500 invited quests assembled in Hie
Armory for luncheon. At 2 o'clock
in the afternoon Hie quests assem
bled in the new Library building,
the body of students, Faculty, Trus
tees and speakers, with the Gov
ernor and Major-General Miller ,oc
cupying* the main floor, and others,
as lar as space allowed, the galleries.
President Atherton, introducing
the proceedings of the attemoon.
said:
‘•I have great happiness in this day.
It is not my pirt to speak, because
speaking is, in a sense, superficial,
while feeling is deep, and, in the limes
of deepest fe.eling, speech isinadequate.
No speech could express tlie sense of
deep and abiding gratitude that I leel
today, and have long left toward the
doner of this beautiful and useful
building. I teel a '-till deeper sense
ol gr.ititue, if he will not think it un
appreciative, for the times in which
we live which make all this possible
and for the light of civilization hand
ed down from geuei.ition to goner i
tio*i which is pieservod to a greater
extent in bonks than : .u any oilier
single institution.
“Just as some men litre up into a
bright 1 ight auddisappenr, as snm»‘ m<*n
shoot liken meteor across t ho skies .mil
are hen rd of no more, w Idle <>t hoi s burn
on steadily like the planets, so the
g rea t in tellect ua I a ud .spiritual forces
that move the wot Id run in tue deep
and silent, the loreeful and all com
pelling streams which draw together
tile best in humanity that we call civ
ilization. .There are book*- evanesceii’,
books Unit, have tile r biief day,
perhaps cause a smile or a tear
or a blush to pass across the fire
of lium.milv, and th-n are forgotten;
but the great honks which embody the
gre.it soul of humanity, arc preset ved
and handed down in Libianes; and,
Ihere.fore, our guest and benefactor <»l
to-day may well be happy that the in
spiration came to him in due lime (<>
identity himself for all time with that
great stream of human thought and
human itillticiicc that not omv pro
serves the best of what the world has
done, but furnishes the guiding model
and the guiding authority, a.s it weio.
for the gener »lions to come. 11 ere the
young men who are very soon to
join the ranks of those who arc
bearing t lie 1 mi dons <<| lip* m.iy p i r
ticipate in this heneiii ami lie biought
into contact with that great Hood of
life of which we form a part.
“It was at first thought that the sum
of $lOO,OOO would be adequate for the
erection of this building; but, later, on
finding from a very slight inquiry the
growth of the institution and its prom
ise for tlie future, Mr. Carnegie volun
tarily added another $50,000 without
condition, saying that he would hold
the College responsible for the right
expenditure and use of it, and
I should like, if time permitted, to
show you how all this interior lias
been adapted to use without any sacri
fice of beauty and how we have tried
to- equip this as the great work
mg Liboralory of the living soul
of the Institution. We hope that it
will be a laboratm v in the truest and
and highest sense, and I now have the
greatest plea.su.re and honor in pi e*
sotiUug Mi. Andrew Carnegie, llie
donor of the building.** (Great ap
piai/se )
Mr. Carnegie said:
“Mr. President,yourlCxcellency, La
dies and Gentlemen—and last but not
least the students of State College:
Permit me to indulge in a few words,
giving- you my impressions, betoie
we proceed to this other matter.
“it i.s twenty veins since I was here
uid I feel like Rip Van Winkle nfiei
lie had slept twenty wars, (laughter)
(applause) to come and see what we
M.tve seen to-day winch has impressed
Mis. Carnegie and m\self so deeply.
This is a gieat evolution. This High
l*;x G(A f . J AM. A. HEAVER
t’ubhsm-d by Uouriosy ot tv.insylyama (M
School ior Fannors*—Karmei.s* Hig!i
School —(laugli ter) (appiause) i liml has
now nineteen courses, embiacmg all
simjects ol human know lege. Twemy
yonisugo I loimd 170 .students Imre
Mill mm i hud between 700 a ml 800 and
Hie cry is ••suit they come.” (Luigh
'ter) (applause.) I lcjoice amidst the
great changes we see, that one thing
na.s not changed and that is this gen
tlctncu here (pointing to Dr. Atherton.)
(Applause) iiejoiceto see him sup
ported by my litelong iriend, General
iienve**. (Applause).
“One word to the students. I wish
you would takedown the Encyclopedia
Oritnnuica, if you choose, and read up
Universities. I come iioio just crammed
with knowledge on the subject.
(Laughter) I could speak lo you for
an hour and you would say, ‘What a man
that Carnegie is!* (Laughter) I know
all about them. The evolution which
education has undergone is very strik
ing. You gentlemen of the caps and
gowns know all about that. The pagan
sellouts were swept away and the
monastic ami cathedral schools arose
in their place. Tne one taught how to
be monks and the other taught how to
be priests and that was about ail that
civilization thought worthy ut teaching
in thuse clay s. That passed away.
Tnen came tue era ot the universities.
They got into trouble. Metaphysics
and logic you know set the universi
ties i*>t the world lighting; there was au
active wartaie between them for two
centuries; tue realists held sway in
Paris and the nominalists in Heidcl
burg, and so on. Then came the Ital
ian Universities;—Gentlemen, that is
alt encyclopedia (laughter) (applause).
Don’t forget to read tn.it encyclopedia
andgelitolt you know. Tue result
of it w i*, h i.vever, tu it they got into
quarrels on metaphysics and that was
the one tiling then; all Paris was
simply mad in the twelfth century on
that new idea. Very well, you liud
traces ot that to-day. Tntre are two
gentlemen that I know in Britain,
one of them is the prime minister,
Balfour, and the other is Mr. Haldane,
both high up in metaphysics. One of
them wasted his time in preparing lec
tures lor St. Andrew’s Umvci-ity ot
which I have the honor to be Ford Kec
tor and, of course, he wound up in a
mass of words and ielt the subject
just whoie he began. Mr. Baliuiir
nas tolcl us that we know nothing- and
what we do know we don’t know that
we know’. (Laughter) (applause).
“Gentlemen, you get a good thing
from a Scotchman now amt lhei>.
(Uaughlei) Here is a dehuiiion of
metaphysics. ‘Edwin,’ tile young
sheplieid said to the cldet,
•Edwin, wliat is liieta leesics?’
‘Saundy, nictafeesics is when ye man
is trying to tell ither men all aoouc a
subject he caniia* know ouytliiiig*
about himself.’
“Now, gentlemen, we ha ve gotten out
of metaptiysics, we have relegated
that lo the proper place blit let Us pay
a tribute to the ancient classics, be
cause, if it hadn't been fur the ancient
classics vrn could never have gotten
into the earlier Universities anything
but tlieuiogv atm metaphysics. That
was the medium through which our
knowledge of literature was out.lined.
Ol course llh.v have been elevated away
beyond their desei Is, because we had
nothing else.
“Now I want to sav how proud I am,
standing heie today, to hail tlie State
Cuhege of Pennsylvania as one of the
pioneers in the reform of educa
tion. Your President tells us that the
English course is unusually complete
and thorough and that tiiat may be
taken as tlie general character of the
educational work of tiiis institution,
and he says lo us, wc teacli
the American literature first. That is
right, to teach American history first
(applause) and it is proper to follow
that with the literature that your own
race has produced wherever the Eng
lish tongue is spoken. But what is