u 



iho rnntcmptnousTiess of the other, be revived. The farmer 

 has tested too many theories, and thrown their broken frag- 

 ments into the faces of their authors to cherish much revenoe. 

 The ..man of science has achieved too much not to be able to 

 bear with composure to be reminded of his faikires. And let 

 no misconception of what science is prevent a proper estimate 

 of its worth. Doubtless, there are too many professors who 

 seek to impose u])on the general thought, as science, the base- 

 less phantoms of their own minds ; who speculate and soar, 

 but are incapable of standing on the solid ground and work- 

 ing at the tasks of men. Science, however, is not the dreams, 

 vagaries, rash generalizations of such men. Nor do the true 

 and genuine men of science always escape mistakes. But even 

 their mistakes are of real utility. They show where the truth 

 is not, and that is one step towards showing where it is. In 

 justice to them it must ever be remembered, that man's search 

 after truth is a perpetual wandering, and his onward progress 

 is written on. the same page of the great history as the record 

 of human error. Science, cleared of the fancies of its weak 

 men, and the profitable mistakes of its strong men, is knowl- 

 edge — knowledge accumulated from all sources, the lucky 

 blunder of ignorance, the inspired suggestion of genius, the 

 careful labors of a life-time. It is knowledge tested, explained 

 and codified in principles. It is law, causation, force. It en- 

 dows man with dynamic energies that give him everywhere 

 mastery and dominion. All the other industries seek and find 

 in it their constant aid. The statesman-manufacturer whose 

 r.ame is given to this city, the best part of whose life was 

 devoted to the promotion of the national industry, did not feel 

 that his work was completed, until he had established a school 

 to teach the application of science to the industrial arts. It is 

 impossible to suppose that the systematic inculcation and dif- 

 fusion of the knowledge of the demonstrated facts and prin- 

 ciples of agriculture by means of an institution of instruction, 

 will not give a new and invigorating impulse to the farming 

 interests of the state. 



