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Michigan State Agricultural College BY PRESIDENT ABBOT
I cannot consent to leave this branch of my subject without fortifying the same with one or two authorities. Says an eloquent writer: 'Where is the man of so much apathy, as not to be cheered with the anticipation of beholding such an institution, an extensive and handsome edifice, where our young men shall be taught in theory and practice those immutable principles of nature, which form the only infallible guide to all the substantial comforts of life; when, by mingling the useful with the sweet, they will become inured to the habits of industry; when' science and art shall combine to inspire them with a laudable effort to excel each other? If we are charmed with viewing a garden on a small scale, the work, perhaps, of a single but skillful individual, how infinitely more charming must be the view of three or four hundred acres, planned and laid out with all the accumulated skill of ages, aided by all the light which science has thrown upon the subject, with all the beauties of the vegetable world, and all that is useful in the animal? Can any earthly prospect be more beautiful? I answer yes; that of two or three hundred young men vying with each other in skill and industry, not only in improving and beautifying the establishment, but by improving their minds by study and their bodies by manly labor, infinitely more pleasing and to their credit than the mountebank feats of a gymnasium, thus fitting themselves as brilliant lights to guide, instruct, and adorn the succeeding generation. From the time of its organization, the Michigan State Agricultural Society took the lead in the demand for an agricultural school.
Michigan State
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