The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-24
OF THE TWENTY
SEVENTH BIRTHDAY OF THE
UNIVERSITY.
PROFESSOR GREENES SPEECH.
SUCCESSFUL EXERCISES HELD AT
THE HARMON GYMNA-
SUM.

MA tWenty-seVenth birthday, and to cele-
brate it in the manner due that institu-
ton of learning programme of consider
able length and of marked excellence was
rendered.
The entire student body and many
friends of the institution from both sides
OF the bay gathered to do honor to the
'varsity's name. All work was suspended
and the day was set aside as college Sun
day. Harmon Gymnasium was filled to
the doors some time before the hour had
come for the opening of the exercises.
At 1880 A. M the exercises opened with
an overture by a stringed orchestra. While
the music was being rendered, President
kellogg, the speakers of the day, several
regents and a number of the faculty took
seats upon the Hastily decorated platform.
AT the close of the musical selection
President Kellogg stepped forward and
introduced Rev. DIR. Wythe, who offered a
prayer Immediately following was an
address on behalf of the students by
Warren E. Lloyd, '95. He said that the
present curriculum of the university was a
great improvement over the old one, as it
offered more scope for development along
the particular line of work the student
made to extend it still further, and each
succeeding class will have had greater adj
vantages than those who have gone before.
He compared the modern broad-minded
men and women who have graduated from
the great universities of the land with
those OF past years, and concluded that the
advancement made was largely due to
superiority of advantages and the improve
ment in courses of study
Another musical selection was rendered,
and then Miss Mary Elizabeth Morrison,
MD, "a, representing the students of the
professional colleges, was introduced.
She read carefully prepared paper, dwell
ing at length on the matter of the closer
utilization of the professional colleges, argu-
ing that the strength of the great German
universities lay in their unity.
"A university according to the German
idea, she said, ''is collection of teachers
employed in the search after truth, in any
and all forms, but wholly irrespective of
utilitarian application. The instructor of
such a university does not attempt to train
successful practical men, unless it be indi-
rectly, by giving its students profound
insight into the principles of science, and
turning them adrift to deduce the practice
as we'll as they can from carefully incul
Gated theory"
Loud rounds of applause greeted the
speaker when she made illusions to the
probability of the four professional col
leges. those of law, pharmacy, medicine
and dentistry, being more closely allied,
and the exercises of each one being carried
on under the same roof. The buildings of
the separate colleges were, for a while,
more than adequate, but now they are
crowded to overlooking, and it is quite inn
possible to work in them without consider
able inconvenience, due to their over
crowded condition. When the new build
ing is erected and equipped there will no
longer be the excuse for going elsewhere
on account of the lack of facilities at home
for pursuing work along professional lines.
After another musical selection, Profess
sor Edward Lee Greene of the botanical
department delivered an address on behalf
OF the faculties. After a lengthy introduce
ton telling of the special work of several
departments OF the university, their con-
nection with one another and the advan-
tages OF each, he urged that more attention
be paid to the study of the English Ian
guage itself How few men there are,"
said he, who can express their own
thoughts and ideas in comprehensive
manner"
Professor Greene then said that what he
had chiefly intended to say in his address
might be condensed into this one phrase.
The lnfelicities of Negation." The fol-
lowing are favorite postulates with him:
That the entire subject-matter both of
actual knowledge and actual belief-in
another phrase, the sum total of truth, is
natural position, and that the essential
characteristic of error is its negative quail
lty. And further, that truth is incon-
ceivably vast and beyond comprehension,
lnsomuch that no conception of man
can be so high or deep or mysterious
or lnexpllcable, to surpass the possibility
of being true; and that to oppose many
serious negatlons to any scientific theory
ni,>1
tenn OF religious belief that is conceivably
true, is logically unsafe and may be par
tally censured. The address throughout
was characterized by the many illusions
made to events of history and the works
of nature. Both at the opening and the
close OF his address the speaker was loudly
applauded, which evinced his great popu-
larlty In the eyes of the student body.
This was Professor Greene's first address
before the college on public occasion, and
will probably be his last, as he expects to
leave for the East this fall to accept pro-
fessorship in the Washington University
The band then played two selections, a
mlnuet from Boccherini and transcript
ton from Rubinstein. Amid loud applause
Rev. DR.. Mackenzie stepped forward on
the platform and said that the president
must have had some definite object in
selecting him to deliver an address,. He
did not believe that he was intended to rep
resent the football players, for his physique
certainly did not warrant his being selected
to represent that part of society; he was
not chosen to speak in behalf of those who
had perfect physiognomies, for he believed
that no one else would be able to use the
camera again that he had looked into; but
he believed that he was chosen as minister
OF the gospel and pastor of the Presby-
terrain church.
He said that he was not present when
the university was founded, but he be-
lieved that the seed of the university,
which has sprung up with such excellent
trultage, was sown by Christian fathers.
In Germany one-third of the students of
the great universities die from bad habits,
one-third die from lack of exercise and
the other. third rule the empire. In
America, in the University of California
more attention is paid to proper exercise
and less given to bad habits, and a far
greater majority than a third of her
graduates help. to rule the republic.
Many people believe that when a
youth enters college he leaves all
reverence, for Christianity and godly
things behind him, but it was
his opinion that university education is
not inconsistent with orthodox Christian
lty. IL IS fact that great majority of
the most brilliant orthodox ministers are
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