The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-07-05
Address Of
HON. WILEY p. HARRIS,
Before the Literary Societies, Unlver'
sity of Mississippi, Wednesday,
June 25, 1879.

ternal life of Mississippi. ..u
The changes wrought by events are sui
going on, and it is evident that we have YET
to take on in nearly their full measure, the
reforms by which these changes are to be
met and compensated; and the conditions
are such that your course will be an almost
abrupt departure from Ours-so that you
will be deprived of the benefit of our ex-
perience; for that was gathered under an
order of things which has been discarded,
In this respect, yours will be scant inner
itance indeed, and this invests the clrcum-
stances in which you will be placed, with
so much interest, that having been lett TO
choose the subject of an address, l have
found myself drawn to topics not ordlna-
rily introduced on such an occasion, and
which will rob my discourse OF all acade-
mical flavor.
trust you will not be disturbed by this
glance at the situation. There is nothing
alarming or even discouraging in it. On
the contrary, you are greatly to be envled
for that as part of that wealth OF opportu-
nifty which is in store for the youth of this
day. The progress of knowledge, and de,
veiopment, is such that there is II new world
for each succeeding generation. Most of us
would be glad to accept the situation in or
der to be young and perhaps there are those
who, on account of the situation, would
wish to be young.
Youth is always envied ordinarily for
its buoyant hopes and bounding pulse we
would like to be re-endowed with it for the
sake of existence in its most enjoyable form,
without regard to the surroundings. Now,
however, there is amongst US so much to be
done, and in the world, so much apparently
about to be known, that from more elevated
motives and without loss Of dignity, one
may feel and express the desire to begin life
again, and go with you. There Is almost
consciousness that in the near future, With
in the compass of human life, 1t may be
there is more to be seen and realized than
has been revealed to any former generation.
We begin to deal with the future more by
calculation than by prophecy, and to our
questioning it gives back something more
than an echo of the past; something more
than another unvarying link to the length
ening chain. Science seems about to force
physical nature to give up her secrets so
long withheld, and the revelation seems al
most at hand. Those of US who are COM
PEELED to halt now, feel that it is at the
wrong time. We envy you, therefore, be-
cause YOU are about to receive marching Or
ders, instead.
Again coming back to the place and time,
and to you, there is something powerfully
attractive, as it seems to me, in the thought
that for the young men of Mississippi there
will be from necessity-from the nature of
the duties to be tultilled-a change from
many of the ordinary aims of life as we have
had it here, to something higher The
L. hoy rot
The aspiration will be to make the indi-
vidual career not the less successful put
more fruitful. Before YOU lies the kind Of
work which makes a prosperous and lntiu-
entail commonwealth, and able and useful
men as well, for the work will make the men
and the harder and more difficult the work,
the higher the order Of men. In present.
ing this prospect to you, therefore, point
to an opportunity which, by men of spirit
and ambition, would be welcomed rather
than summed.
You are to be the architects Of new
State. That sounds well. Let us suppose it
to be true, and it is near the truth for
whether the old order of things was right or
wrong, it is enough that it has been utterly
thrust aside, and is to be replaced by some |
thing which, to be altogether good, must be,
in many respects, new. | beg you, there
fore, to consider yourselves us being now in
training to build up and to serve the state.
| don't mean that you are being specially
trained to hold the offices Of the state.
Many of you will deserve to hold the offices
and will doubtless get them. | mean that
you are to serve the State in a broader
sense, as its ardent and steadtast supporters
in every way. You are to bear in mind in
shaping your individual careers, that no |
career, however successful in itself, will be
complete unless it shall have for its aim ;
some of the objects connected with the gen {
eral welfare, or unless it shall promote some :
Of those objects, as every we'll directed life I
them, whatever may the pursuit or
Outside the exercise Of the q
ballot and all strictly political action, and {
outside of official service, there is wide
field in which serviceable homage may be y
rendered to the State and honorable fame
acquired
once had for travelling companion in Il
stage coach man who was by trade a
bridge builder. In the course of cOnversa-
ion, he said: Wherever 90, | carry my ,
State with me-" | supposed he had the !
rms or insignia wrought into badge or i
ONE ornament of the person, but his eX- '
,lanation was, that wherever he happened t
o be, he felt it to be his duty to keep up q
he credit of his State even if the service t
vent no further than good behavior. The :
eminent seemed all the better coming t
rom this plain, unassuming man. True 1t was )
nut as the "mOss that groweth out of the t
VAIL" but it claims kindred with the cea- 5
lars of Lebanon. 1t is just as though 0
when you shall have obtained your degrees a
lere, and are about to go forth, you should I
ay: ave will carry our University with C
Is wherever we 60" You would not mean d
hat YOU would carry off the buildings as t
he Genii carried off Alladin's palace, but 7
hat you would take with you the moral and |
Intellectual culture you received here, and ]
Illustrate it everywhere. 1t is this spirit that c
ill build up and sustain this fine institu- b
ion. How is the light of it to get out or s.
hine out, unless you shall go forth in that r
pirit? The endowment, however ample, the 5,
taft of professors however learned and eff f
lent, these commencement ceremonies and Il
exhibitions however imposing and brilliant, a
o to a certain point only. The young ii
who go out from here, annually, z
re the visible fruit of the University; its il
trength and growth; for what is it that
mparts growth to an institution of learn n
ng? It proceeds essentially from those t.
HON it sends forth, from the pride and Il
everence they manifest for it, their display d,
f scholarship, the stand they take in the u
-orld; which being witnessed, draws gen di
raj regard to the place where they were m
-ained. SO of the State. A broad and m
.rtile territory and goodly frame of gov Il
rnment we have; yet the State will stand p
mere cluster of cotton farms, but for the L
1irit which shall animate her people and al
hich they may display in her service. ly