SUMMER MEETING. 77 



ill the uatural channels of education, so that we have to prepare our 

 work in such a way that it can be appreciated and comprehended by 

 minds who are seeking in the world of thought for special food adapted 

 for their own wants. 



The knowledge we shall have to collect and arrange will have to 

 take its place along side of all other classes of information. If a bright 

 mind is to choose between horticulture and surgery, he will do it not 

 at the age of 40 but at the age of 20. He must have the two subjects 

 side by side to compare and digest. He will study the one when he is 

 studying the other. 



In those years when the mind grasps quickly, when the retention 

 serves best, when the individual nature is seeking that which is 

 adapted to its longings — in other words, when the boy is unconsciously 

 perhaps settling down into a calling or occupation for life, then is the 

 time when this knowledge should be within his reach. It should be 

 attractive; it should be comprehensive; it should be worthy in every 

 particular of the great, grand, beautiful subject of which it treats. 



Oh, these worthy, time-honored occupations of man; what angel of 

 destiny has consigned them to a second or third place in the estima- 

 tion of man ? Ask yourself, please, what is the nature of man, or the 

 times in which we live that our youth spurn these, the noblest callings 

 of life, and seek others that are certainly less worthy 1 I feel that by 

 the exaltation and development of these common occupations, the 

 earth will be made fit for the newer, higher civilization we would so 

 much rejoice to see — that civilization when the better nature of man 

 shall rule supreme. 



I know this Society is doing much to bring about favorable results. 

 I kuow its members covet the influences that lift up and elevate the 

 individual. 



Upon this knowledge is built our hope that our educational work 

 will be warmly supported. We want it to help men to be more practi- 

 cal, and useful, and honorable. It will take perseverance. It will take 

 courage and unfaltering trust in the hope that we shall at last get hold 

 of the better natures of men and bring them up into a higher plain of 

 intellectual and moral activity. If this can never be done I want to 

 quit. If we, as a committee are on the wrong road, tell us now. 



But if we are proceeding intelligetitly, if we have a worthy object 

 in view, if we are trying to step a little higher in the world of thought 

 and action, then as chairman of this committee, I ask you to hold up 

 our hands, that we may have our efforts crowned at last with success. 



G. B. Lamm. Sedalia. 



