The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-06-24
WOFFORD'S COMMENCEMENT
THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS BY JOHN
TEMPLE GRAVES.

Beautiful Ideas i'm Beautiful Ian.
guage Flowers Of Rhetoric and
Gems of Thought -. An Grafton
which Captured the Audience.
SPARTANBURG, June l5.-The exercises of
the second day of Wofford's commencement
of an address before the two liter
ary societies Of the College by the Hon. John
Temple Graves, of Atlanta, Ga.
The rostrum was crowded with distln-
guished visitors. The presidents OF the Cal
houn and Preston societies Messrs. J. G. Gov.
left respectively of the distinguished speaker
The Hon. John Temple Graves is native
Of Abbeville county, Of this State, and this
fact added greater interest to his presence.
Mr.. Graves said:
The, youth who steps from college walls
Into the open OF this teeming country Is Girtl
with fortune and responsibility. Behind him
whispers rich heroic past. A marvellous
and brimmins future leads before. Issues,
rapid and tremendous, crowd each other for
attention, and in this fearless summer OF In
tellectual liberty a thousand great questions
approach the dauntless answer that shall
lock them in the republics life.
Unless the traditions Of my college life are
at fault the ultimate end of your curriculum
striving hours are mockeries If they have not
met this mighty mission of your lives. You
my rip the roots from Greek verb and
algebraic quantity, but they are worthless
You may pluck Latin stems by the cartlouds,
but they must blossom in your English
hands before they have value. History Is
only light literature unless IL tteachcS with It's
torch, ana not syllogism In your logic or Il
law in your ethics Is worth the hour that
mastered 1t, unless it helps yOu 10 better
thinking, better labOring and better living
in the years to come.
Happy the youth whose years OF training
have been profitably spent. Happy he who
carries from his minds gymnasium rigor-
GUS equipment for that great battle whose bu-
giles even now are sounding the appeal to
arms. The Roman gladiator in that famous
speech that moved an insurrection Is made to
say, "For nine long years l have met upon
the arena every shade OF man or beast and
have never yet lowered my arm" And now
as the arena Of life. sTarming with hostile Is.
sues, spreads before your trained Intelligence
grid up yonr soul, young Spartacus of
thought, and go forth to meet them
In the world which waits to welcome every
honest force you will find two classes to sur.
round you-the majority who do not think
and the minority who hold the crown and
sceptre because they do. The minority have
long since ensaved the majority in the luN-
ury of dependence. The resu It. OF thought In
the one tends to make thought unnecessary
In the other. The minority labor with their
brains. The majority either do not labor at
all or labor with their hands, and have their
thinking done for them by their leaders or
machines. In these conditions there ure 81
thousand short cuts TO knowledge, and at ev.
ed back to carry you along. We have cur
logarithms ground out Of box, calculations
are manufactured by simply turning Il crank,
chemistry is learned Ly simply inhaling
laughing gas, and from the cradle to the
grave the masses Use the mental go-cart until
they lose the use OF their intellectual legs.
Physical dependence Is just rs prevalent
and pampcred as shrewdly as the larger vice.
The farmer OF today may sit on cushions be-
hind span OF horses 10 scatter seeds and
gather the bulk OF his ripening harveSs.
The milkmaid may gather her dainty skirts
about chair while an accommodating ma-
chine milks the patient cow and another
makes butter from the cream. The cileni-
nate dandy and langud belle are lifted by
convenient elevators from counting house
and parlOrs TO upper floors without the neces-
Sity OF climbing the Stairs, and We have no
room for doubt that the long-felt want will
yet be filled, and a machine will surely come
10 put lazy folks to bed at night, TO wake
them in the morning, to wash their faces and
comb their hair to tie their cravats and bu L
ton their shoes and to provide Il final luXu-
ry, painted phabet, whose separate letters
each happy Sybarite may offer the a mighty
and ask Him to build prayer TO suit their
several necessities and His sovereign will.
