Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-07-23
Colby Commencement.

NoiDy commencement
The anniversary of the Literary societies
at Colby took place last evening. poem
was delivered by Hon. Charles Thurber of
Brooklyn. n. Y. The Grafton was delivered
by Rev. q. w. Samson, ID. d., late President
of Columbian University.
The unworked mine of historic tradition in
the State of Maine, whose first settlement be-
gan in 1907, which has always bcena Chinese
wall projecting northward, and shutting of
| first France then Great Britain from the
coast in front of their interior provinces tho
proyerbal pride of Universities in work ing
up such mincs--was made the introduction to
the theme, 'Ttadition."
National and Theological prejudice units
the American for an impartial study Of this
vital subject. But Jesus condemnation of
tradition, which made 1.-THE word OF God OF
none effect" speaks of the abuse of tradition
while Pauls charge in his first inspired letter
written before Matthews first memoir of Je-
sus published, "stand fast and hold the
traditions, which ye have been taught both by
word and our cpiStlc"-this charge should Iii
vest the theme of any prejudgment The cs-
sential meaning Of the word is found in Black
stones law prcccpt- ''adccd takes effect on
" from its tradition or delivery" 4 trad-
ton, in the Latin and Roman meaning of the
| original and also in the cognate Greek as
used from Homer To Paul, is u record of suf-
| ficient value to hC cullcd from unimportant
| reports or records, andto be preserved for flu
| ture generations. This important truth as TO
the nature of tradition, opens up Il practical
and winning view of the sources of human
| knowledge, the cri,rrin OF truth. the schools
! of philosophy, which the reception of trad-
ton compclS every thorough student to mas
ter; while it is a safe guide to educated men
!
questions, discussed in our own as in every
past age. Aristotle in ancient. and Bacon in
modern times. have opened the pathway to
this imperative demand on the student. The
one in his ''Organon." and the other in his
'Novum Organnm," indicates that the three
powers of the mind to he analysed, if We
wond reach truth in tradition are Memory.
Imagination and Reason.
The early sagcs, the chroniclers, the histor-
ans, from such multitarious incidents as
journalists now roll up in their sheets, select
cd those facts worthy to be held in memory
and repeated for coming ages. But the bard.
as Homer, TO win applause and stir men, in
tcrwove into the web of fact guarded by mem
DRY fciions of the Imagination. 1t was the
business of the sage, the philosopher, by rca-
son to separate the one from the other; that
actual truth. valuable in science. politics and
religion, might be attained. In this attempt.
sages of cool, practical turn, contendcd that
the testimony of the senses was the only test
of truth. Thinkers VI rejecting habit replied
that everything seen by the eye changes in
an hour, and 1t is the unseen principle that
rules those changes, attained by intuition
which constitutes real truth. Both these
found flaws in their opponents theories: for
the eye is deceived by appearances in nature;
and intuition may he mere Imagination, and
so illusion on the one hand and deiusion on
the other are to be met. Hence arose in
| succession. as Cousin shows, the four philo-
sophie schools; those of Materialists and
ldealsts; and then of sceptics believing moth
ing and of mystics believing anything. The
true method of science amid this conflict was
shown by truly balanced minds. Men do
believe in the testimony of their impartial
fellows and the jurist is first and the scicn-
fist must be second in the avowal that this is
legitimate. Men are made to see and speak
truth; il is the abnormal, not the normal
condition. when they do not Faith in man
and in the powers that made him. faith in the
senses and the intuitions of reason and con-
science-ths is and has always been the re-
liable guide to truth The careful tracing of
this law of tradition is made to unravel the
intricaces into which Darwin and Javons
Huxley and Mills have led many modern
student in science. They were unravelled in
ancient tunes they may be now.
The thorough study of Burke, of Hume,
of Rousseau and of Volney, will reveal how
the use of reason in adhcrng to political
tradition saved the American Republic from
anarchy and wreck while the describing of
experience in the past for fanciful theories.
brought France to suffer generations of
failure. The truly scientific survey of mod
ern times leads to the fact that while until
1880 the classic treasures of Greece could
not be verified in the land of their tradition
the explorations of Schliemann are connect
ing the hypothesis of Niebuhr. The result
of this thorough study of the law of tradition
is found in the fact that modern explorations
in Palestine have made the mythic theory of
Strauss give place among sceptcs to the epic
theory of Renan; the facts in Christs life
becoming as authentic as those in Washing
toms
Distr al Syr