Worcester daily spy., 1860-01-31
sehnnl ofNTnnr Arts.

Several gentlemen interested IN aSs0clatOnS
for the promotion of the arts and sciences,
have memorialized the Legislature for an act
setting apart portion of the Back Bay lands
to be used in all coming time "for the erection
of buildings by existing or future institutions,
whose museums, cabinets, and repositories of
industrial and art products shall be opened to
the public so as best to promote the education
al and material interests of the Common
wealth" The memorial is of considerable
length, and enters into full and detailed de-
velopment of polytechnic school, The de-
partments primarily contemplated are:
/. Agriculture, including Horticulture and Pomol-
g. Natural History, Geology, and Chemistry;
8. Mechanics, Manufactures, Commerce, and Cen
| era Technology.
4. Fine Arts and Education.
In the first two of these departments, the
Boston Society of Natural History, and the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, are al
ready prepared to avail themselves of the pro-
posed grant from the State, and have, in
great degree, matured plans for buildings to
be erected as soon as the land can be put in a
condition to be occupied. In the other two
departments, assurances have been given, that
whenever the bounty of the State has been
bestowed in the manner contemplated by the
memorialists, large and valuable masses of ma
terial models, fabrics, natural and manufac-
tured articles, and works of art, never before
accessible to the public or available for gen.
eral usefulness, will be quickly offered in re-
sponse.
Schemes of universal knowledge always
have something visionary about them. The
brevity of human life, and the limitations of
| the human intellect, of which we are reminded
every day of our lives, show how frail and de-
lusiye are many of the dreams which we ac-
cept as prophecies, and the schemes which we
devise for the illumination of the world. But
the plan presented in the memorial now before
the Legislature, though new to the experience
of American civilization, proposes both to en-
large the means of useful knowledge and to
prdcticalize them.
Take the department of agriculture. 1t is
safe to say that the most intelligent farmer is
the most practical. The use which he would
make of an agricultural laboratory, to which
the fruits of the experience, the observation,
and the culture Of all other farmers would
naturally flow, cannot be hastily estimated. A
perpetual, and always accessible school, illus
strating the processes and products of this
branch of industry, chronicling the history of
its Improvements and its progress from year to
year, aecumulating and arranging models for
implements and buildings, and fences, and de-
vices for draining till age and irrigation, record
ing all experiments in fertilization and their
results, accumulating cabinets of seeds, grains,
fibres, and fruits, and keeping perpetual re-
cord, for public use, the highest and best
knowledge attained in that branch of industry,
it can be readily seen with what rapidity such
an institution might expand TO the largest meas
ure of usefulness. And whatever could be
expected of one branch, could be expected of
all, as the same general laws rule over and
govern all.
This scheme was recommended in the Gov
ernor's second inaugural address, and we be-
lieve it received the unanimous appreciation of
the legislative committee to whom the subject
was referred. For the disposition of the lands
belonging to the state, there has been no plan
proposed at once so benefcent and so eeonomi-
cal. The legislature can do no act worthier to
be remembered and applauded hereafter, than
to grant the prayer of the memoraists and
give them such encouragement as the magni-
tude Of their work requires.