14 Kansas Academy of Science. 



tions by which we are distinguished from the Old World. Theii 

 principles are concentration, ours diifusion; their chief regards are 

 for the few, ours for the many. They tell us that we have as yet 

 made no contribution to the distinguished scholarships of the 

 world; we point to our common schools, and tell them that we 

 would not exchange these for all the glory of English literature. 

 We may be in our infancy, but it is the infancy of a giant. Your 

 work, if well done, must bear fruitage in the years to come. You 

 are erecting an imperishable monument — one not built with mar- 

 ble, but with years: the mortar is not made of lime or sand, but of 

 brains and love, and it is not mixed with water, but with sweat and 

 tears. Man can not live forever in a brownstone front, or in gold. 

 Death, shod with eternity, will grind to dust libraries, churches, 

 hospitals, and schools, but it can not destroy an eternal truth. If 

 you wisely shape the environments of those about you and trans- 

 mit that which is true and good, you will live. The waves of time 

 shall then dash impotently against your life. Its work will live on 

 through time. 



The choicest treasures of our commonwealth are intrusted to 

 our teachers; the glory of the state is committed to their charge. 

 Make our children true men and women, fitted by cultivation of 

 the intellectual and moral nature for the places which they ought 

 to fill and the destiny to which they may be called. Thus you will 

 contribute to the highest welfare and glory of our commonwealth. 



Teachers, respect your work and respect yourselves. What you 

 do for others you carry into the larger life as a part of the eternal 

 possessions. You are developed, educated, and formed, and you 

 can develop, educate and form others. Men of genius create 

 masterpieces by throwing their whole life into their work. You 

 must believe. in it; you must love it. Teach the child to see, hear, 

 feel, wonder, admire, revere, believe, hope, and love. To this end 

 the process of teaching and discipline is to be made subservient. 



Emerson said: "Cobble shoes, maul rails, pick up stones, 

 plough, make hempen rope, hang yourself at the end of one of 

 them, but don't teach school." Carlyle must have been imbued 

 with the same spirit when he said: "Whom the Gods wish to make 

 miserable they first make teachers of." But I say, no man or set 

 of men entered upon a better, a grander, a more honorable, a more 

 worthy or a more dignified class of work, a work so redolent with 

 achievement and worth as that in which you are engaged. 



Creative art or learning is justly proud of the distinguished 



