Polytechnic Institute.
Indeed, the wide scope of this plan, its capacity for embracing every
subject in the range of science, and of communicating it to the public
either by publication, by free lectures, by a museum of reference, or by
collegiate instruction, leaves but little to be desired. That there is
great need of such an institution in this State is apparent from many
causes. In the words of the prospectus, we feel that in New-England, and
especially in our own Commonwealth, the time has arrived when, as we
believe, the interests of Commerce and Arts, as well as General
Education, call for the most earnest cooperation of intelligent culture
with industrial pursuits. It is no exaggeration to state that probably
no project was ever before presented to the wealthy men of Massachusetts
which appealed so earnestly to their aid or gave such fair promise of
doing good. The institute in question is one which will in every
respect, socially and mentally, elevate the business man or practical
man to a level with the college graduate or the practitioner in the
three learned professions. It will stimulate progress by still further
refining industry, and ally the action of capital to the advance of
intellect. It will perform a noble and distinguished part in the great
mission of the age and of future ages--that of vindicating the dignity
of free labor and showing that the humblest work may be rendered
high-toned and raised to a level with the calling of scholar or
diplomatist through the influence of science. If we were called on to
set forth the noble spirit of the _North_ with all its free labor and
all its glorious tendencies, we should, with whole heart and soul,
choose this magnificent conception of an institute whose aim is to
confer dignity on what the wretched and ignorant slaveocracy believe is
cursed into everlasting vulgarity. It is fitting that this practical and
eminently intelligent and progressive community should build up, on a
grand scale, an institution which will be not only eminently useful and
profitable, but serve as a culminating exponent of the great and liberal
ideas for which the North has already made in every form the most
remarkable sacrifices.

'While the vast and increasing magnitude of the industrial
interests of New-England furnishes a powerful incentive to the
establishment--within its borders of an institution devoted to
technological uses, it can not be doubted that the