Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-06-09


a higher cause than any other which
man can embrace, and we earnestly
hope for him series of those blood
less victories which the Christian
minister gains with Gods help over
moral and spiritual evil.
JOSEPH r. WEST, ",Sttperstition."
Religion based on a principle of ter
ror rather than love was the essay
lists definition of the commoner
forms of superstition, those which
have produced the most memorable
effects in the history of nations. He
quoted the bloody rites and ferocious
government ofthe Druids; the saw
age wars and relentless prosecutions
of the middle ages, all melted by
the more malignant forms of super
stitutiOn to which even princes and
rulers were compelled to submit
and then pointed out how with adj
vancing civilization not only did
true religion take the place of SUI
perstition, but superstition itself as
sumed less and less malignant forms.
One of the instances of superstition
was the logged resistance to the in
PRODUCTION of Christianity offered by
the Aztees in Mexico to CorteZ; in
this case we could have wished that
the speaker had balanced his narra-
tive by counter statement of the
fT0TFii bic barharity of CorteZ hi,2-.ss..-c
and his companions in his mission
airy MISUNDERSTANDING come in
for their share of notice. And his
peroration elOquently described the
fading away of all these baleful ter
rors before the healing dawn of true
religion.
IA. WEBB: "I3qth." TaJedicto-
ry. Mr.. Webb made that portion
of his address which related to his
chosen subject brief and gave his
main attention to the Office of vale
diction imposed upon him by his
success in standing first upon the eX-
animation lists.
He spoke of Truth which was the
natural object of human intellect;
thought, he said, was as essential to
mans immaterial nature as the
functions of respiration and circu-
lation to the physical structure, and
truth was as needful to it as the air
of heaven is to the lungs. His de
livery of the valedictory was the
most interesting we have ever heard.
His voice, countenance and manner
all evinced a highly sensitive ma
ture, and nOOnewhO listened to him
could doubt that all he said came
straight from the heart. His fare
well words addressed respectively
to the hospitable people of Clarks-
vile, to the students he was to leave
behind him, to those whose course
was completed at thesame timewith
his, and to the College faculty,
fell on sympathetic hearts and all
were moved with sentiments of es-
TEEN for the speaker and regret for
his departure.
After the delivery of the diplomas
to the above gentlemen few part
ing words were addressed to them
by the Rev. J. L. Girardeau.
He said that he knew of but two
qualifications he possessed for his
duty-those of sympathy with
youth and the experience of adj
vanced life. Not to multiply words,
he desired to impress upon them one
counsel only: to seek and shake
hands with truth wherever they
might meet it. In the eager pursuit
or rIS4., isI0e~s, anu tIIe complete free
dom with which that pursuit is
prosecuted, he remarked that men
frequently found themselves face to
face with other seekers, both parties
being convinced that they We're
cOntending for the truth he be-
lieved that, in most such cases, both
possessed some fraction of the truth,
and that truth was likely to be the
most valuable to each which he
could derive from the teaching of
his antagonist.