The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1866-08-03
The commencement at Burlington.

College commenced Sunday
afternoon with the Baccalaureatc Ser
mon by Prof Buckham, who took his
text from Matt. XIV. IA, Is, 10. The
address to the graduating class, the
Free Press says, "was one of the most
touching and effective ones that we
Sunday evening the annual celebra-
ton of the Society for Religious In
quiry took place. The address was
by the Rev. w. j. Sprague,
d. D., Of Albany. His subject, "The-
illogical Inquiry" was handled with
ability.
Tuesday afternoon the celebration
of the Phi Beta Kappa occurred. The
Rev. Leonard Bacon, ID. d., of New
Haven, Conn, pronounced the address
and j. S. d. Taylor Esq, of st. Al
bans, the poem The evening was oc-
cupied with Junior Exhibition.
Wednesday was commencement day
proper when the young gentlemen of
the graduating class spoke their pie
ces and received the parting blessing of
their Alma Mater At o'clock p NJ
the class Of 1889 made an excursion
on the Steamer Omitted States" to
Plattsburgh. Several extemporaneous
speeches were made, and an excellent
poem read by the Rev j. II. Hopkins,
of New York, which we arc permitted
to print entire
PAST is the high noon-day and hcnceforth
steadily westward
Slowly the bending sun slopes down to the dis
tant horizon
Now for moment crystal streamlots flash in
his glory
Now his beams ON the hamlet kindle a blaze in
the windows
Cool, deep shadows creep from the well-wooded
crown Of the hilltops,
Downward along their slanting sides till,
broader and broader,
All of the vale is filled with the dcwy gloom of
the twilight
Weary the laborer homcward turns from the
toll Of the meadows,
While from his opening door the clatteging
feet of the children
Rush to a shouting welcome mingled with
loud happy laughter
Twinlling lights from the easement shine,
where, frugal and cheerful
Stands his loving wife, and the bright flame
burns ON the hcarthstone
sweetly from mountain and hill, thro' the
gathering mists Of the lowands,
Fainter and fainter afar re-eeho the tinkling
shecp-bells
One -by one like stars of the earth going ont
into darkness,
Quench'd are the village lights: while. high
in The deepening azure,
One by one. shine forth heav MS stars in clear
ness eternal
Last in her full-orb'd beauty the moon looks
down on the valley,
Bathing the whole wide scene in midnight's
siyery silence
Classmates thus have ce now passed the
height Of the noon-day,
Henceforth steadily moving on toward sunset
and evening.
Where success may have brought full floods,
they flash in a splendor
Bright. though brief; and the stream runs cold
while blazing in sunshine
Not for itself but for eyes far off, is it giIded
with glory
Shadows gently steal from the browning hill
top of manhood
Downward along declining years, till, broader
and broader,
All of the vale of life is dark with the dew Of
the twilight
Weary the toiler turns from the field of his
lifelong labor,
Turns to his resting-place, to the one dear
treasure of me,-where
Children's voices cheerly ring, and the wife on
the hearthstone
kindles the fire that brightest burns when
daylight is over
Out from the gathering mists of memory.
sounds may re-echo,--
Dreams, perchance, or wandering strains of
tenderer music, -
Family at times recalling the glorious tones of
the morning,
Shepherds horns and songs, and the cliffs on
the sunshiny mountains
One by one, dim candles of earth 90 out into
darkness.
One by one, new stars of heavn shine out in
the azure.
Last, over our long home broods only the 81
lence Of midnight
Iwofold classmates dear, twofold is the course
of lifetime
AS on the watery plain swift wave over wave
oleth onward
Passing in contrary ways, yet neither impeding
the other
So on the surface of life great circles of love
and of friendship
Clasp and embrace many souls, filling all our
/ youthful horizon.
Time moves on. Death takes from the num-
Der. Slowly and sadly,
Year by year, that wave contracts; till. .shrunk
to unit,
Lost in point, it appears no more; and life