New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-21
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.

PRESIDENT SMITHS BACCALAUREATE SERMON.
The Baccalaureate sermon on Sunday eve
ming was very fine effort, and listened to by an i'm
mense audience. The following is an abstracts
The text was in the third Epistle of John %
Beloved wish above all things that thou nayest pros
per and be IN health. even thy soul prospereth The
discourse opened with picture OF the voyager just set
ting foot with mingled hopes and fears anxieties and
quesOnngs, Oh the vessel that is TO bear MN 10 some
s6Iicitudes and injuries Compared with those which
beset today the young gathered before 1t
stake whereof Is for time only, but for eternity. IT
is voyage more mOmentous In us issues,
tabled ono of the ArgOnauts, or that, most
Iea @e 4IeG a. eeSs Lo1oo LeS each fraii bnt
precious bark-nore preco than would be tho vessel
tam gold from the mine, is 70 float out into the open
Tho voyage has been disastrous one 10 many, VIII
1t be prosperous 20 theml Hardship and peril VIII be
theirs phantOms will cross their path fearful than
that which, in the poets tale guarded the stormy cape.
and the good hand Of God upon them, make their way in
sSSiey s M presence. and on an occasion IKE
abstract themes l take as my subject, Success in
lAfe. THIS is the one theme OF my text - q sinRu-
larry comprehensive passage pertaining In just and sym
meriea presentation to all human welfare, inward and
proper mutual relations, the supreme and the subordi
nate The thoughts naturally suggests will not be rele
De more or less appropriate % auditors OF every descrp
cess ia ne IS and, In the second place, hOiO may be
secured In touching on the first point II remarked
that In view-as 1t forms integral part OF the
Divine plan-no life IS q failure. The economies of
Providence are like the marvellous economies OF
use The folly aud even the wrath Of man. though he
neaneth not 80, neither doth his heart think go"
woven into Gods and beuehcent PLAN stretching
through the ages Yet the glorious Divine successes
make not human failures the less real They deract
from the desrableness OF successful life ia the truest
and broadcast yiew-a life adjusted to right ends and
hed with noble deeds; life not useful IN the passive
only as wresed from It's natural issues but pur
pOsely worthy; a life which shall be, In the Divine
scheme not reluctant but consuming and Joyous in.
strumentality In defining such a life, the President
spoke In the first place negatively guarding his hearers
against certain Astounding errors and ilusiOns-certan
passing hour from true and abiding fame, the spur
absorbing hfe-an. He spoke next OF tLat passion for
peculiar scope and nurture and which doubtless one OF
the great perils Of country and finally OF that de-
voton 70 pleasure winch our high civilization varousy
herOlsms does really defeat its end. Passngto the
positive side, he named as the first element okfTue
sun. man. need not affirm, Is The
nObiest Made in the image Of GOd-made for
mitabo progression in all that is fair and glorious
nothing surpass In Importance the care ana culture
Of his sefhOOd. What Is all the outward-what are
all the stars that SHINE above him-to the mierocosn
Withni What all the marvellous forces OF nature,
compared with the laws OF his intellectual beinRof
memory Of imagination. Of reason, Of the imperial will,
and Of the affections that play about It, now as sovereign
lifetime the structure Of beasts and birds and shes,
and creeping things but have little interest In the
drOus anatomy Of mind Alas for those who can scrutn
ize, with curiosity That never tiree the beautiful ana
precious grOWthsOf the dull dead earth from the cedar
that Is IN Lebanon 70 the hyssOp that springeth out
OF the Wall"-bnt who hold IN low es-
of thought Of feeling Of purpose OF language In It's
complex mechanism, its subtilty, and Us pOency OF
poetry, OF eOquence, Of lOgic-calm and imprisoned
What ali works OF art-O the statuary the painter
tbe architect the lapidary, the cunning gayer-com-
pared with that interior nature IN whose unfath0mable
depths lie the types OF them a or With tho products OF
that nature In all human converse IN all literature, IN