146 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



The University of California is designed and qualified to solve this 

 most important problem of adaptability with respect to talent, trade, 

 and profession; it is a miniature of the world, where the affinity of 

 mind for those sciences and arts involved in any special occupation 

 are determined with facility. It is a noted saying of Aristotle, " that 

 the nature of everything is best seen in its smallest parts." Accord- 

 ing to the taste or natural bent of the student's mind will be his 

 inquiries and proficiency in the various branches of learning. 



''■ There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 

 Rough-hew them how we will." 



Let these natural proclivities be carefully noted by the professors and 

 tutors and be made known to parent or guardian of the student, for 

 upon these determinations and the judicious actions thereon, will, in 

 a great measure, depend the student's success in life. 



The field of the arts and sciences embraced and cultivated in the 

 University of California is extensive. May it be enlarged and 

 improved till none shall surpass it in extent, fertility, and beauty 

 uiider the canopy of heaven. Let the individual, the State, and the 

 General Government unite their energies for the accomplishment of 

 this superbly grand and noble object. 



" Knowledge is power." Knowledge is the directive agency by 

 which order is brought out of chaos. The first visible manifestation 

 of the power, wisdom, and goodness of knowledge was in its fiat and 

 execution thereof, " Let there be light, and there was light." Now, 

 as by this physical light we are enabled to see physical objects, from 

 the most minute to the most sublime; so by the more subtle light of 

 knowledge we are enabled, to perceive the more occult truths of nature 

 and nature's laws. A star of the firmament is radiant with utility 

 and beauty; it guides the shepherd with his flocks upon the hills, 

 and the mariner in his course upon the deep.' To the child it seems 

 a delightful toy, while to the philosopher it is known to be the center 

 of a system of worlds. A constellation beaming with the splendors 

 of many stars is proportionately admired for its usefulness and gran- 

 deur. But the firmament replete with stars and constellations of 

 stars, blending their beauties and splendors into a unity of light, is 

 sublimely glorious. So a truth of science is radiant with utility and 

 beauty. It is a light in the obscurity of philosophy to guide us 

 aright. The child sees but the inviting fruit in its fall from the tree, 

 while Newton perceives and grasps the law of its descent, and places 

 it as a glowing truth in the firmament of science, to light thence on 

 all coming time. So a constellation of many truths, circumscribed 

 by nominal bounds, as the science of mathematics, of mechanics, of 

 chemistry, of geology, of phj^sics, etc., commands our admiration in 

 proportion to the volume and intensity of its light for all the pur- 

 poses of our being. And so in the firmament of science, as in that of 

 the heavens, its truths and its constellations of truths, discovered and 

 determined, blend all their lights into a glorious unity of light for 

 the perfecting of .the world's happiness and good. This oneness of 

 knowledge in the arts and sciences exists not only in theory but in 

 practice; not only in our universities of learning, but in all the occu- 

 pations and relations of life. 



But while the stars shine brightest the world sees but darkly. The 

 stellar scene of the firmament merges into that of still higher forms of 



