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Michigan State Agricultural College BY PRESIDENT ABBOT
In the polytechnic schools of Europe, and at the military academy at West Point, in our own country, the student is often engaged in severe physical exercise for many hours daily. But there, culture of mind and body are indissoluble connected, and the exercise becomes with many, the charm of their student life. Surely the labor that creates instead of destroys, and which causes the earth to bloom with luxuriance and beauty, and groan under its abundance, should be as captivating as that which is bestowed in reducing butchery to an exact science, and which recognizes occasional desolation of the earth, and wholesale destruction of the race, as a necessary and normal condition.
"But if manual labor has failed in all other colleges, it ought not to fail here, where it is inseparably connected with the acquisition of knowledge. Thus allied, the employment should be a charm instead of a drudgery. Practical labor in this institution is the vital, cementing, invigorating influence, that will give it dignity, and it is hoped, complete success.
At the close of President Williams' inaugural, Governor Bingham addressed the assembly. He spoke of the new college as designed "to elevate and dignify the character of labor. " He spoke of science, saying: "Science and art are now uniting their labors, and are drawing mutual aid from each other on the farm, as they have for some time been doing in the manufactory and in the , shop of the artisan. A new era is dawning upon the vision of the farmer— new light is illumining his path, and a new interest and new pleasures are urging him on to improvement. His intellect comes to the aid of his hands; and as he traces effects to their causes, searches for the reason of his failures and disappointments, familiarizes himself with the operations of nature, and devises improvements in his art, his interest is increased, his profits are greatly enhanced, and he appreciate the full dignity of his chosen pursuit.
Michigan State
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