Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-08-04
INCENTIVES TO SCHOLARSHIP.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Parthe-
nian and Ciceronian Literary Societies
i am not unmindful of the compli-
ment paid or of the honor conferred
upon him who speaks to you tonight,
nor am insensible to the great and in
estimable benefits which attend upon an
earnest and faithful compliance with
the duties and requirements of Associa-
tons like yours.
There is no retrospect of my school
and College days morapleasant, or upon
which I love more to dwell, than those
happy ard halcyon hours, when gather
ed with friends and companions 20 per-
form the duties and enjoy the benefits
attendant upon the Literary Societies
of which have been a member.
The past so fresh in my memory, l
could not decline your fattering invita-
ton to be present with you upon this
Joyous occasion to participate in your
closing exercises, which are graced by
so many smiling faces and sparkling
eyes.
You, at whose invitation am present,
are engaged in the great and important
work of mental culture, and so far as
your earnest and active attention Is CIV
en- to the prosecution of that work, so
far will success crown your efforts, and
so far will you receive the rewards OF
an approving conscience.
When ! remembered this, it occurred
to me that this occasion was suggestive
of no more appropriate theme, than that
of, The Incentives to Scholarship.
To whatever sphere of life we turn,
we find there a continual struggle to
obtain it's henors aud emoluments; and
the Divine command Sin the sweat OF
thy brow shalt thou eat bread has in
every age been evidenced, and has ever
produced much of human wee, as well
as it has marked all of the great tri-
umphs which have graced the rapid
strides of progress and civilization.
This great law Of our being is not
confined alone to the common laborer,
as is so frequently imagined, but its ap-
pllcatlOn eXtenuS 10 I'LL
Effort and action, whether by mind
or muscle, are of the great essentials to
success and happiness in lite, and the
one fact ever stares US in the face that,
come what will, labor we must.
"The Grand Almighty builder
Who fashioned out the earth,
JT..l o+o,S,,.,J bio cnn1 ot honor
On labor from her BIRTH
'Tis toll that over nature
Gives man his proud control,
Puts iron in the muscle
And crystal in the brain.
Life too, in its varied forms presents
many fields in which man is called upon
to put forth his energies, and bench
cent Creator has endowed him with va
ried capacities; some, with a genius by
which the treasures of the deep are
brought to light to glitter upon the
brow of beauty, and by the inspiration
of which the lightning that plays along
the sky is trained to do his bidding.
Others do not possess such lofty powers,
and many, possessing them, by ill-tor-
tune or disinclnation do not develop
them. But most men are endowed with
powers of mind which are susceptible Of
great development and culture, and who
will say that in this favored land of
ours, with the broad door of the school
house and College flung wide open
upon every hillside, and in every valley,
the amplest opportunities are not afford
ed for their development?
Then, endowed as we are with pow
ers and capacities of acting and suffer
ing, which stamp US indelibly, the su-
perior of all created things around US,
and as we have seen that labor we must,
does it not become one of your highest
duties to yourselves, as well as to those
by whom you are surrounded to expand
and develope those mental powers and
capabilities with which the God of ma
ture has endowed you, and to embrace
every opportunity, for so doing which
fortunes favoring hand may place with
in your reach? Aye! and / care not
who it is, let him be recreant to these
great duties, and as time and the tide Of
life roll on, the memory of wasted
hours and lost opportunities will haunt
him in the seasons of greatest JOY and
crush him in the hour Of misfortune.
There is post where duty loves to
dwell and he who fails in life fails be-
cause forgettul of this, like the s!othful
servant, he folds his talent in napkin
and buries il in the earth. Ever then
keep before you the fact that to cult
vate and enrich your minds is one of
the highest duties that you owe to your
selves, as well as to your fellow, and
being SO important and imperative
duty surely, surely you should need no
great incsnfiUe to put forth all your et-
forts for the realization of scholarly at
tainmenL
Nor is it alone duty. Much of the
keenest enjoyment and rarest pleasure
falls to the lot of that man or that wo-
man who goes forth into life with an ed
ucation founded upon the principles OF
a true philosophy, with aspirations for
something higher, with the faculties
and energies of the mind cultivated and
developed, and with determination to
hold aloft the lamp of truth that its pen
etrating rays may dispel the darkness
and lay bare the hideous deformlty OF
falsehood and error
You have heard of the ecstatic de-
light of that philosopher of old, when,
after great thought and deep study, the
L. h4,