The Republic of Texas needed a college that would produce men and women who would answer the call and prepare themselves to make a better life and a better world. Thousands of students, first at Rutersville, Wesleyan, Soule, and McKenzie, and now at Southwestern, have been the loyal voices blending to sing the best that alma mater has to offer. And now, before I end my remarks, I want especially to address all Southwestern students. As things grow in the real world, slowly enough. If you tend them properly, if you mulch, if you water, If you provide birds that eat insects a home and winter food, If the sun shines and you pick off caterpillars, If the praying mantis comes and the ladybugs and the bees, Then the plants flourish, but at their own internal clock.
Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot tell always by looking what is happening. More than half a tree is spread out in the soil under your feet. Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet. Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree. Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden.