New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-06-23
SERMONS TO COLLEGIANS
PRESIDENT DWIGHT AT YALE.
rHSC WHICH is PARTIAL AND THAT WHICH IS
PERFECT

anniversary sermon and spoke words OF ia'e~on :.
the young men who are the frs' 10 oo ii
under his regime. The text was ooriI''i's a.,
s.1a and in the course Of his sermon DR.. Dwight S"u
1.-THE two chief words Of these verses are love anu
tnowledce-the one designating the central 1orce o
ihn sopIs life: the other indicating that which ''c
MIND takes 10 itself and makes its most valuaoie pos
session. The thoughts suggested by INC He,So9 "
connection with these words are thousho> Va w
feet and that which is partial Especially sisnhca'
Is the lesson Of the text for company OIL earhes. anu
honeful voung men, whose term Of preparatory educ@
on "a ending lust as their youth is opening INTO inc
man,v wears For them the questions OF value anu
proportion, Of the greatness or bitterness vi "H
awaits their choice. OF tho proofs tnal TIC Is "'''
living and the reasons why 1t Is worth h'i"e' al.
questions which the critical reason now NscheS' anu
now RAPIDLY passing forces upon the MIND On inc
right or wrong answer TO these questions the iuVuc
IN all that is o1 highest importance 10 the man ana
his manhood will depend. The seriousness OF tne
hour makes every man In such company quc'
tioner The tenderness Of the hour disposcs MIN W
listen for the answer. 1t seems fitting, therefore, NY
voune friends Of the graduating class, that the iat
words which the university addresses TO You as you
leave It's walls should DO the words OF these verses
Tho csson OF the text is which for us Is OF WHO
reach relating TO knowledge OF every thouem ana
having no reference to the special gifts winch are
NOW, unknown Yet II Is the same lesson. our
knowledge but partial. 1t Is not the perfect or INC
greatest thing What is the impression upon your
minds today In review Of the years. Is il not that
the beginnings enigmas, which. as you s"Ved
Them revealed to you only some minor things ID
which moro must be added In order to make SV'No
its true purpose for the mind1 This Is the oiuc' ="
knowing We lay hold upon ono requirement ana
as soon it is find that 1t points 70 alo'cr
as essential, not only to It's completeness on' even
TO its living force the power for further kho"lnb'
We are at the step of the alphabet always because
we arc gaining at each new step of our course only
that which we may use element IN larger gains
The acquisition Of to-day is but the Instrument VI
tomorrow You stand at this hour my young
friend, at the end, but YOU also stand at the pee-
ming In your halfway thinking, and in the con
sciousncss which you have of manly power, you may
look upon yourself for some passing moment as pos
,csscd of knowledge which is allsuiclent and which
will enable you to be victorious in your career But
this is not your deepest thought As the seriousness
Of your manhood comes upon you and the response
bhty of life seems to open before Your vision, You
realize that the season Of your education mas gwen
YOU only the implements and the elementary things
You know that your life is to be made what it ought
be and what you hope it will become only as you
press on beyond these things and use them as the
means OF securing what Is beyond. The education Of
the early years does not give knowledge In the fuii
sense Of the word 1t gives the survey Of the field
Of knowledge and the impulse and the inspiration to
60 forward In 1t.
Let us look, however, AT tnc SuQReSlOn Nlu WHICH
the Apostle urged this thought upon lis readers. lie
looking toward the thought that knowledge, grow
Ing and great it might be in itself was nevertheless
secondary thing compared with love. The noble
conception OF the writer moves within the sphere OF
oducati0n and development. The figure OF the child
in his thought has twofold suggestion in H. 1t sets
ian The idea of the partial and imperfect indeed, but
Il also shows that this is part Of the perfect You
may trace your own individual history, so far
IL nd
BEE how CLOSELY the present is bound to the past.
40 links of the chain reach back 10 the earliest things
Tho progress has been by single step To
those who have watched your growth more closely
tllai has been possible for you to do the fact IS
sun moro manifest They reioiced yet more than
yourselves in the first attachments. they foo
Nv at the onset more clearly than you could that
in them was involved the possibility and hope OF tho
future. IL Is for this reason that we sometimes speak
c Tie acquisition of ones native language In the very
earliest season of lie being half of our entire
etucaton. 1t seems but little thing as the child
learns tire language slowly from day TO day. But
when il is used acrward 1t proves itself to be the
greatest OF all things so ii IS also of the later
season Of the preparatory education. We have secured
ourselves an the years Just previous TO our mali
hoods work. what we gain afterwaId, but true
part Of it. We know more at sixty tlan al twenty,
bat it is only more. The reality is possessed at
twenty II We have been in the right line OF knowing
the pace of study and preparation with precious
force in his mind quickened into living energy by
what he has learned.
The living energy accompshes all results for
him as he passes through the years, because has
been qulekehed at the oeslnnins. The passing away
Ing is like the passing away OF Childhood iscf-not
Change irom Notion or AN lmaelnauon INTO reality
greater thing in a Development toward PERFECTION.
lie edN
return to 1t quarter of century hence. a man Of
years, with all the indications IN his face and form
transformation will have taken place in such mys
FERROUS way that he scarcely knows at the end. any,
this he can only half persuade himself 1t is the
same with the mental life turn 10 your experience
reasoned as o child now have put away childish
things You have become man We put AWAY
ii. We move on to something new But we rejoice
all the time. Now this is part Of the good in our
Thought Of Paul's words brings it before us.
I'VE turn our eyes backward and outlook IS beaut-
beautiful one of the chief dangers in the intel,
octual sphere to which the educated young man Just
passing from his preparatory years into the WORK OF
his manhood is exposed is found in the pride OF his
present knowledge He IS man now W., not n to be-
knowing he must determine the truth respecting T..
As s so he Ne ~ e pa as the
md thus with selfesteem. we say to ourselves ana
her tia; =, we aready the golden %
mystery. But initiated. The utterance OF
the truth therefore, belongs to Our answer is
the rehuke which meets Great as knowledge
Is however, in the blessing which it offers and rich
Is it SENS to be in the promise of future develop
mept the Apostles word comes back to us at the end,
even as 1t came in the beginning.
Look at yonr own experience In these OF life
and study Who is the man who knows literature
or history, poetry, among your brotherhood II
il the who has learned the lessons for ms DAILY aI
nse or the who has accurately acquainted MN
self with the matters OF style, or with faet or t
me who has read many volumes and by the sircygtl
OF his memory repeat what he has read or IS 10
or the other hand. the man who has, win an M
seadinV and acquisitions, had his SOULS forces surre'
within him What is the difference In the education
Tor the manly life for the future years between TIVE
classmates who have equal knowledge IN the orlihar
sense OF the word? surely the difference Is NOR
. stirring and impressive one as we see the two mel
n the end OF their course OF study what Is U-Di