PRACTICAL RELATIONS OF SCIENCE. 123 
explained in school, may be multiplied indefinitely by the 
observation of art and nature in future life. 
But if the key be not given for the right interpretation, the 
power of perception is comparatively blind : the avenues to 
knowledge are locked up. 
Ample experience has shown that, with a proper opportu¬ 
nity at the Normal school, and such other appliances as are 
slowly and surely coming into operation, the cost of such 
lessons as are contemplated, would not be such as to render 
them objectionable. A sum, varying from five to twenty per 
cent, on the expenditure on each school, would meet every 
essential requisite, and wdiere that could not be obtained as 
an additional endowment, I am prepared to maintain that it 
should be secured by economizing the means at present ex¬ 
pended on other objects. 
This is no indefinite or shapeless question, that may be 
shuflled off without ceremony, and without consequences of 
vital importance to the whole community. 
What would the Greeks and Romans have done if they had 
obtained the true key to the nature of the elements, which 
modern times have presented to man ? How great was their 
progress in Literature, in Oratory, in Architecture, in Sculp¬ 
ture ? But long was the interregnum, before the more refined 
observations and searching analysis of - experimental enquiry 
gave man the power that Providence has permitted him to 
acquire over the elements of the globe. And he w r ho opposes 
the extension of that practical knowledge, that forms the great 
and peculiar feature of the day, may be justly considered as 
opposed to those resources that improve the condition of man 
in every sphere of life, produce more food for the hungry, moro 
clothing for the naked, and more occupation for all the in the 
varied walks to which humanity is called, and that more ample 
supply for the wants and necessities of life in general, without 
which man can never pause sufficiently to meditate on the 
higher destinies of his nature. 
Wisconsin being pre-eminently an Agricultural State, (what¬ 
ever other interests in Mining, Arts, and Manufactures may 
