Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-08-01


lance in the history of the institute. 1t has been
marked by the erection of the new wall, the gen
erous and costly gift Of Mr. K1owlton of Upton,
and by the establishment of the profess0rship OF
English through the iberality OF Mr.. Salisbury.
will not undertake to express our gratitude 10
our benefactors. If did, am afraid | should
dis pleasure them by saying too much, and you
by saying too little. | have been asked to speak
for the l. JStees to the friends and patrons of the
institute and to the young gentlemen of the
graduating class. can think of no appropii-
ate topic more likely to interest both than brief
outline of our system of education. What do
we desire our graduates to know? What do we
desire them to be?
The charter of this institution and the instru-
ment Of foundation of MIR. Boynton set forth
scheme of instruction, to which no one college
TO which not all the colleges in America COM
bined-woud he adequate. 1t is hardly less
than instruction in all science and art, So far as
they may be applied to the occupations useful
TO man. Whatever errors we may commit we
hope not to err by undertaking, still less by
promising, more than we can perform. In the
language OF our respected president, sit is the
aim OF this institution to concentrate and not
to expand instruction." Others may under
take, if they think best, to compass the whole
range of scientific instruction. | would write
as the motto over our gateS-pd6cd Pdetlter--a
few things thoroughly.
The present scheme of instruction in this in
SllullOn IS tlle result Oh tue peTceptlOu by lis
founders Of two facts:
First. That the occupation of the people of
Massachusetts is hereafter chiefly to be the me-
chanical arts.
Second. That whatever is to be the occupa-
ton of this people must hereafter chiefly be the
10 ORR of their brains,
This commonwealth owes it to her history,
she owes it to her rank in the family of states,
she owes it to her great hope, so TO bring up her
children that they shall henceiorth be the mas
tiers, and not the servants, of the physical forces
by which they are to gain their bread.
The special aim of this school is to fit its
graduates for the application of science to those
mechanical employments which aie most likely
to be the special pursuits OF the people of
the county of Worcester, for whose ben
edt it was established. To this end we
desire that our graduate should be a mathe-
matician, able to calculate the efficiency Of the
machines which he Is to construct or to use, and
the forces they are TO transmit that geology
shall have Sc far revealed to hun its secrets and
chemistry its marvellous processes, that he shall
know how ores, and especially iron, king of
metals, are found, distinguished, taken from
their beds, the metals smelted aud adapted to
the uses of civilization, and the laws of combus-
ton and heati that he shall have such skill in
drawings~which is the mechanics language
that the crayon may follow his thought in rep
resenting form, as the pen follows the thought
of the writer; that he shall be master of clear,
simple, exact, vigorous English, without which
there can be for him no clear, exact or vigorous
thinking; that he shall know French and Ger
man well enough TO need no Interpretation of
the contributions which the countries where
those languages are spoken make to the sciences
which he is to apply; that he shall have been so
inspired with the love of these things that i'm
provemcnt and growth in this knowledge shall
be 10 him not merely the occupation but the
delight of his life; that in this general
training shall be set, as the blade in a handle,
some practical instruction in the special
calling for which our graduate is designed;
as, if machniSt, that in shop
where work requiring the highest skill is done,
and under the instruction of Skilful workmen,
he shall have learned as much of the use of
machinery and tools as is commonly gained by
boys who have spent three years in an ordinary
machine shop.
If an architect or designer, he shall have
learned the laws of construction of buildings,
and been taught 80 as analyze beautiful forms in
nature and in the best models, as to discover
wherein the elements of beauty consist.
