THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 317 



REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



Having regard to the fact that the endowment of our Agri- 

 cultural College does not furnish an income sufficient to make 

 it entirely independent of state aid, we propose to notice 

 several of the considerations that gave rise to the College and 

 that now justify its existence. 



The ideal commonwealth is not merely a peopled area of 

 hill, valley and stream. It is much besides this, and is nearest 

 realized when there is with the fair earth union of strength 

 and the useful, of culture and virtue with free sports, and 

 the wealth within the States is promotive of the common good 

 or happiness. In Massachusetts, our idea is, that each man 

 made rich in goods, in capacity through the enjoyment of 

 opportunities that ripen capacity, adds to the common wealth. 

 If, then, there are found within our borders those who have 

 not their natures made as good as may be, and are thus unable 

 to contribute what is due, the resources of the State are to 

 this extent unimproved, and there is a call upon statesmanship 

 to seek out the means of economizing the raw material. 



Says Emerson, "Man was born to be rich"; and we are 

 bound to see to it, for his good and the good of all that stand 

 about him, that he have his birthright, in so far as this may 

 be met by provision for schools, whereby his nature may be 

 set free from the thraldom of ignorance and sent forth upon its 

 mission. Not only is an untaught mind — raw material — 

 unproductive, but often the rawness harbors an energy for 

 evil work. When evil, in its worst expression, is absent, 

 there is weakness, which rests as a burden upon the more 

 useful citizens. It is not, then, philanthropy alone, but states- 

 manship and philanthropy as one, that bid the opening of 

 roads and making them easy to a liberal culture to all classes, 

 in a line appropriate to their several occupations. 



So much is every man's highest good supported on that of 

 his neighbors, that it must readily be perceived that nothing 

 done for a particular class in the community is done for the 

 benefit of that class alone. When the State endows an Agri- 

 cultural College, it does so for its own good, and the farmer 

 has but a larger share of advantage that accrues to all classes, 



