The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-06-19

sity Joined by indissoluble ties to schol-
ars and learners everywhere, constitute,
fraternity consciously or unconsciously
numbered with all who have felt the .
touch of finer issues, or heard the call of /
immemorial duties.
OF what use are colleges and UNIVERSE
ties if they do not give US men? The pratt
tie of mere scholarship counts for little, /
but the elevating and the benefcent in
fuence of q genuine culture is of unSpeak- !
able worth II strengthens human cf2r-
acter, even, as iron is strengthened when |
science, by refining it, transforms it into
steel. Such a process was yours, gentle
men of the Alumni, while you breathed |
the air of this beloved place, and such |
a process is now working out its splen-
did results in the young men who, as |
students, are following in your footsteps. |
This yearly festival which brings you |
back under sweet June skies to the old |
familiar home; the beauty which speaks |
again from meadow, grove and stream;
the friends you meet and the memory of /
those who alas! shall greet you here no !
more, are solemn reminders that once you |
you chose wisely. If you can not always
stretch out your hand to the reward |
which once seemed so surely within your
reach, pray you, do not be discouraged |
Possess your souls in patience, remember |
waits. That VOW of which nave re-
minded you, was not that you should be
ascetics haunting gloomy clolsIerS ana ana
shrinking from the world in which you
live, but it meant and now means, that
by your enrolment here, by your course
OF study, and by your mempershlp n TINS
society, you chose the intellectual life. A
college and its students are trustees for
each other; they give and take, and both
are richer by the process. 1t is a wise
ARRANGEMENT of society which divides hui
man effort and sets each individual unit
to his particular craft and calling. We
need them all in our complex civilization:
but more than merchants or lawyers or
chemists we need men. The highest char
acter is formed by the union of intellec-
tual and moral faculties in that due and
even proportion which we call harmony,
and which IN art IN music, and say II
/ reVerently-in nature, itself, is the sure
and unerring sign of perfection. AS one
of the greatest thinkers and purest and
gentlest Of men, cardinal Newman, mas
truly SAID: we attain 10 heaven py US
ing this world we'll, though 1t IS to pass
away; perfect our nature not by undo
ing it but by adding to it what is more
than nature and directing II toward aims
higher than its own" Education is power
and it is also growth 1t has rewards
/ not heralded in the gazettes of official
/ triumph for it is in itself a consolation
and a sOlace, and, as Theodore Parker
said 'it enlarges the cup to take in more
! and higher joys" And yet, much is re-
/ quired of him to whom much is given.
! You can not fiaunt your learning in the
/ lives can show which is better or more
useful than theirs. In the scales by which
human effort is weighed, no amount of
mere culture can outbalance one good,
one wise, one heroic act
! knowledge comes, but wisdom fingers,
| sang TennySon IN that deep-toned lyric
| which seems like a despa1rtng wall for
love and ambition and all the bright as
| pirattonS of youth Yes, wisdom does lin
| ger, and in all generations it has fingered.
( But that it has made some Roadway, that
! it has overcome some obstacles, removed
some disquieting doubts, and frightened
! some lions from the path, is largely due
| to such institutions as this and to the
/ stimulus which eager minds receive from
them and in them. What is the scholars
| commission? What his ordination and in
| vestiture2 The scholar is the true opti-
| mist. He is bound by fine necessity to
/ believe in the immutable law which SUI
! the world forward instead of backward,
! no permanent defeat of the tendencies
| that make for righteousness. He must,
! If he would justify his faith, be man 'of
| cheerful yesterdays and confident tomor-
| rows"
In him who truly wears the name of
| scholar, there is a serene reliance which
/ rests unperturbed by storm or shock in
! the calm equipoise of all his faculties. It
is his glorious calling to keep the stand
ards flying when others despair and to
sound the trumpet note Forward - when
the weak and the timorous falter and
yield. In all literature I know of moth
ing more cOnsoIing more inspiring when
the clouds lower, than the profound words
Of Emerson, who was OF all Americans
our truest prophet and seer: Almost sixty
tude of men degrade each other and give
/ currency to Responding doctrines, the
scholar must be the bringer of hope, and
must reinforce man against himself" In
deed, to be "a bringer of hope" is the
noblest mission to which any man can
be consecrated, and it IS the mission to-
ward which every scholar is wooed and
beckoned by the glimpses that come to
him of what life may be when truly lived.
To reinforce man against himself is a
necessity which alas has always pressed
II upon the human ratee and doubtless Will
until the millenial season, hurrying its
laggard steps. shall reach the last waiting
generation. It signifies that always and
always. the spirit and the things of the
spirit require the stimulating tonic of
some exterior announcement, some clear
voice bidding them hold fast, some reso-
Lutte hand to lead, some undaunted heart
to shower its nlinistrations upon the
weary and the discOnsOlate. To reinforce
man against himself is to challenge him
to the test of faith; to persuade him,
that lead to the heights where, as Goethe
says, there lies repose." You are schol-
torcement OF man against himself !
Have you tried to hold him true
70 the Ideals Whlch IN youth seem SO
bright, but which fade and glimmer when
the Afternoon sets IMP Have you given him
strength to take the place of weakness
That, as conceive it, is what Emerson
meant and that is the searching question
which every scholar must ask whenever
lie takes account of his own stewardship.
College-bred men are not the majority
/, 4 in this country or in any country. and in
! J the distribution of prizes they are not
always the elect. But, winning OF losing,
? they can not escape the persistent QueS-
ton: What have you done to make good
! your promises? Have you remained in
+ the ranks, or have you sought the shades
! No self-respectng scholar can stand
: mute. You, gentlemen of the Alumni far
more than other men, are serV1tors tc
the maxim, 'Noblesse oblige.' You can
not claim the digniues the rewards, and
. me sweet compIacencles. whch scholar
ship so much enjoys, without bravely as
SuulnS us ODnSaIOnS. YOU love the u NJ
Versfty of Georgia. You love it for What
it now is, and for what it was in the
days that can not return; days when the
world, as 1t ever IS in youth, was bright
and. joyous "apparelled in celestial light
How naturally the smell Of the jasmine
! takes US back to the past with its soft
and tender memories, as in Owen Mere
dtth's sweet poem Aus Italiens" How
/ instinctively the soul turns in hours Of
sorrow to the monitors of youth its
guides and oracles when life in its
e dawn. Matthew Arnold, worn and dis
l lifelong
the Phihstines, but holding bravely ou
4 | against the forces which were crowdins
him so hard found his only comfort il
the bosom of that benignant mother
where the best Thought and the bes
I scholarship of England has been nutured
Oxford. still Respondent in her antique
= beauty, spreading her gardens to the
t moonlight, and whispering from her tow
t ers the last entertainments of the Middle
e Age"