observation. The elegant pursuits of literature and art, are left equally open to investigation with those, which are more severe. In a word, it was intended to allure the ingenious, attentive, and learned, to every public effort, which might be beneficial to their fellow men. In compliance with this design, several papers on phi losophical subjects have been presented to the Academy. Among them the following have been selected for publication. They con stitute only part of an intended volume and are sent out'in boards, that they may be conveniently preserved without injury, until the volume shall be completed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.