The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1906-06-22
Address of NeIcoms.

graduated exercises on the l4th inst;
In the language of the poet we would
say: "A hundred thousand welcomes.
l could weep and could laugh Wei
come"
Tonight we are happy as we look in
to the long vista ahead of US which we
are eager to explore. AS has been said
in speaking of scholars: Each of Us is
a veritable Columbus standing on the
edge of some old East and looking for
ward to some larger West"
Aud yet there is the shadow OF sad
ness as we look back over the past few
years. We would change the words Of
Whittier and say:
"Of all sad things of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these-It has BEEN"
We have had much of sunshine in our
II years of school life, but the shadows
that occasionally fitted across our paths
made the glad days all the brighter
These have been called the dark spots
10 our sunshine They are ever the
shadows OF ourselves. And is this not
always true? 1t is this ever present
condition OF the light with the dark, the
pleasant with the unpleasant, that we
would consider tonight. Continuous
unalloyed pleasure exists for no human
being. This has been proved many
times by philosophers. The hard days
work with the consciousness of having
done ones duty gives an added enjoy
ment to the beauty of the evening.
Long days OF illness make US keener in
the enjoyment of health. Should we
not after all be Just as thankful for the
little things that annoy, that MARI our
sunshine, for it is they that give US
added zest? This law of contrast, this
necessity OF contrast, seems to be uni
versal one in nature as we'll as in human
lives.
There is a spot in the Andes where
the mountains drop down abruptly into
the valley of the Magdalena A traveller
passing around sharp turn in the path
lations of that uuinhabited region and
has before him the tropical activity of
rich plantations. As he leans forward in
his saddle he can see the sunlit river
winding its way along a background OF
deep and luxuriant green foliage; he can
almost hear the distant cries of the men
to their oxen and in imagination can
catch the faint odors OF the orange bios
SONS or feel the balmy air on his out
stretched hands. The city lies beneath
him like some huge white spider stretch
ing its legs like roads in all directions,
and the blue haze into which the scene
melts away, along the distant horizon,
itself an emblem of peaceful beauty.
Rapt in the scene beneath he forgets the
wild roar of the mountain stream beside
him and the dark illimitable sweep OF
mountain tops passing back into what
seems the infinite. He seems to feel the
warmth and beauty OF the plain in con-
trast to the dark lovliness of mountains
Nature, the greatest of all dramatists,
abounds in such contrasts. We see the
peaceful lake lying beside the rugged
hills, the ocean calm and smooth be-
meath a summer moon, and again the
same ocean raging and roaring in the
darkness of a stormy night. The har-
mony of the world, like that OF the harp,
is made up of many contrasts" and we
are the happier for them.
Whatever is true of the individual life
is true of that of the race as whole. In
history contrast has made the charm of
human life one of vivid reality and most
intense interest. The peaceful slumber
of a nation almost dead in its dreamy
luxury is broken by the fash OF the
sword and cries OF the wounded. France
was such country until awakened by
the revolution. Age of apparent dark
ness and mediocrity gives birth to poets
and sculpters and men of note, as the
Elizabethian age gave birth to some OF
the greatest geniuses in literature. The
course of people seems bound toward
ruin and oblivion when there arises a
leader, Napoleon, full of patriotism
and ambition to turn the tide OF destruc.
ton to one OF victory and success.
As in life there il always the dark