Page:Life Movements in Plants.djvu/14

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

viii

in nobler ways. We shall be at one with it in feeling the common surgings of life, the common love for the good, the true, and the beautiful. In this Institute, this Study and Garden of Life, the claim of Art has not been forgotten, for the artist has been working with us, from foundation to pinnacle and from floor to ceiling of this very Hall. And beyond that arch, the Laboratory merges imperceptibly into the Garden, which is the true laboratory for the study of Life. There the creepers, the plants and the trees are played upon by their natural environments—sunlight and wind, and the chill at midnight under the vault of starry space. There are other surroundings also, where they will be subjected to chromatic action of different lights, to invisible rays, to electrically charged atmosphere. Everywhere they will transcribe in their own script the history of their experience. From his lofty point of observation, sheltered by the trees, the student will watch this panorama of life. Isolated from all distractions, he will learn to attune himself with Nature; the obscuring veil will be lifted and he will gradually come to see how community throughout the great ocean of life outweighs apparent dissimilarity. Out of discord he will realize the great harmony.

THE OUTLOOK.

These are the dreams that wove a network round my wakeful life for many years past. The outlook is endless, for the goal is at infinity. The realization cannot be through one life or one fortune, but through the co-operation of many lives and many fortunes. The possibility of a fuller expansion will depend on very large endowments. But a beginning must be made, and this is the genesis of the foundation of this Institute. I came with nothing and shall return as I came; if something is accomplished in the interval, that would indeed be a