New-York tribune., 1886-11-09
THE GRAFTON ANDrHE' POEM.
Mr. ,owELps ADDRESS AT HARVARD.

MS ALLUsIoNs TO TIE PAST AND rHnsrN' 'oS'
s,r TIE uNlvxRsiTY-DR. HOLINESS POEM. =,
The oration made by James Russell Lower
A the Memorial Hail OF harvard College is printed IN
sul bcow Following extracts from the poem read
Iy Dr. oliver Wendell Holmes Mr.. Lowell said;
7, an odd anomaly that while respect for and
reference opinions have diminished and are stu senSo
diminishing among the relish OF antiquity should oe more
runrept and the value upon merely because they
arc old in America than anywhere else III
Is merely sentimental relish for ours Is new country IN
more and like children when they are fancy
Ing this that we have TO play very hard In order
10 believe old But we like the game mono the
worse multiply ANNIVERSARIES with honest ZEAL as
we the number of events could
congratulate having happened hundred years There
s something this and is wholesome instinct
quicken consousness OF the forces That are
gathered by and continuity IL teach that re
fast may carey the past cruprer ~
mmovably the black of the Roman poet
The generations braided nexrcaby together and
very Of be countless generations older
than
Ihave sometimes wondered whether faith OF
future existence grew they might be seek
ing equivalent the feeling Of Retrospective duration
that OF their Yet this
tnuance trng and ephemera II the tablets unearhed
and decphered by geology have forced us 10 push back ca
cuaby the birthday OF they have in like proportion I'M
poverished recorded annals making the Pa'onc
year grain Of sand Times hourglass and the
inscriptions Of Egypt Assyria modern yesterdays
newspaper Fancy nutters these vague wastes Ike
butterfly bovn out to place perch ti
put much faith in heredy as seems
reasonable all In some transcendenta
OF primitive and Pytagoras well
present Euphorbus st the OF Troy But
imputed and vcsI1ous longevity though II may DO
operative lives and fortunes valid Offset
days wdens by hairs breadth
horizon OF Man and his monuments are OF
yesterday and however play with onr fancies
must content being young nyouth be a de-
feet 4 1 that outgrow only too soon.
Ruskn said the other day that he could not live in
hadn
imaginative temper find not only charm but nspira
which has adopted her foster
children which Time has laid h hand only in benedc
ton IL is not their antiquity but Its association with man
with such senszng potency. Even the
Landscape sometimes bewches by this pathos OF human
past green pastures and golden slopes England
the inward that the
hand immcmoray Tor and caressed them
The nightingale with prevailing passion In Greece
first heard her from the thckets OF Euripidean
myself felt the working Of this spell so
acuey Of the college quarangles
and costers oxrod and Cambridge conscious with vene
rabe and whose stones happier for be-
The chapel pavement still whispered with the
blessed feet Of that procession of saints and and
poets who world OF light but
the soul from all ignoble
eompanionship.
HOMHsPUN PAST.
Are TO suppose less dear and
gracious whose nstigation this COL
lsge founded than that other Puritan who the
dim light drawn aisles and freted vaults
which Doubtless all these things
present their minds but they ready TO forego
sake OF that truth. whereof Milton OF
himself they members incorporate The ptu contrast
which they between the sanctuares OF
learning behind the watted fold they
the edge OF the wilderness is 10 than
tenderly-it Ia almost sublmely-paIec When think Of
their unpable strength Of their fidelity TO their
ideal faith God and in themselves inclined 10
say, Dome. that
1--WE our fathers shadows cast at noon"
Our past nigh desolate aesthetic stimulus We
have of these aids to the imagination
cogns OF vantage the tendrils OF memory
Not OF older buildings venerable will
Time refuses to console them. They all
look though they business aud nothing more And
II precisely because this college Observation-Disclosures
import-and did that thoroughly
II might with that not nggary except
abundant purpose precisely for this that
gathered to-day We hlther from the
pericnoos Of richer life the who has prcspee re-
turns the household OF hs youth TO hnt its home
ness pulse not Of deeper certainly fonder emotion
splendor could STIR Dear old mother"
plain and the drab silk
been turned again since we saw you You were
constantly forced remind that could not anord to
give that which other boys had but your dis
cpne and diet wholesome and you sent u forth into
the sound constitutions and healthy appetes
that OF simple fare"
1t good for to homespun past Of
ours good OF reckless and prosper
remind how fathers and that we
them because for themselves and their children they
chose wisdom and things OF
other riches This is Founders Day
together to do honor to them ALL First to
which laid next to the
gentle and gody youth from whom We took our nsne-l-
self scarce them to the countless
of benccors rich and who have built US up to
what We cannot do 1t better than In the familiar
praise fanous and fathers that
begai us The Lord hath wrought great glory by them
through great power beginning Leaders OF the
people their counses and by their knowledge OF learning
people, and eloquent their Instructions
nt. .aipdfh fhafl
praises might be reported And there be whicn
have memorial who pershe as though they had never
not forgotten With their seed shall continually remain
good M n9erisnss Their seed sande'h fast and their chill
This hundred and ffeth anniversary of our college
not remarkable as oonmemorang any venerable length OF
days There is hardy country IN Europe that can9o show
was but grammar school With Eaton as master Bologna
tied them GOO We ancient i is our
universities renowned than II is not then prma-
MY the Of our alma % mater upon which we are
3onewhere that the records Of human transactions ac
supreme cosmo otca importance Can we claim for the
birthday We are keeping ssnncance o. 50 wide bearing
ann 80 Sns a, e eyen records and e
ern hemisphere The material growth OF The colonies would
eoSsy IN the fSness Of fms Without that stain Of blood
ouna sss cee
Mew England IRON becoming & mere
intellectual Independence of the old world. That indie
aud not the Of the chetest Of those who have
hastened its coming written on the roll OF Harvard Coege
THE BIRTH OF HARVARD.
foundation OF quite exampled thing
Surely the of such structure
become be laid by a community of
circumstances unprecedented and under what
seemed suen and averted The colony in
danger Indian the hroes OF that Annoman
which threatened its very existence the
leaders opinion both sides united In the resolve
learning and educated clergy shonld
cease from among their descendants the
they building In the midst OF such fears and
tumults. Harvard College born. and not Marina
herself had q busterous birth chiding
nativity provision OF those been clear
steadast. Well they and hal laid
heart the wise Take last hold OF Instruction.
lei her not for she is thy life"
little question that the action OF the General
Court pulse direction the clergy.
qualities OF weldeserved authority Among
the Massachusetts, Bay coOnss the proportion OF ministers
and Cambridge surprisingly large and