But the very dependence Of the many has
been the rich wine Of inspiration to the gen
ius and daring of the few. The minority are
the history makers. The Saving remnant
moulds the destiny Of the race, and this
thought OF The few, inspired by opportunity,
quick kened by ambition and enthuS9d by
power. gradually losing the anchor OF re-
sponsibility, has grown so free and soaring
that It's hour Of danger has come with lis
acme OF achievement. and It's very glory
hides its peril and It's blame.
Let us follow for moment the triumphal
march of thought In the wide realm OF
physics 1t has marked It's shining way. 1t
has chained the giant steam within the prls.
on of Invention and made his expansive
muscles move the world until It's later trl-
umphs have caught q new and nobler force
Within the thunders home. 1t has furrowed
n post r. cute on the old oceans bed and har.
messed the lighnings us n common carrier OF
news. 1t has flashed the electric sunshine
into the midnight gloom and made masnifl-
cent distance OF such small account that Il
doctor In Paris can feel the pulse OF q patient
in New York and In the same hour write a
prescription for a sick man In Japan. 1t has
tunnelled the everlasting hills and has ripped
the silence of prlmeval solitude into frag-
ments with the shrek Of progress and stir Of
splendid commerce. The stars whirl serene
ly through orbits that t has defined. and we
can tell the instant when "the comet that
plunged in dim. illlmitable distance where
separate stars are lost In mist and vapor shall
whirl again into the vision Of man, IL wan
derer that could not shake the ineXora6le
eye Of science even in the chill and measure
less deeps Of The universe"
An intellectual ether. H. has passed on wing
as high and free. 1t has challenged thous-
and issues, and established thousand prln.
clples. 1t has dSpeled untold illusions and
smitten chronic errors hip and thigh. 1t has
halted the traveller, superstition, upon the
highways of the world and, at the point OF
sylogism, has ritled his Intellect of It's fears
and sent him forward rejoicing In the light.
It's criticism has rested with impunlty upon
venerable traditions, Its candid voice has
called In question hoary creehs until at last,
fired by It's candid voice, revellinglln freedom
and drunk with its sense OF power. 1t has
lifted hand against the impregnable rock OF
Holy Scriptures, and sought with the feather
of wit to crumble the bulwarks OF faith and
beat down the temple of God.
stand entranced in the contemplation OF
the fettcrless freedom which has been born 10
thought out Of the liberty and prosperity Of
this golden age-appalled by Its dangers and
fascinated by its tremendous possibilities 1t
is an era of ideas-ldeas OF all sorts and quail
tiles flung off at random or from the white
heat OF thought, but each chasing the other
wi ith such freedom and during rpldity as to
make us believe that the aspiration Of many
thinkers Is divided between separate goals of
truth and nOtoriety or content with the lower
If the higher falls. Never before have the
thoughts OF men been called 10 consider
Kaleidoscope OF such varying issues, or to sep
arnte from a larger collection OF presumptu-
GUS chaT the grains OF enduring truth. IT Is
IL period of crisis aud periious possibility TO
civilization and to creeds that 1leSs II. Inc
danger lies, OF course, In the radical extremes
10 which the minority and majority may
come.
At one end of possibility stands an intel.
lrctual desperate, lawless and goddess.
Heaven defying and man despisng, a high
wayman OF opinion, Il bandit In crecds
madman Of liberty, n rudderless and helm
less thinker, anchored to nothing In this
world anu grappled TO no promise of the
world to COME. May God deliver us from
this man-for "anarchy comes down on us
like night and massacre seals Romc's eternal
grave"
Al the other end stands q cringing coward,
fettered by custom, bound hand and foot To
prejudice and cropping in the thick darkness
of traditional superstitlon. Eyes has he, but
hear and, glrt with the dignity OF the human
form, he follows like whipped slave In the
wake of every dogma which power empha-
finite wisdom save us from him.