The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-06-12

The President of the United States will
reach West Point to-day to attend the regu-
lar annual exercises with which the gradu-
ating class OF cadets are launched for their
life voyage in the military profession. 1t
is wise to make such occasions festive. For
the same reason that q festive christening
makes domestic life more beautiful and
hopeful, for the same reason that bright
and joyous wedding is an "islet OF the
blessed" which irradiates the future with
hope. and to which memory will fondly
recur in after years, it is helpful and
beautiful to start the fedgling officer
or the young bachelor of arts with
sufficient pomp and parade to impress him
with sense Of the value of his privileges
and of the interest which not merely his
family and personal friends but the COM
munity at large feel in his success. Trite
as the maxim is that moblesse oblige it is one
of the most useful in the whole circle Of
''wise saws" Make young graduates feel
how much is expected of them in conse-
quence Of their education, their opportuni-
ties and the partial expectation of their
friends, and you supply one of the most
efficient incentives for honorable exer-
ton to satisfy the sympathetic hopes
manifested on these educational occa-
sions. The parade, the oratory, tho
plaudits, the interest manifested on these
beautiful occasions, cannot fail to have an
inspiring and ennobling influence on in
genuous young men whose launch in life is
thus covered all over with bright and gayly
futtering flags and cheered by the applause
of host of favoring spectators.
The enlivening commencement season
OPPORTUNITY opens with the exercises Of
our great national institution OF West Point.
This beautiful, leafy month of June, when
Nature has put on her most attractive garb,
is fit time for inaugurating the
season of college commandments, and
nowhere is Nature dressed out to
such advantage in this lovely month
as amid the highlands of the noble
and historic Hudson. It is fortunate on
other grounds that West Point leads the
way in these annual observances. In some
respects the Military Academy is better
suited than any other institution to be a
model Of sound education. The Military
Academy is not dependent on the whims or
caprice OF patrons. The young men who
do not come up to its standard are either
dropped or put back into the class of pre-
ceding year, and its professors are SO indie
pendent that they never p. actise any shams.
Its anti-humbug tendencies form the most
useful part Of its example. Its whole in
huence is on the side of honest education.
Its example in this respect is worth
the whole cost Of the institution, aside
from the specific benefit it confers in sup
plying the army with body Of thoroughly
educated officers. Harvard and Yale are,
perhaps, equally independent Of popular
caprice, though in different way. Their
reputation has become SO fully established
and is SO great and commanding that they
can fix.their own terms Of admission, and,
to their credit be it spoken, they are con-
stantly raising their standard year by year.
The minor colleges, whose name is legion,
must be more or less affected by the anti.
humbug examples of West Point, Harvard
and Yale, and there is good reason for
hoping that our institutions of learning
will constantly grow in usefulness and eff
cheney.