The Portland daily press., 1870-07-15
Reported for the Press.l
commencement at GOrh ann :.
SECOND DAY.

Thursday, $50 a. NJ, prayers. The class in
languageslthen was then examined by Mr.. A.
L.. Dresser, of Portland. From 8 40 to TO- 30,
Buffers Analogy of Religion, conducted by
Rev. Messrs. Thwing and Parker. The exam
ination was thorough and satisfactory, and
Waterman, Col. Robe and others of the Trus,
tees were present The class in Greek and
thosei in Graphics, under Mr.. Irish and Mrs
Cruttenden, were then examined.
The exercises in the afternoon were complet-
ed according to the programme published yes
terday, but we reserve remarks upon them I'M
til tomorrow. After music, Rev, E. Payson
Thwing, the newly appointedlProiessor of Elo-
cution, spoke as follows:
We have gathered here, my friends, from
city and village, from along the hillside and
the sea, once more around these affairs of
Minerva long ago consecrated to the service of
sound learning. These long, midsummer days
OF beauty aid verdure, bringing their train of
literary festivals, remind us of the undscharg-
ed debt we owe to those honored men who in
"the midnight of the year" came to New Eng
land with the seeds OF that mighty tree under
whose sheltering boughs we and our fchildren
rest. l know no more fitting theme to occupy
our thoughts to-day, than this grateful review
of the features of New England Civilization,
as they stand related to cause of good letters in
our land.
Pericles in his panegyrie of the Greeks who
fell in the first Peloponesian war, remarked
THE whole earth is the sepulchre of the Illus
trious dead" And where does history open
brighter pages than those which record the
names of our Bradfords, and Brewsters, and
Winthrops, and Winslows, pioneers of liberty,
and patrons of good breeding? 1t is no small
privilege for us to possess the history of Puri-
tan civilization, the record of their lives and
deeds, the principles they enunciated and the
coincidents which disting uished them. A
study of these is especially needed now when
so many deteriorating elements are incOrpor-
atiDg themselves into our social and national
life. The speaker then stated four leading fea-
lures of.our ancestral history ;Ithe sturdy, mas
culine morality exhibited by our fathers; their
devotion to the cause of sound learning; their
unconquerable love of liberty and their high
religious conservation. He urged the students,
especially the graduating class, to cultivate
high style of thought and living, broad SYM
pathy and genial culture, SO that this institu-
ton may be honored by them, and theylbe not
unmindful OF its prosperity but proud to write
as Virgil did on his funeral urn:
Mantua me genuit.
To the Trustees Prof T. pledged what OF
thought and effort he could give to the depart
ment to which he had been called and express
ed the hope that the principles he had now dis
cussed would ever mark the characters here
moulded, over whose education they were call
ed to preside. AS Thomas Arnold said of Rug
by, SO it may be said here, at is not necessary
that this institution should graduate three
hundred or one hundred or fifty, but it is nee.
essary that those who do graduate shall be
Christian gentlemen.
In the evening the exercises were gone
through at the church and the diplomas pre-
scented to the graduates by Rev. DR.. Parker
Of these closing performances We shall have
something to say in to-morrow's paper.