Famous Givers and Their GiftsBolton, Sarah Knowles
History
Famous Givers and Their Gifts
Bolton, Sarah Knowles
Philanthropists
Courses of free lectures are given at Pratt Institute to the public as
well as the students; a summer school is provided at Glen Cove, Long
Island, for such as wish to learn about agriculture, with instruction
given in botany, chemistry, physiology, raising and harvesting crops,
and the care of animals; nurses are trained in the care and development
of children; a bright monthly magazine is published by the Institute; a
Neighborship Association has been formed of alumni, teachers, and
pupils, which meets for the discussion of such topics as "The relation
of the rich to the poor," "The ethics of giving," "Citizenship," etc.,
and to carry out the work and spirit of the Institute wherever
opportunity offers.
Already the influence of Pratt Institute has been very great. Public
schools all over the country are adopting some form of manual training
whereby the pupils shall be better fitted to earn their living. Mr.
Chas. M. Pratt, in one of his Founder's Day addresses, quotes the words
of a successful teacher and merchant: "There is nothing under God's
heaven so important to the individual as to acquire the power to earn
his own living; to be able to stand alone if necessary; to be dependent
upon no one; to be indispensable to some one."
About four thousand students receive instruction each year at the
Institute. Many go out as teachers to other schools all over the
country. As the founder said in his last address, "The world goes on,
and Pratt Institute, if it fulfils the hopes and expectations of its
founder, must go on, and as the years pass, the field of its influence
should grow wider and wider."
On the day that he died, Mr. Herbert S. Adams, the sculptor, had
finished a bust of Mr. Pratt in clay. It was put into bronze by the
teachers and pupils, and now stands in the Institute, with these words
of the founder cut in the bronze: "_The giving which counts is the
giving of one's self_."
THOMAS GUY
AND HIS HOSPITAL.
One day the rich Matthew Vassar stood before the great London hospital
founded by Thomas Guy, and read these words on the pedestal of the
bronze statue:--
THOMAS GUY,
SOLE FOUNDER OF THIS HOSPITAL IN HIS LIFETIME
A.D. MDCCXXI.
The last three words made a deep impression. Matthew Vassar had no
children. He wished to leave his fortune where it would be of permanent
value; and lest something might happen to thwart his plan, he had to do
it _in his lifetime_.
Sir Isaac Newton said, "They who give nothing till they die, never give
at all." Several years before his death, Matthew Vassar built Vassar
College near Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; for he said, "There is not in our
country, there is not in the world so far as known, a single fully
endowed institution for the education of women. It is my hope to be the
instrument, in the hands of Providence, of founding and perpetuating an
institution _which shall accomplish for young women what our colleges
are accomplishing for young men_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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