The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-02
LA SALE COLLEGE.

The Annual Commencement-Ad to
the Graduates by John r. O'NeilI, Esq.
At the annual commencement of La Sale
College, held last evening at the Academy of
Music, John P. O'Neill, Esq, made the fol-
lowing address to the graduates-
Gentlemen Graduates: the degrees
and honors just conferred upon you the
scholarship of La Sale ceases. You are as
sembled tonight, as they were of old in the
temples of Olympia, to receive the laurels of
the victor. High honors, proud distinctions
to be carefully carried by you throughlife. With
them the rivalries of the class cease, ambi-
ton wears its wreath. The little cares, too,
that now and then have vexed you, are lulled
to rest forever. These, as Eneas said to his
companions, you may delight hereafter to re-
MEMBER
"Forsan ct hoec olim meminisse juvabt"
AS children who leave their home to trythe
fortunes of the world, you are about to part
yours, this, the school of the mind. Fondly
must you ever cherish the memory of Alma
Mater, the fair nurse of your thoughts, the
guide of your reason. Well, indeed, will it
be if you carry with you the lessons she has
taught, and preserve that discipline to which
she has trained you. Safely will they guide
you through the trials and adventures of life,
as Mentor did of old the youth of Ithaca. Her
eye and her heart will ever follow you. Your
success will be to her the harvest of her own
hope. To each of you she has given his por-
ton, which, with care, can never decrease,
through all the treacheries of fortune. Your
own industry can add to it. She has given
you the power of acquiring true wealth, the
wealth of knowledge. What greater treasure
could she have given you? Theft cannot
take nor cheat abstract it from you. By it
you will prosper in life, and when you die
tho piety of the grave will give you the
deathless namo of which Horace sang.
''Non omns morar; multaque pars mel
VitaDit Libitinam."
Her great care has been to fit you for the
world, that you should occupy with honor the
places you are to fill, and discharge with
fidelity the duties you are to assume. Hence
she has unbosomed to you the secrets of art,
carefully withdrawn the veil from the very
temple of science, and offered you as votaries
to be blessed by its divinity. How tenderly
has she led you through the old and rich nur-
series of literature, where labor like the
flower, has its blossom, and the sunshine of
genius its fruit!
fused, she has given you the hopes and pro-
missed distinctions of the scholar. Cherish it
forever. Without study you are as the rough
and rugged soil, untouched by culture. By
it alone can the mind, like the quarry by
labor, be enriched. Without it are unopened
the deep mines of thought, where lie the
treasures of learning.
What is the canvas without its artist, or the
| marble without its sculptorp What is there
to care for in the barren and unblasted rock?
Labor alone can give il those features of life
for which it is priced. What the strings of
the Thracian Tyre without the touch of
| Orpheus? Aristotle tells us that education is
to the mind as the sculptor is to the block of
| marble.
Gentlemen Graduates:-f, now that your
| collegiate course is ended, you can say that
| you have learned how to study, we'll indeed
have you spent your time, and richly have
you been rewarded. 1t is then with your
selves to acquire knowledge. Genius, no
matter how brilliant, effects but little without
persistency of purpose and steadiness of
labor From the dust of the Isthmean did
the victor of old pick up the pine leaf, or the
wild olive cut with the golden sickle To ac-
quire learning you must labor.
| ''Nil sine magno, vita lahore dedit mortalibus."
Over rough and rugged ways is it to be
| sought. To iG there is no royal road, as
Euclid said to his imperial pupil. Let not
sloth deceive or divert you from the pursuit.
Listen not to its voice. Like the song of the
sirens, its music is death.
Be chaste, too, in the learning that you ac-
quire. Do not debauch the mind with that
|
the fountain of pure streams. The NymPh
and the Naiad will lead you to the groves and
the springs where thought is divine and Ian.
gusge inspired. purer style cannot be
formed than on the models you have been
studying. They have been preserved foi
you through all the revolutions of time, acci
dent, and change. Avoid scribblers; scribbine
is the malady of our day, and is hard to be
cured. Forget not the satire of JuveRal:-
''Tenet insanabie multos scribsndi cacOthes."
Printing is great art; and as great bless
ing. Never use it to diffuse Ignorance OF
propagate error.
Gentlemen, with the light of tomorrow
the dreams of the schoOlboy will pass away
and you will look upon the world where yor
will have to choose pursuits. Lose not {
moment in seeking that place for which yoI
are best fitted.
Make good use of time, as its colder
stream sweeps by you, for like the torrent i
cannot stop. Think of the beautiful words o
Ovid
"Neque enim consistere humen,
Nee Lewis hOra protest"
Let not ambition beguile you, and, rs thu
clown in Horace, stand by the river till il
waters have passed, and die without having