Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - New Chemistry Building [PAGE 9]

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to work out its details; and then if you stop to think of all the results of human toil and effort that have gone into the building itself, that every one of these devices utilized in the heating, in the lighting, in the ventilation, every one of these pipe combinations bringing compressed air, or gas, or the wire conduction of electricity; the discoveries as a result of long and anxious toil which have resulted in making the brick which enter into the structure itself; the evidences in the architecture and the style of the building, that into it have gone the results of the thought and creation of human beings since the dawn of history, one gets a real idea, a real notion of what infinite toil on the part of "the much enduring race of man" has gone to prepare this structure. And when one thinks of the countless generations through which the human race has elaborated the knowledge and experience necessary to erect and equip such a building, and then thinks of the countless generations of young people who will go in and out through this building in all the years to come, carrying out into human .life in every direction the results of the knowledge which they may have gained within these walls, one realizes how the whole future is dependent upon and tied up to the past, and how we are, after all, one race, we might almost say, one individual. The description of this building you have found already in the little circular prepared about it. We believe that it is going to be well adapted to its purposes when it is finally completed. We believe that the people of the commonwealth, who have erected this great building as a testimonial of their confidence and belief in human science and as evidence of their faith in the men who are trustees of this great gift, the men in the laboratories and the men in the teaching work, will be satisfied that they have done well, and will be willing to do more. It seems to me that the chemical staff to whom this building will be handed over, ought to keep in mind three great things, three great duties, if you please, three great obligations: by which they will carry out their duties as trustees. First of all, they should recognize that this is an agency of teaching, of getting hold of the young men and women of this commonwealth and other commonwealths and otherco untrics who may come here to study, in such a way as to impress them with the

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