The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-30


certificate of the Auxiliary Faculty of Medicine
was awarded to Thomas Sozinsh Smith; the homo
rary degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy was conferred
upon Professor c. A. Young, Professor OF Astronomy
in Dartmouth College; and the honorary degree of
Doctor OF Divinity was conferred upon Rev. Beall NJ
Smucker.
Another fine strain of music and the exercises
concluded with
The Valedictory, by H. G. Ward, ESQ.
Henry G, Ward, the valedictorian, after paving
handsome compliment to the Faculty and the Board
Of Trustees Of the University, addressed his fellow
The true character of college life as the era of
preparation, the time for the formation OF character
which conditions alike the future manhood aud the
future man, is too little appreciated. Students who
should be training themselves for great thngs often
act a gardener who, having sowed precious
seed, let's the bake the earth hard about IT, and
the weeds grow thick around it, expecting that by
some marvellous freak it shall shoot up strong aud
beautiful an exception to the laws of nature aud to
the conditions or its true existence Youth and
manhood are two stages not related in the way of
consecution alone but so intimately blended that
manhood with its glory or its shame, depends
almost entirely on the youth of which 1t is merely
the development. Neglect this al-important fact as
you may, hereafter when you consider the successes
and failures of your life, you will trace them with
the certainty OF intuition to the axioms which you
assumed in your youth.
We ourselves write down our futures in the book
which we ignorantly call the book OF Fate. While
in your college course do your duty without fear.
Cultivate mental strength and moral rmness and you
grasp the elements of manhood in your youth. This
is not only moral-t is polite; this Is not only re-
ligion-it is prudence; this is not only the command
OF the Gospel-it is the wisdom Of the world.
In these years OF preparation you may neglect the
laws still. You may forget the future, but the fu
ture will come; and when you have emerged from
a course that once seemed long enough TO err and
amend in a thousand times, you will look back and
see, do that those few years were shaping the
conduct OF your lives. PGlete.
And to you, my classmates, come last of all, to
say Ude over the ties and associations which have
Crept around our hearts and to bid them farewell
forever: to vail the irrevocable past, and
to bid you look forward into the future determined
to make your new commencement with new i'm
pulses and higher resolutions.
Though sad occasion, Ii s one on which we may
drop good seed into our hearts, chastened by the
sorrow that accompanied our new-bought freedom
There is no more tender nor more humane passion
than the regret man feels at relinqushing those
persons or things which time and association have
made part of his nature. Including every variety
of sorrow and love, this feeling has within its COM
pass the sweetest and richest chords of the heart
And these are the chords which rudely
struck to-day. Those who for years have met to-
gether, those who have shared the same toll, the
same pleasures, the same palms, separate to-day to
meet again only by chance and each to enter new
and different sphere. The connections and relations
of college life are severed, and feel void within
u.s. void which hungers to be filed but which never
can be really satisfied till have eaten of the Tree
of knowledge and the Tree OF Life. Of the first we
have already tasted, and to-day it shall be mine to
point you to that other tree which can add to know
ledgeLfe. The days OF our fellowship are gone and
the heart invOluntarly demands-"Is it all over ?'
Our youth is passed. and we ask-"Is 1t dead for
ever?" No, no. my classmates; four years are gone
but the fruits of those years are stored within
the acts of those years become part of our
nature-are entered into our souls. How bitter the
retrospect TO MIN VINO can 0Ok DaCk ana admit tnat
they have made him no nobler, no purer To
such an one this day should give new heart and
new goal. The day which introduced us to life is
fit one to fill our souls with the resolution to for
sake those crooked paths which most be trod with
bleeding feet and aching hearts for those higher
walks which with toll bring satisfaction and to
whose wayfarers, when night cometh down, "He
gveth His beloved sleep"
We may look back upon our college course and
find every possible element OF life and chara cter.
Each has been tested in youth, and experience
points out those necessary to successful manhood.
We have found that steady application is the con-
dition of solid attainment; that chcanery and de-
ceit may mislead for season. but in the end come
posure and remOrse We have learned that an honest
appreciation OF every mans work crushes that
jealousy which bettles its posst without nurinp
Its object and, finally, we have learned that the
sire to make others happy and ourselves contented
| is the true love of our feow-men-the genuine
! philanthropy. Let us, then, enter upon tho
great highway OF life, cast away those elements Of
character which only weigh us down, and resolve
to keep that clear conscience and stout heart which
| even after life of trial and disappointment may
| make our motto our epitaph:-
"Ad astra per aspera."
have spoken of the future because 1t is to be met
and because, had spoken Of the past, | could have
uttered no greater, no truer eulogy than that We
have lived together and now separate without envy
| hatred, or dispute. And now, my classmates, WI
| part for the hrsC time When we meet again in the
battle of life may the old spirit OF 20 make younl
once more and when the last name upon our rOl
| shall be marked ''absent," may the whole class o
20 meet In that Eternal Chapel where no roll shal
| again shall be uttered the word-Valete!