II civil engineer, he shall have become ia
miliar with the problems of topography, road
building and construction,
These things we desire our graduate to know
Whether our professors have been faithful and
capable in teaching them is a question which we
will, not without confidence, leave their pupils
to answer
lucse InlnSs ne Is 10 KnOW-tHeSe are MS
to0S-what manner of man shall he be who is
to use them? This is the most important part
of the question, and it is 10 this paIt | wish
chiefly 10 address myself
This is n College. Whatever may have been
its original Specification in the Roman law or in
the ecclesiastical uSages Of the middle ages, the
term college has gained by two centuries of
use meaning which we in New England very
well understand. To have college education,
has been ever since the first class left Harvard
IN 1912, - have something which has been
valued and count, d as among the most precious
things which the institutions of Massachusetts
had in store for the most favor of her sons.
You have, most of you, read those pages,
where, in his owl clear and matchless English,
Daniel Webster tells the simple STORY OF his boy
hOod-a story more 'uching and stimulant, |
venture to say, TO the common New England
heart, than the highest effort of dramatic art.
"On the way TO Mr.. Woods, my father first in
tmati d to ME his in ntiou of lending me to
college. The very idea thrilled my whole frame.
lie said he then lived but for his children, and
if | would do all could for myself, he would do
what he could for me. | remember that |
was quite overcome and that my head grew
dizzy. The thing appeared to me so high, and
the expense and sacrifice it was to costmy father
so great, | could only press his hands and shed
tears"
The establishment of this and like institutions
on system, in the main, like that Of other col
legeS is due to the recognition of the fact that a
college education has become necessary and APP
proprate to those who are to be engaged in the
mechanic arts. The thing which to the mind of
Daniel Webster seem so high that his whole
frame thrilled, his head grew dizzy, and tears
and not words could convey his gratitude when
1t was brought within his reach, comes at length
10 the service Of the common arts of life
The college graduate is person designed for
one of the learned professions Therefore, when
tn RNllf srpt 3 far In
suit Of any mechanic art, it is because you design
to follow it as le.,rned prof sion. This does
not imply that you are to csc spe what is call
the drudgery Of life or its bodily laborS. The
training of the college is not wholly or chiefly
the acquisition of the know &c n; dior the
pursuit for which the student is dCsis, led. The
college is the gymnasium Of the intellect a
place for intellectual culture. The man who
has been four years in college and thr in a
professional school, makes a bett r lawyer, doc
tor or minister than the same man would make
II he spent the seven years in the study Of his
profession. We hops, ard If our hope is well
founded ii will he our gre It Vantage, that the
study of the scien es which are % be applied to
those mechanic aft which our graduates mean
to follow, may 80 dir ctf | that the technical
training shall be college training DO that
while our graduate, is to be man with
his powers disciplined and trained, he shall not
nave been exercising With dumb bell, but have
MS hngers IN fashioning his good sword
college is also place for the formation of
permanent and noble friendships. II You were
TO ask the many thousand graduates OF Amcri-
can colleges what it is that they value most
that they have got from their college life | am
inclined to think majority of them would an
swer, "the friendship of my classmates" Next
TO the ties of blood, sometimes even stronger
than the ties Of blood, are those attachments
which come to ingenious young men from
sharing the same studies.
The history Of literature is full of evidence of
the value set by scholars upon academic friend
ships. Cowley, in his noble ode to William
Harvey, dwclls with delight upon the hours ex-
tended far into the night given TO their early
studieS
Say, for you saw us, We immortal lights,
How oft unwearied have we spent the nights,
While the Ledyerln stars, so famed for love,
Looked down upon us from above.
We spent them not in toys or lust or wine,
But search of deep. philosophy,
And elOquence aud poetry
Arts which loved, for they, my friend, were thine
| am sure do not overstate this considera.
lion as the successive classes leave these halls,
increasing year by year in number, with the
larger culture which experience and ampler re-
sources may hereafter enable us TO impart to
them, among the strongest ties which will bind
them to their alma mater will he gratitude for
the tic by which she has bound them to one an
other. Scattered far aud wide over the cont.
nent, of the same age, of the same training, of
the same pursuit, banded and linked like suit
of chain armor they will be defense to each
other and TO her.
A college is place for the formation of the
Of the gentleman. From time immein.
orial the man who has earned its degree has