The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1869-09-01
ADDRESS OF COM. M. F. MAURY,
To the Graduating Class of the Vir-
GINA Military Institute.
DELIVERED JULY I'd, 1869.
yell try the warld soon my lad,
And Andrew, dear, believe me,
Yell find mankind and unco' squad,
And nuke they may grieve you.

You have requested me, gentlemen
of the graduating class, to give You
few parting words of advice. Consid-
ering the people to which you belong;
the Christian principles and moral vir-
tues which have been instilled into you
at home the precepts that have been
taught you here and the examples that
have been set before you by yourteach-
ers and professors in the daily walks
of life; might content myself by sim
ply reading the advice given by Burns
to young friend, from which have
snatched a couplet to attract your at
tention, with the hope that you will
read it at leisure, and profit by it also.
Butyou desire something ftresher t..;un
that, and agree with you in this; forI
think that the time, the occasion, and
the circumstances by which we are sur
rounded, all call for something spe-
cial.
You are about to turn over new
leaf in life's history, and to commence,
each one of you, upon stage as wide
as the world, to enact your part in the
great drama. What that part shall be
depends mainly upon your own choice.
As to the hrilliancy of the performance,
that depends not a little upon the OPP
portunity but for its real merits it will
depend chiefly upon the resolves which
you may write upon that newly turned
leaf, and upon the fidelity with which
you may carry them oat. What these
resolves should be are suggested by the
cardinal virtues and dictated by the
golden rule. 1t is needless for me to
repeat them to you.
The course of training through which
you have just passed is peculiar and
cminently practical. 1t is admirably
adapted to fit you for the duties of life,
and like men in real earnest, you want
to know how best to turn it to account
and reap to the full all the advanta-
ges Of it.
First, then, that you may have a
proper conception of those advantages,
and know exactly where. You are, let
me ask you, my yonng friends, what
have you been doing here these three
or four years9
/ fancy the answer is instinctively
upon the lips of some, to be senten-
tiously expressed in three words: ''Fin,
ishing our education"
Pardon me, gentlemen, you havs
been no more finishing your education
here than you have been fighting bet
ties on dress parade. You have beer
laying the foundations for education
and so far, like those soldierly bearings
drills, and exercises, which have 81
much excited cur admiration, and woI
our kindest admiration, and won on
kindest sympathy for you, and which
rebound so much to Your credit ant
the honor of your Alma Mata, you
work has been done well. Your edu
cational foundations have been lait
broad and deep, and under the supervi
sion and the guiding hand of skillfn
masters. They have cost you mucl
labor, time and study and unless yo
build upon them they will surely, in
few years, be like other foundation
that have been neglected. They vii
be filled with the rubbish of time, an
checked, as the garden of the sluggar
with the weeds of idleness; so that in
few years the materials--the yer
prineiples--and even The names of tn
text books and the fashion of the quar-
ries from which you gathered them
will be lost to memory. This will surl
happen unless you continue to wor
and to build upon what yon have don
here.
What. then, some may be ready. t
ask, "Are our studies never to end
We are disposed to do with our book
as Macbeth would do with the physic.
Are the ,iibors of the husbandman &
an end when he puts his seed into til
crountlP or the builders when the COZ
ner-stone of the house is laidY An
why should You expect, after plantin
or placing corner-stones, to be exemp
from the labors of supefstructure, or {
culture and tillageP Because you hav
!! laid corner stone of polished marbl
lis your task done Will the super
structure grow On the contrary,
is. just ready for the real work. Tb
character of your studies us you engag
in the battle of life will be changed
but you will be. learners still; therefor
there mast he 10 relaxation as to in
tensity of application; Tor whatever b
the speciality you may fancy most, 80
can neither excel nor shine in you
calling, or even win the respect of tll
goods, unless you master it in all il
details, for remember, that the ment'
activity of the world is such that a
the arts, all the departments OF huma
knowledge, oil theayocations of hnma