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Michigan State Agricultural College BY PRESIDENT ABBOT
Mr. Williams spoke of the objections that would be raised to the institution. They would call it an experiment, and demand results before they were willing to afford aid or sympathy. They would object to its cost and would leave
it unendowed, and subject to the caprice of successive legislatures. These and other sentences read more like history than like prophecy, as they were. He spoke of the hard times that prevailed, of the virgin forest in which operations were to be begun, and that we have no guides to follow; valuable hints might be derived from European schools, but only hints.
President Williams proceeds to discuss the branches of study that should be pursued. As to manual labor he thinks "it ought chiefly to board the student, leaving but a few expenses incumbent on him.
"At the outset we are met with the objection that all attempts at associating labor with the acquisition of knowledge, in seminaries of learning, have proved failures. Sometimes, however, the labor has been mere steady drudgery in close apartments, and was illustrative of no truth. Sometimes labor has been permitted to a portion of the students, who thus elected to eke out their means, while a larger class of daily associates were entirely exempt. Thus castes were created, where, of all the world, there should exist a warm and brotherly sympathy. That manual labor is incompatible with intellectual growth, is contrary to philosophy and experience. Sedentary employment is much more likely to be so. Vigor of body gives vigor to the brain.
Michigan State
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