MISCELLANY, 



635 



the last year's shoots of the Osage orange 

 and the honey locust were destroyed, the 

 thermometer being 14° below zero. The 

 Elaeagnus is a native of the Himalaya Moun- 

 tains. 



Technical Education.— Dr. Lyon Play- 

 fair, in his " Lecture on Technical Educa- 

 tion," dwells upon the success which has 

 attended the technical institutions of 

 Switzerland and Holland. He says : " What 

 has enabled this little nation (Switzerland), 

 so remote from the pathways of commerce, 

 and so poor in the mineral resources of in- 

 dustry, to carry on manufacturing produc- 

 tion by the aid of a prosperous and con- 

 tented people, while England, washed by 

 the ocean and abounding in mineral wealth, 

 is burdened with an ever-increasing propor- 

 tion of the unproductive poor? There is 

 only one answer: that Switzerland has a 

 highly-educated people." And of Holland 

 he adds : "Despite her natural poverty in 

 the raw materials of industry, Holland sends 

 to this country alone exports of food to the 

 annual value of £5,000,000, and manufact- 

 ured products worth £6,000,000 more. The 

 law compels every town of 10,000 inhab- 

 itants to erect technical schools." Among 

 Dr. Playfair's conclusions, he states that " a 

 higher education, in relation to the indus- 

 tries of the country, is an essential condi- 

 tion for the continued prosperity of the 

 people ; for intelligence and skill — as factors 

 in productive industry — are constantly be- 

 coming of greater value than the possession 

 of native raw material or local advantages." 

 — Iron. 



Science and the Press. — Remarks of 

 George Ripley at the laying of the corner- 

 stone of the new Tribune building : 



" Friends and Fellow-Laborers : We 

 have assembled to-day in commemoration 

 of the past, and for consecration of the fu- 

 ture. The original foundation of the Trib- 

 une was laid in sentiment and ideas. Hor- 

 ace Greeley was a man of no less profound 

 convictions than of lofty aspirations. The 

 tenderness of his emotional nature was 

 matched by the strength of his intellect. 

 He was a believer in the progress of thought 

 and the development of science, in the prog- 

 ress of society and the development of hu- 



manity. Under the influence of this inspi- 

 ration, the Tribune was established more 

 than thirty years ago. At that time its 

 basis was spiritual, and not material, strong 

 in ideas, but not powerful in brick and mor- 

 tar, in granite or marble, in machinery or in 

 money. We have come to-day, not to re- 

 move this foundation, but to combine it 

 with other elements, and thus to give it re- 

 newed strength and consistency. It is our 

 purpose to clothe the spiritual germ with a 

 material body, to incorporate the invisible 

 forces which inspired the heart of our found- 

 er in a visible form, in the shape of a 

 goodly temple, massive in its foundation, 

 fair in its proportions, and sacred in its 

 purposes. The new Tribune of to-day, like 

 the old Tribune of the past, is to be conse- 

 crated to the development of ideas, the ex- 

 position of principles, and the promulgation 

 of truth. The ceremony which is now 

 about to be performed typifies the union of 

 spiritual agencies with material conditions, 

 and thus possesses a significance and beau- 

 ty which anticipate the character of the 

 coming age. The future which lies before 

 us, it is perhaps not presumptuous to af- 

 firm, will be marked by a magnificent syn- 

 thesis of the forces of material Nature and 

 the power of spiritual ideas. 



" Allow me one word in illustration of 

 this prophecy, and I will yield the place to 

 the fair hands and the fair spirit whose 

 presence on this occasion crowns the scene 

 with a tender grace. 



"About ten years before the establish- 

 ment of the Tribune, dating from the death 

 of Hegel, in 1831, and of Goethe in the fol- 

 lowing year, the tendency of thought on 

 the continent of Europe, which had been 

 of an intensely ideal, or spiritual character, 

 began to assume an opposite direction. 

 Physical researches rapidly took precedence 

 of metaphysical speculation. Positive sci- 

 ence was inaugurated in the place of ab- 

 stract philosophy. The spiritual order was 

 wellnigh eclipsed by the wonderful achieve- 

 ments of the material order. A new dy- 

 nasty arose which knew not Joseph, and 

 the ancient names of Plato, and Descartes, 

 and Leibnitz, were dethroned by the stal- 

 wart host that took possession of the do- 

 main of physical science. I need not re- 

 hearse the splendid discoveries which have 



