448 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



THE COLLEGE TYPIFIES THE NEW ERA. 



But above all, and greater than all the actual science which this college 

 teaches, is the spirit of investigation which pervades it, and the welcome 

 it gives to truth in every department of knowledge. The range of its 

 studies cultivates a tendency to see things as they are. A striking pas- 

 sage in the Novum Orgauum of the great Bacon, the f(juudcr of modern 

 science, might be taken as the motto of this college. In urging the claims 

 of his new inductive system he says: "We deeply prize light because 

 it enables us to walk, to perform our daily tasks, to read, and to recognize 

 one another; and still light itself is a grander and a fairer thing than 

 all its possible uses; so the contemplation of things as they are, without 

 sujierstition and imposture, without error or confusion, is of itself of more 

 woith than all we discover by it." By this forcible illustration he shows 

 that valuable as are all the acquirements of knowledge, the proper spirit 

 and the right method of attaining it are still more so. Therefore it is 

 that the real value of this institution cannot be measured without taking 

 into view the impulse it has given to the ellort to jiut the teachings of 

 science and the deductions from experiment in the place of mere tradition. 



This college presents a model for institutions which must be greatly 

 multiplied in the next and succeeding centuries. It symbolizes the era 

 of intellectual freedom; it is the product of that practical philosophy 

 which comes from modern ideas. Whatsoever may be our regard for the 

 classic ideals embodied in ancient literature and art, they cannot here- 

 after be made the chief objects of collegiate study. They may have been 

 excellent in their time, but the old must give way to the new. In the 

 halls of this college, in its museum and on its grounds, the creations of 

 art derived from ancient mythology, the mythical heroes and deities of 

 a remote and fanciful past, must have a subordinate place. On the high- 

 est pedestals will stand the statues not of Jupiters and Apollos, but of the 

 great inaugurators of modern thought, the living, real men who have 

 led modern civilization, such as Bacon, Descartes, Newton and Franklin; 

 and scarcely less lower, those of Liebig, Darwin, Huxley, and our own 

 Edison. To be imbued with the spirit of earnest, truthful inquiry shown 

 by such men, is a long step toward a right education, an education which 

 enables us to discover and guide agencies which are rendering the world 

 riclier in its supply of everj^thing needed for its industrial, intellectual 

 and moral welfare. It is because of its success in providing for an impera- 

 tive educational demand of the age, that the Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege has long since passed the crisis of doubtful experiment. It has out- 

 lived the multiform opposition of the past, is constantly winning new 

 testimonials of popular favor in the present, and is certain to achieve still 

 higher triumphs in the future. It is a monument every way worthy of 

 Michigan, and will forever bear witness to the enterprise, public spirit 

 and wisdom of her people. Upon this institution which they established 

 and have hitherto not failed to maintain, we may be assured that they 

 will ever continue to bestow their confidence and their steadily increasing 

 support. 



