Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-29

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thought "the interests of public seminary
can never become prosperous, unless by ac-
cident. or the peculiarly meritorious labors
OF wise and vigorous faculty;" the prin-
cipal objection which he urged being that
the second board would not be likely to be-
come sufficiently acquainted with the
affairs of the institution to act with
wisdom. But the result has vim
dicated the usefulness of our sys-
tenn, and demonstrated that the doctors
particular objection rested on an unfounded
assumption. Those letters, however, gave
a vivid account of the difficulties under
which Maine was settled, and made wiser
prediction in saying of its Inhabitants that
''in enterprise and activity they will be out
done by no people on the GLOBE"
Then and for many years the coaster,
the numbering coach that brought the semi
weekly mail, the saddle, and the private
chsise or carriage, furnished the means of
travel; yet difficulty of access was not
without its compensations, and seems to
have possessed a charm all its own. In
deed, Horatio Bridge, when referring, in
his delightful "reminiscences, to Franklin
Pierce, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jonathan
Cilley, and Alfred Mason, as among the
passengers by stage-coach in the summer
of 1921, intimates that their lifelong
friendship tall too short as to two of
them) was the result of this chance associa-
tion, and declares that the stage-c coach gave
better opportunities for acquaintance than
the modern railway car. If this be so, it has
not had sufficient influence to resist the de-
mand for ease and rapidity, and upon the
whole it would seem that neither Plato nor
Cicero, Erasmus nor Hume, would have
attached Importance as the proximate cause
of the close friendships formed by associa-
ton in common intellectual pursuits to the
particular mode in which the temple of in
struction was reached. But the mention of
that stage-coach brings vividly before us
some of the claims of our college to recog-
milton, for it carried him who was to be-
come the greatest literary artist of his
time; future President of the United
States; the rising hope of his party, who
was to fall victim to state of society,
happily long since passed away and the son
of great legal giant, whose youth gave
promise of equal eminence in another pro-
fession.
The early commencements were impress
sive and enjoyable occasions. Distinguish
ed men, eminent in official position, in let
lers, in theology, (and the two boards were
made up of such, were always present, and
they were enlivened by various incidents,
such as the overturning of General Knox s
carriage during the terrific storm at the
first the two commencement balls, be-
cause OF. the storm, the flower, amusement,
thus being plucked from the nettle. danger !;
tho ottopdouco of Covorpor Goro VI ;tb ovoot
pomp and circumstance at the fourth, and
the like. 1t was at some one of these earli-
est celebrations that the venerable otficiat-
ing clergyman invoked the blessing on the
class 'about to be let loose on the COM
munity," although the year has not been
remembered, nor has it been possible to
identify it by the excess of depreciation
committed by those particular graduates.
Perhaps the subjects of the parts of the
first graduating classes afford some indica-
ton of the comprehensivenes of the train
ing the students of that day received.
whether Utility Re the Foundation of
Moral Obligation" 1.-The Use of History"
"The Power of Language" "The Solar
System, 1.-The Progress and Influence of
Literature" whether the Light of Nature,
Without the Aid of Revelation, be Sufficient
Evidence of the Immortality of the Soul
were among those in 1906 and 1907. Thorn
dixie, of the oak beneath whose branches so
many classes have exchanged their fare
wells, discoursed at the first commence
ment upon 1.-The Influence of Commerce
on Public Manners while at the second
the accomplished Davies discussed 1.-The
Infirmity of Theory" and delivered poem
on Tradition
These topics have familiar sound, but
how different the treatment from what they
could have received then, physical science
and social evolution demand for them to-
day.
Doubtless the progress of the century in
every direction would find fair illustration
in the parts at all the commencements, for
the college has always kept abreast of the
times, and that fact would necessarily thus
be indicated. How far the future distinc-
ton of the student can be predicted by the
rank assigned, has not been definitely
settled. Macaulsy said that "the general
rule is, beyond all doubt, that the men who
were first in the competition of the schools
have been first in the competition of the
world" and Bowdoin has furnished abun-
dant proofs in support of that
conclusion, though the exceptions
have thus far been sufficiently nu-
merous to prevent the laying down of
any hard and fast line upon the subject. As
time goes on and the curriculum is expanded,
a nearer approach to uniformity in that re-
gard may be expected, but the rule can
never be so absolute as to discourage earn
est effort because of failure to meet its
requisitions.
That the selection of the subject of his
part is one of the straws showing which
way the wind of aspiration or of ambition
is blowing in the young mans mind, has Of
ten been asserted, and that of Longfellow
on ''Our Native Writers" has been in
stanced in support of that contention, but
"Chatterton" was the topic he selected,
and he changed his theme on
the advice of his father. Singu-
larly, President Woods, on his graduation
at Union in 1927, gave a poem On "Sui-
cide," Chatterton beiug the hero; but as
DR.. Mott prescribed the subject, form, and
even meter, what his own choice would
have been it is impossible to tell, though
the incident shows that DR.. Mott considered
our president capable of snything.
The Nestor of the old faculty, Professor
Cleaveland, appeared at the first commence
ment. Arriving in the preceding October,
for so years he attracted attention to the
college by that display of unrivalled capac-