What, but education, has advanced us beyond the condition of our indigenous neighbours? and what chains them to their present state of barbarism & wretchedness, but a besotted veneration for the supposed supe[r]lative wisdom of their fathers and the preposterous idea that they are to look backward for better things and not forward, longing, as it should seem, to return to the days of eating acorns and roots rather than indulge in the degeneracies of civilization. And how much more encouraging to the atchievements of science and improvement, is this, than the desponding view that the condition of man cannot be ameliorated, that what has been, must ever be, and that to secure Ourselves where we are, we must tread with awfull reverence in the footsteps of Our fathers.
As Jefferson looks to inspire the others why this higher institute would benefit all. He states that education itself is what has improved our lifestyle up to this point and it will continue to improve the quality of life itself. That as a civilization we have a duty to evolve as a species and look to education to learn as much as we can about ourselves and the world. He makes reference to their fathers that we too should follow the path the have set fro us.