72 MICHIGAN STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 



science, art, and literature ? Scholarship is what most gilds a 

 coUege. No college ranks high, unless scholarship is its watch- 

 word, ever kept at the forefront. What an example of scholar- 

 ship we had in the pedagogical founders of this institution! 

 No wonder that with such examples of scholarship as that of 

 Williams and Abbot and their colleagues, the students were 

 stimulated to keenest mental effort ! 



But the greatest glory of any college are such examples 

 of noble living that the students will most live, and so "will think 

 most, feel the noblest, and act the best." Who that were here 

 in those early days, and were touched by the impress of Dr. 

 Abbot's sweet, true, loving spirit, can ever think of that life 

 and influence, without being ennobled, even though so many 

 years separate us from those glad hours ? This College was 

 well planned from its very inception; but what would planning 

 avail, had we not had devotion to scholarship, purity of life, 

 and keenness of conscience ? 



We have all reahzed how discouragingly short those golden 

 years of study were ! Have you not marveled that so many of 

 our men took positions side by side with men whose opportuni- 

 ties had been of much broader range, and yet that our men were 

 often in the lead ? Two things the great college must needs 

 do: it must teach its students how to grasp truth — to acquire 

 knowledge rapidly ; it must also inspire in its students a genuine 

 love for study, which shall be an unquenchable passion. When 

 it has done this, it may send its students forth, and they are 

 potentially equipped. I believe this College has been peculiarly 

 happy, through its scholarly men, in achieving these results. 



Nor were our professors without able support. Bright, 

 eager, responsive students did much to give impetus to mental 

 "dig" in those days, when educational history was in process of 

 making. Such men as Prentiss and Dickey and Clute and 

 Preston and hosts more like them were as stimulating to our 

 strenuous teachers as were the teachers inspiring to the pupils. 



