COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES 327 



But it is vain to speak thus of Justin Morrill. In lifo, lie needed 

 no voice of praise, no robes of honor. And in death he needs no 

 oulofiists. He needs no memorial monuments. Forty-seven institu- 

 tions of learnin<2:, the spires of their halls rising; to meet the sun, their 

 acres stretchinfi; forth to receive its lijj^ht, constitute monuments to his 

 jnemory of perpetual j)ower, monuments whose influence will ever ex- 

 tend higher and higher in the estimation of men, till they will event- 

 ually wield an influence in every avenue of manual industry. And, 



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throughout Ainerica, ten million men, who live by the plow, whether 

 amidst the granite hewn hills of New Hamjishire, in tropic glades of 

 Florida, on limitless prairies of the West, or in barbarous archipel- 

 agoes beyond Pacific seas, will thank their God, that, in a period when 

 agriculture had reached a critical mark, He should raise up a man with 

 the keenness of vision to foresee the industrial problems of coming 

 generations; that He should create a man to organize and perfect a 

 system for the diffusion of agricultural knowledge and thereby to es- 

 tablish a basis which will insure forever the stability of America's 

 agriculture, on whose welfare rests the fortune and prosperity of a 

 mighty people. And, through the flight of years, as the posterity of 

 those ten million husbandmen is increased, it may be, to thirty million, 

 may not only they, but may a whole nation, among her many distin- 

 guished sons, ever honor and revere the name and memory of Morrill, 

 the Father of Industrial Education in America. 



POWER. 



W. W. WICLLS, COMMENCEMENT ORATION, REniESENTING THE MECHANICAL 



COURSE. 



^Ve are continually pointing with pride to the achievements of our in- 

 ventive genius as shown in our labor saving machinery, and indeed 

 the man who causes one day's labor to produce twice as much of the 

 comfoi'ts of life as it formerly did is no less a public benefactor than one 

 who causes Xwo blades of gi-ass to grow where one grew before. lUit 

 there is one field in ^^hi(•h the in\t'nlor, the scientist, and Ihe engineer 

 have contributed mudi toward the material i)rosi)erity of the world 

 and without which our labor saving machinery would be comparatively 

 worthless. I refer to the harnessing of the forces of nature to do man's 

 work. Imagine how our scale of living would have to come down if 

 we had no power but our own muscles with which to provide for 

 oui- wants. 



Probably the first foi-ce, besides liis own muscles, that man made 

 use of was the nnisculiir force of animals, and this is one of the most 

 important of our prinu' movers to this day, in spite of engines and rail- 

 ways and autoniol)iles. Then, as he acquired more skill in the nuiking 

 of machinery, he began to use the forces of wind and water. Put wind 

 ninnot be depended upon, and water power cannot always be had where 

 it is wanted, so these sources of power are limited in their application. 



It is the heat engine that is doing the work of the world today. Not 



