The Portland daily press., 1876-07-13
BY TELEGRAPH.
MATTERS in MAINE.
BOwdOin Commencement.
Annual Meeting of the Alumni
Association.
Grafton of DR.. HilI-Meeting of the
Boards The Concert.
Especial to Press.1

o'clock this morning, Prof. Egbert G. Smyth
OF Andover, presiding. The Treasurer of the
Association, Prof. J. B. Sswall, made his re-
port. from which it appears that the receipts
for the year have been $652.56; expenditures,
$646.38; balance in the treasury, $608. The
total debt on Memorial Hall is S6,S35.77. Va
rious plans were suggested for freeing the as
ISOLATION from the debt, but the following offer
ed by Prot. Sewall was adopted: ga Memo
rial Fund Association shall be formed, its OBJ
ject being to create fund for the payment of
the interest upon the debt for Memorial Hail.
and to this end we agree to pay annually, on or
before commencement day. beginning with
this day, July Is, 1876, to the treasurer of the
Alumni Association, the sums set to cur
names.''
On motion of Mr.. Northend of Sale m, it was
voted that last years request for the college to
pay for the use of Memorial Hall, be renewed
this year.
The following list of officers was elected for
the ensuing year.
President-Prof. Egbert G. Smyth of Ando-
yer.
ce-President-Hon. W. D. Northend of Sa-
lem.
Secretary and Treasurer-Prof. Fl. S, Chap
man of Brunswick.
Executive Committee - John Marshall
Brown of Portland, Hon. 7. w. Hyde of Bath
and alfred Mitchell, M. D., Brunswick.
Rev. r. b. Howard was chosen Chaplain and
s. G. Boardman, Marshal.
The trustees and overseers met in the fore
noon and transacted some considerable bust
ness, but little of which is of public impor-
tance. Various committees were appointed
and the finances of the college discussed. The
boards approved very highly of the idea of
Prof. Carmichael in establishing school f
instruction in the sciences to continue through
the summer, and granted him the use of the
necessary rooms and apparatus for the school.
1t was voted to pay the salaries Sept 3Oth,
Dec. 31st, March 31st and June Both of each
year.
1t was voted to establish professorship of
modern languages to be called the Longfellow
professorshp in honor of Prof. H. w. Long
fellow.
On recommendation of the medical faculty
the following persons received the degrees of
M. d..
John Lang Bennett, Josiah Peet Bixby,
Roscoe Ellsworth Brown, Hiram Rand Corson,
James Craig, Thomas de la Cour des Brsay,
Irving Ellis Kimball, George Willard Libby,
ae bas4 eo McapMshn George Frank Merrill
ton, Frank Alvin Rogers, William Luther
Sampson, Albert Linscott Stanwood, Gerge
Lamb Simpson, William Hillman. Sylvester,
Walter LESLEY Turner, Abram Gnllerimo
Wendell, Jacob Bracket Wentworth, William
Asa Wheeler,
Voted, That in case of vacancy in the
medical faculty or the failure of any lecturer or
professor to perform the duties as
signed to him, the medical faculty have power
to appoint lecturers for next course.
More business will coma hafora tho Roa ride in
the morning.
The base ball nine played an exhibition
game with the Eclectrics of Brunswick in the
morning, defeating them by score of 70 to s.
The alumni were much interested and pleased
with the nine.
In the afternoon at 3 o'clock, the alumni,
headed by the band, marched from the chapel
to the church. The chaplain offered prayer
and then followed DR.. Hills grafton.
The orator began by acknowledging his debt
of gratitude, owed for nearly half a century,
to Professor Cleveland, and for more than
a third of century to Professor Longfellow
of Bowdoin, for their stimulus and help to
him, one in the pursuit of science, the other
in the appreciation of belles-lettres. From
this he passed to a consideration of the two
great divisions of human knowledge, Science
and Philosophy; Science dealing with Time
and Space, and the universe of matter float
ing therein; while Philosophy deals with
thoughts, emotions, and purposes, either as dis
played in human words and actions, or as dis
played in the dealings of the Higher Power
which has created and which rules the world.
Dr. Hill then glanced for moment at the two
different modes in which every topic, both in
Science and in Philosophy, may be approached
the one mode seeking only an intellectual ap :
prehenson of the theme; the other practical
mastery for the uses of life. Returning then
to the comparison between Science and Phil
osophy, he said that he thought great danger
threatened our modern education; the danger
of exalting Science and forgetting that she
has no value nor dignity except as the hand
maid of Philosophy.
Apologizing for quoting st. Paul in sense
not intended by st. Paul, he said, "that is not
first which is spiritual, but that which is nat
uraI, and afterwards that which is spiritual"
Ralph Waldo Emerson says that every natural
fact is symbol of some spiritual fact and
language consists of figures of speech living
or FOSSIL: The obvious corollary was that
man is able to express himself in proportion
to his knowledge of the facts of nature To
nal nature was the grand object of physical
science, but if that object were made the ulti-
mate end, it at once lost all dignity and grand
eur. To say, that the sole object of Science is
to discover the uniformities of external nature;
that the sole religion and morality of a man
enlightened by science is the endeayor to ad-
just his life to those uniformities, was euuiya-
lent to saying that there is no meaning in the
book OF nature; that we may analyze and
parse her language but not understand its i'm
port. And this was equivalent to saving that
there is no science possible; that all which we
can attain is empirc laws. But the true aim
ct Science was not simply to discover the uni
formites of nature, it was to discover their
conformity to ideal laws. He affirmed that
the great questions of efficient and final cause
were even to the present day the most fruitful
source of scientific discovery.
Moreover, said he, when Science is regarded
as mere empiIicism, as mere recording of the
uniformities of nature and condensing those
records into the briefest formula of expression,
1t ceases to have any high intellectual value
and interest. In the presence of the Intinits
all finites are zero; and if Science does not
unfold to us the thoughts of the Infinite God,
and show us that our minds have been made
in the image OF the Almighty; if she is sim
ply busy with the modes of motion in few
million tons of matter-then she is nothing
and doing nothing; let her be given over to
the satire of Swifts Voyage to Laputa and
to the contempt of johnson in the Rambler
A!phonso might we'll ridicule the epcycles of
of the heavens; but when modern science
shows that the ancient astronomer has been
unconsciously reproducing very nearly the
mechanism which gives the human hand and
fingers their perfect freedom-those epicycles
are invested with new and transcendent dig
nifty as showed the likeness of Hipparchus to
his Creator.
Science was ever reverently seeking to un-
fold the harmonies of creation; to discover
the logical connection, the co-existence and
wisdom of the Divine Thought on which the
universe is built. The triumphs of Science
were the inheritance of the race; the fullest
benefits were reserved for those who had
catholic sympathy.with sacrifice workers. But
the benefits were lost to those whose attention
was SO absorbed in the work of science as to
make them forget the end for which that
work is undertaken
The speaker thought man would be ant to
treat himself as that which he conceived him
self to be; and illustrated it by the case Of a
man whose brain had been injured by dissipa-
ton, and called himself poor dog until he
thought he was one and began to bark inces.
sanity. So let a man think himself an acci.
dental result Of molecular forces, tossing
blindly for millions of ages, perishinq When