Peter Cooper's Letter to the Trustees, April 29, 1859				page 4
	A firm and unshaken belief Learning to do well Knowledge shall cover the earth		Mankind will always require the great controlling principle of Christianity to be permanently fixed in the intellectual heart as the guide of life. We need a firm and unshaken belief in the inherent immortality of the soul; we need a solid conviction that God is love — love in action — love universal.    Such a belief in such a God will engage and secure our affections, and forever be to us the great reality of life. Our God will not then be to us a vaporish idea; on the contrary, he will be to us a God filling immensity with his presence and with the glory of his power. Were it possible for us to settle and establish this truth with unwavering certainty in the minds of men, temptation would be powerless. We should then see and feel that punishment inflicted for our good is as much the evidence of parental kindness as the blessings consequent on obedience to a righteous law. Every day shows me with more clearness that the great garden of the world is spread out before us filled with all the elements and inspirations of God, "who is all and in all," constantly showing us that the same soil that can produce briars and thorns, and vex us in the land wherein we dwell, can be subdued by wisdom, and made to yield and supply our wants with nature's choicest fruits. How wonderful the wisdom that "connects in this, our greatest virtue, with our greatest bliss," "and makes our own bright prospect to be blest, the strongest motive to assist the rest." Every day shows me that if we are ever saved it must be by overcoming the world of wrong within us with such powers and faculties as God has given — to be the true light to enlighten every man that cometh into the world. There is no other way whereby we can be saved but by ceasing to do evil and learning to do well. To do this we need all the helps that we can find — we need to bear each other's burdens, and so fulfill the law of love. The life and teachings of Christ, showing God a father and the world of mankind our brethren, must forever stand pre-eminent over all forms of instruction, either ancient or modern. The loving spirit and principle that Christ manifested in his life and in his death, is the spirit that must finally reform the world, in the day when religion shall consist in the right actions and motives of our life, instead of a mere belief in the antiquated opinions of erring men. It was his gentle spirit — the spirit of an all-embracing charity — that went about the world, overcoming the evils of life with continued demonstrations of kindness and affection, and showed all that it is our privilege as well as duty to follow his example and obey his precepts. It was this spirit that was in the world, and the world knew it not. It is still in the world, and it is our unhappiness that we know and feel so little of its influence on our hearts and lives. By following his precepts and example we cannot fail of a happy and useful life, a peaceful death, and a blessed immortality. I trust the time will come when religion will be divorced from superstition, and the light of science will develop the laws and methods of Deity, showing a great and glorious purpose shining through all the wonders of Almighty power, by which knowledge shall cover the earth as the waters cover the great deep, when men shall know and understand the things on which their happiness depends. We shall then comprehend something of the heights and depths and lengths and breadths of that knowledge and love of God which passes all understanding.    I have now placed in your hands the entire charge and property of this institution, and in order to further aid and facilitate the objects and purposes designed to be secured, I hereby authorize the Board of Control to draw on me at their pleasure for the sum of ten thousand dollars, as fast as the same can be wisely used to advance the interests of this institution.
	Lessons of wisdom		Please accept my heartfelt assurance of sincere desire that under your care thousands of the youth of our country may throng its halls to learn those lessons of wisdom so much needed to guide the inexperience of youth amidst the dangers to which they are at all times exposed.
			[Signed:]
			page 4
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