In what direction shall its
possessors then look? Shall they train a posterity which will so
use its power as to make the world better that it has lived in it?
Will the future heir to great wealth prefer the intellectual life
to the life of pleasure?
We can have no more hopeful answer to these questions than the
establishment of this great university in the very focus of the
commercial activity of the West. Its connection with the
institution we have been dedicating suggests some thoughts on
science as a factor in that scheme of education best adapted to
make the power of a wealthy community a benefit to the race at
large. When we see what a factor science has been in our present
civilization, how it has transformed the world and increased the
means of human enjoyment by enabling men to apply the powers of
nature to their own uses, it is not wonderful that it should claim
the place in education hitherto held by classical studies. In the
contest which has thus arisen I take no part but that of a peace-
maker, holding that it is as important to us to keep in touch with
the traditions of our race, and to cherish the thoughts which have
come down to us through the centuries, as it is to enjoy and
utilize what the present has to offer us.
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