With this widened outlook, we shall not only maintain the highest
traditions of the past but also serve the world 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 electrified ground or
thunder-charged atmosphere. Everywhere they will transcribe in their own
script the history of their experience. From this 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 realise
the great harmony.