Ellsworth American., 1874-08-06
Address Of Dr.. Robins, President Of
Colby University, TO the Graduating
Class.
Young GeRttemen

Young GeRttemen
Your college DAYS have passed. You
are upon the threshold OF a new life. II
Is nv duty, In behalf OF the intellectual
mother that ha. nourished YOU, TO bid
You farewell. ana Godspesd. I need
not assure you that nav heart will
prompt the words which shall utter ia
discharge of this duty. Our relations,
during the year just closing, have been
such NJ To give me personal interest in
each one of you. sympathize with
YOU in the hopes aud lear, with which
YOU stand to-day under the shadowy
portal Of that unknown future into
which Won are about 20 enter. Trials
await you, which, TO q degree that you
cannot now estimate. will tax To their
utmost every power of body and mind
aud heart, and this just in proportion to
the value of your service to the world.
An easy life is necessarily a useless life.
Life oil earth, indeed, is but the testing
time OF men in which it is determined
OF what sort they are with reference to
an endless existence. 1t should be ac-
cepted as such with thankfulness cour.
age and hope. BY your course here, you
are presumed to be better fitted for the
varied experiences which lie before you
than you otherwise would have been.
Let me suggest in few particulars of
counsel how you may profit most by the
culture you have here received.
First. Be students. The true aim of
a college course, is not 30 much to COM
municate knowledge, essential though
this Is admitted to be as subsidiary to u
higher end. as to train men in those
habits Of mind which are necessary to
the acquisition acknowledge. Of The time
given TO me here 10 SO short, that it is
impossible to enter even the border
lands OF vast realms OF thought. If,
then, we proposed to ourselves, az our
chief and controlling purpose in con-
Quoting your education here, to store
your minds with facts, simply, we must
necessarily have failed. But If, on the
other hand, you have been trained
to study if your mental faculties have
been disciplined for hard and persistent
intellectual work; if you have become
profoundly impressed with the truth
thst what may be known by you, 10 as
vast outlying continents vet TO be ex-
plored il the sacred thirst for learn ing
has been kindled within you,-then our
aim has been attained. Irepeat, there
lore, De StudentS,-be students for life.
=" do not know" said Sir Isaac New
ton, after his most brilliant and sublime
discoveries IN the realms Of science, I"
what may appear to the world, but to
myself seem only like = boy playing Oh
the seashore, and diverting myself BY
now and then fLding a pebble, or .
pre:tier shell than ordinary. while the
great ocean of truth lies all undi scoyeresl
before me-" Many Z man, who has start.
ed in life with the advantages which you
have enjoyed, has been distanced in the !
race by others less favored, because, on |
leaving college, he ceased to bea student. |
Secondly. Be stxae~ts rot simply
for tie sake of fknosOledge, but of action.
"Al knowledge" says Lord Bacon,
4" is to be referred to use aud action.' He
who acquires learning purely for the
self qualification of knowing, il a miser
as really as he who accumnlaees wealth
only for the sake Of possessing Il; more
over, there is, to use . phrase With
which you have become familiar in Your
recent studies, . certain mstter-of-fact-
ness which charactetizes the age In
which We live.o Men will demand of |
you not 20 exacG1bgly, what do you
know Z - what cas yoa do : Said to me
. gepAsman who y atthe bead Of the !