27 



And now, remembering those who have gone before, 

 let us extend a hearty welcome to those who are to suc- 

 ceed us. 



Welcome to our homes, and the beautiful grounds 

 which we have made and planted for your happiness ! 

 Welcome to our fruitful orchards, smiling gardens, and 

 charming landscapes, which we shall leave to you ! 

 Welcome to these halls, whose walls have resounded so 

 often with cordial greetings and friendly salutations ; 

 where thousands shall minister in the future at the al- 

 tars of nature and of art, until perfection shall crown 

 our tables, and gladden our sight, and we shall have 

 exchanged the cultivation of the soil for the culture of 

 the soul ! 



Welcome to its libraries and to all its privileges and 

 pleasures ! and when at last we shall relinquish our 

 labors on earth, may we fall into the lap of mother- 

 earth, like the ripened fruits of summer, then to be 

 welcomed to those celestial fields, and to that richer 

 inheritance in the better land where the flower shall 

 never fade, the leaf never wither, the fruit never perish; 

 to the rewards of a well-spent life on earth, that we may 

 partake of the tree which bears immortal fruit, — its 

 bloom on earth, its fruit in heaven. 



