and it cannot be but that each generation succeeding to the knowledge acquired by all those who preceded it, adding to it their own acquisitions & discoveries, and handing the mass down for successive & constant accumulation, must advance the knowledge & well-being of mankind: not infinitely, as some have said, but indefinitely, and to a term which no one can fix or foresee. Indeed we need look back only half a century, to times which many now living remember well, and see the wonderful advances in the sciences & arts which have been made within that period. Some of these have rendered the elements themselves subservient to the purposes of man, have harnessed them to the yoke of his labours, and effected the great blessings of moderating his own, of accomplishing what was beyond his feeble force, & of extending the comforts of life to a much enlarg[ed] circle, to those who had before known it’s necessaries only.
This part is quite interesting to me because it is another example of how the words of our University's founders still ring true today. If one were to say this in this day and age, it would be just as spot-on as back then. With our three main Libraries and even more special collections libraries, the University continues to show how important it is to hold onto the work of our predecessors and build from there. It can also be seen in the architecture of the school; maintaining the different styles of columns along the Lawn and restructuring the Rotunda shows how we can preserve the great works of the past by improving upon them.