Davis—The Academy: Its Past and Future . 895 
support of his family should give them to the state. But not 
necessarily, I take it, to statecraft. He who devotes them suc¬ 
cessfully to the furtherance of science, or of art, or of letters, 
gives them to all states. There is much need here in Wisconsin 
of investigation in physical and biological science. And then 
there is social and political science. Human society is not 
the only society, nor is it the oldest. From the older animal 
societies we learn that social progress has come through differ¬ 
entiation of function, and that this has been followed by differ¬ 
entiation of structure. The development of our society, of our 
state and nation, with its attendant complexities and differen¬ 
tiations, without sacrifice of those ideals of equality of oppor¬ 
tunity and liberty of action that are so dear to every Ameri¬ 
can, calls for the fullest exercise of the scientific spirit and the 
scientific method. I 
The contributions to letters that are found in the Transac¬ 
tions of the Acadiemy are mostly in the domain of history, 
which in its methods of research and exposition is allied to 
science, and in philosophy—that mental gymnasium where the 
intellect strives and strains, and that strengthens a strong 
mind but may cripple a weak one. That division of letters that 
in its qualities of imagination and depiction is allied to art finds 
little representation. I will not presume to attempt to fore¬ 
cast letters in the Academy. Were I to do so, I would parallel 
to a considerable extent what I have been saying of science. 
As to art, we can only say that Wisconsin is young; that it 
is in the vegetative stage, laying up stores of nutriment and 
energy that later will bring forth the flower. Might we carry 
the comparison further, and say that as the blossom so often 
comes but with the decline of vegetative activity, so art reaches 
its fullest development but when the vigor of a civilization is 
waning, and that it epitomizes the characteristics of that civil¬ 
ization and carries them on to succeeding civilizations?—The 
foundations of the Acaldemy are laid wide and deep, and to 
whoever builds worthily upon them cornea encouragement, sym¬ 
pathy, aid. The call is for workers in the sciences, in the arts, 
in letters, that through their labors may come a greater human¬ 
ity. 
