Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871 [PAGE 368]

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mechanics; of mining, engineering and architecture; of animal and vegetable physiology and hybridization, and a thousand others arising out of the practice of the industrial arts, there is scope for the loftiest powers and the profoundest learning, while their pursuit opens up the fountains of intense, ever-varying and perennial enjoyment. It is because I believe that this building which we to-day inaugurate, and that statelier one whose corner-stone we have now laid, and the University to which they both belong,- are all linked with the future well-being and glory of Illinois, and with these brighter hopes for the on-coming ages of culture and of humanity, that I have left my work and come hither to-day. God grant that the dawn of a long career of great usefulness and prosperity; of liberal provision and fostering care; of public respect, confidence and affection, which to-day seems breaking along the horizon of this Institution, may shine on, brighter and brighter, until the perfect day.

Prayer was then offered by the Rev. Mr. Riley. Upon the platform were the Hons. Messrs. Miller, "Williams, Sheldon, Langley, Wright, Flagg, Griggs, Cunningham, Dunlap, and perhaps others ; also, members of the Board of Supervisors of the county. Several of these were called upon for speeches, and made short but appropriate remarks, all of them indorsing fully the course pursued by the University, and promising it their heartiest support. Mr. Bailey, of the Board of Supervisors, being called upon as a representative of the people of Champaign county, expressed himself, and the people in general, as well satisfied that the University had been a benefit to them in the past, and would be still more in the future. Music by the band followed, and the audience adjourned, to meet next year, Providence permitting, to dedicate the main building. And now a few

CLOSING WOKDS.

Germs are prophecies. The germ of the acorn is a prophecy of the wide-spreading oak. The past is the germ of the future. The histories of the coming centuries will be but an outgrowth of the events of the present, as the history of the present is but an outgrowth of that of the past. Seeds grow, produce and die, and by culture their fruits are improved, new species are created and take the place of the old. New prophecies are written in the hidden recesses of the seed. There the eye of the skilled botanist may detect them, but the multitude see them not, read them not; they must wait until the germ has become a plant, perhaps until it has produced its first fruits, until the prophecy has become history. In the history of education it is evident that the education of the present is but an outgrowth of that of the past; but cultured by experience, the old education has "sported," as horticulturists say, and a