Excerpt from Historical Work in MassachusettsA glance at the list of members of this Society from the date of its foundation to the present time will show that the majority of them have been men who have distinguished themselves in their separate walks of life, and have thus brought honor upon the Society to which they belonged. So manifest is this fact that one might hesitate to say whether the distinction of the Society might not better rest upon the reputation of its members than upon the work which it has done, were it not that he would be confronted by the prodigious extent and value of that work. Merely to enumerate the names of the distinguished men who have contributed to build up the fame of the Society would be a formidable undertaking, and every attempt at an analysis of the work represented by the twenty-seven volumes of Proceedings and fifty-five volumes of Collections, would far transcend the limits of the space at my command. In the sixth volume of the Second Series of the Proceedings, the Librarian has given a partial bibli ography of the Society, which will indicate the task which lies before him who undertakes to tell what may be found in these volumes. The Proceedings contain papers submitted by members at the regular meetings, and discussions of topics raised by their consideration. These papers cover a broad range of subjects, and many of them contain researches of great importance to historical writers. Indeed, it may safely be asserted that no student engaged in the investigation of a topic connected directly or indirectly with the history of Massachusetts can afford to neglect these volumes. The subject would be rare and recondite which would not find light already thrown upon it by some of the papers pub lished therein.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis 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.