542 Dedication of Polyteclinic Hall — Address, [November, 



your President shall have the name of General, but when it will be 

 esteemed as high a mark of distinction to have been conspicuous as 

 a farmer — as a civilian. The liberal course you have adopted, and 

 the means you have furnished to carry out our great enterprise, is 

 conclusive that the mission you propose is not for a caste or clique, 

 but for the multitude, for all who would covet or devise liberal 

 things. What you ask and must demand, is, an education for the 

 farmer, and for the industrial pursuits generally, such as is demanded 

 and required for the professions — an education for the farmer as a 

 farmer, the linguist as a linguist, the engineer as an engineer ; in 

 short, that will qualify the leaders at least, to be scholars in their 

 respective departments. The object which we w^ould present most 

 conspicuously as worthy your highest efforts, is the establishment of 

 an Lidustrial University^ where those who would become eminent in 

 the industrial pursuits, may have an equal opportunity to improve 

 their minds, and thereby rise to distinction — as those who may have 

 chosen one of the so-called learned professions. 



We would aim to so educate each and every one that he can apply 

 the knowledge which he acquires to some valuable purpose ; and 

 thus be able to pursue with pleasure and delight the avocation he 

 may choose. W^e would give on these grounds so much of the ap- 

 plication of science to husbandry, as to impart an interest and de- 

 light, which no eloquence in the lecturer could give ; and serve to 

 make the farmer love his mountain or prairie home, 'mid his lowing 

 herds, and downy flocks, and prancing steeds, and waving harvests, 

 and golden fruits ; and regard his position quite as honorable, as 

 those professions which are built upon the depravity of our race, 

 and owe their very distinction to the errors and miseries of mankind. 



We freely admit that there is, and must continue to be, a great dif- 

 ference in the extent and amount of culture given to those to be en- 

 gaged in this pursuit, according to varied opportunities and capaci- 

 ties. Agriculture is both a science and an art, and most of those 

 engaged in it will probably for a long time to come, pursue it, as 

 hitherto, as a simple art. And while we freely admit that it may be 

 so pursued with profit, with a small, very small amount of education, 

 or intellectual capital, we deny most emphatically, that there is a 

 single profession on earth that God has destined any man to follow 

 through life, that admits the opportunity, or affords the materials of 

 a richer or more varied culture, or a more profound and thorough 

 development of all that constitutes the true man — and the truly 



