The San Francisco call., 1896-05-28
Professor Anderson's Commence
ment Address Full of
Sage Advice.
DR.. JoRDAN's FEELING WORDS.
The President Urges the Retiring
Students TO Aspire to Noble
Ideals.


q. The commencement day exercises
were held this morning In Encina gymna-
sium and about 10 more individuals can
sign Alb. after their names. The exer-
cises opened with music and the '96 class
filed into the room giving the class yell.
Professor NJ. B. Anderson delivered the
commencement address. Said he in part:
Iti well understood by scholars that the
great works OF the creative Imagination are
not necessarily simple or easy of interpreta-
tion: nay, that different interpretations of the
same masterpieces may severally have their
justification according TO the point of view.
Such products of the human genius resemble
the phenomena of nature, respecting which
philosophers PROFOUND from age TO age their
varying theories. Such masterwork may be
compared to vast mountain towering north
ward mere wall of rock, while its southern
flank smiles with the wealth of verdure; on
the landward side approachable and neigh
borly, while to the mariner far out at sea it
looms vague and gigantic among the clouds.
Scholars are not at one as to the significance
OF the Iliad of the Prometheus, OF the Divina
Comedia or even OF so recent q work as Faust,
yet in the reading of any of them the wayfsr-
ing man, if not a fool, may not err. So every
reader feels that of all the wonderful dreams
of Shakespeare none is more picturesque and
significant than the play of Hamlet. And {
scholars of different times temperaments and
nationalities have reached widely varying con-
clusions as to the character of the hero we feel
that the very fact is evidence of the breadth of
the authors conception and the naturalness of
his art. This fascinating creation is clothed
with something CT the mystery with which
nature herself forever allures and forever
battles. The meaning OF natural objects seems
plain to the superficial. The illusion OF
familiarity is the first and last thing the
obs hee m rd Go Hon of
seems and is full of significance to the boy
Who reads ii for the first time, but it has not
been given to Coleridge, not to Schlegel, not to
Lowell, not TO Goethe even to quite 'pluck out
the heart" of Hamlets mystery.
The two propositions to which can reduce
my theory are, stated in the most naked terms,
as follows:
First-The fundamental conception of the
author in the play of Hamlet is to represent
dramatically the forces of education through
circumstances. by means of which the born
idealist and dreamer is transformed into the
man of action and character. To put it in
other way, this play describes a course of ex-
pertence whereby young prince OF imagina-
tive tempe rament, to whom "there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,
is developed, if not into hero, ct least into
resolute man 10 whom the test of good and
bad is something more Than a merely sub
jective one.
Seeond-The inner experience of Hamlet in
undergoing this process of education, his hesi-
tation, his fears, his scruples, his agonies his
unSettlemenI OF nina, MS thoughts OF suicide,
and finally his steady, victorious emergenee
from the ''sea of troubles"-all this had its
parallel IN the secret experience OF Shakes
peare during those long years when ne was
slowly working his way out of the halfness of
the dreamer into the wholeness of which his
hfe-dream became so unique an example. AS
an idealiZation OF this struggle toward a
rounded menhood-a struggle the more sol
emnly real and impressive in Hamlets case
because death stepped in before the victory
was complete-the story of Hamlet may be
said to repres ent that of his author. Let me
Insist that 1t is in the large and ideal sense
rather than in those details of experience
wherein others have found the parallel to
lie-that Hamlet is Shakespeare.
President Jordan followed Professor An
derson, speaking on 1.-THE Higher Sacn-
fee"
Each man who lives is in part a slave
because he is living being. This belongs
to the definition of life ITSELF" he began.
Each creature must bend its back to the
lash OF its environment. We dream of
life without conditions, life free from the
pressure of insensate things without US or
within. But such life is the dream of the
philosopher. We have never known it.
The records of life we know are full of
concessions to such pressure" Contlnu-
ing, the speaker said:
The vegetative part of life, that part which
finds its expression in physical growth and
sustenance aud death, must always be slavery.
The old primal hunger of the protoplasm rules
over it all. Each of the myriad cells of which
made must be led and cared for. The
perennial hunger OF these cells he must stifie
This hunger began when lite began. 1t will
cease only when life ceases. twill last till the
water of the sea is drained, the great lights are
put out and the useless earth is hung empty up
in the archives OF the universe.
This old hunger the individual man must
each day meet and satisfy. He must do this
for himself else in the long run it will not be
done Ii others help feed him he must feed
others in return; This return is not charity
nor sacrifice; it is simply exchange OF work
1t is the division of labor in servitude III
reetly or indirectly each must pay his debt OF
life. There few as the world goes, who
in luxury or pauperism have this debt paid
for them by others. But there are not many
OF these fugitive slaves: The number will
never be great, Tor the lineage of idleness is
never long nor strong.
When this debt is paid the slave becomes the
man. Nature counts as men only those who
are free. Freedom springs from within. No
outside power can give 1t. Board and lodging
on the earth once paid, mans resources are
his own These he can give or hold. By the
fullness of these is he measured "As is the
receiver" Emerson tells us, $50 is the gift''
All acquisitions of man "are victories OF the
good brain and brave heart; the world belongs
TO the energetic, belongs to the wise. 1t is in
vain to m axe a paradise but for good men,"
1t is part OF the duty OF higher education to
build up ideals of noble freedom. 1t is not tor
help in the vegetative work Of life that one
goes to college. He is just as good slave
ing without the formality of culture The
training OF the college will make his power
Tor action greater, no doubt, but it will also
has to pay is greater than that paid by the
clown. And the higher sacrifice the scholar is
called upon 70 make grows with the increased
fullness of his life Greater needs go with
greater power, and both mean greater oppor-
tunity for sacrifice.
In the days you have been with us you
should have formed some ideals. You should
have bound these ideals together with the
chain OF 'Hefl-spent yesterdays" You should
have done something in the direction of the
life OF higher sacrifice, the life that from the
fullness of its resources can have something 10
give
The men you meet as you leave these halls
will not understand these ideals They will
not know that your life is bound up in the
present, but has something 10 SIX or give for
the futsre. Till they understand YOU thew
will not yield you their sympai HES They
may jeer at you, because the whip they re-
spond 10 leaves no mark upon you They viii
try to buy you, because the devil has aiways
bid high for the lives OF young men with
ideals. A man in his market stands always
above par.
When the president had concluded his
eloquent address the graduates stepped up
and, as their names were called, were