The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-12
GIRL GRADUATES
 HEAR TALK UPON SYMME ETRlCAL LIFE
New York Educator Ad- dresses Seniors of the
 Courtland School

I room or sClS iOIAN1lAc4AA lO0cAI3- 1AAA OC | girl graduates were presented with diplomas. With great solemnity, and with a strong apptal to them to better l the world in the little things and with a hope that the school would be proud ! of them in the future the principal handed them the diplomas that sent them from the school life to the broader and harder life beyond The | graduates were Miss Dorothy Clinton Lyon, Mss Helen Taylor Plumb, and Miss Laura Frances Quinlan.
 l John Herman Randell of New York, one of the greatest of the educators of the country, gave a strong address on | the 's5ynmefrical Life.'s He made a strong appeal to the graduates to use l the education they have secured to. better the world.
 The real end of education. he de- olared. is not to fill the mind with in l uumerable facts secured through books in the class room. but co iustilI In the minds of the students the ue- cessfty of thinking for oneself Unless this Is attained by the pupil seduca ton ia a failure. and it must follow 1 that the future life must also be q 1 failure
 He declared that the Symmetrical lifes has four dirnensions g deptl, breadth. length and height. One by one he took the four dimensions, dis | sected them carefully. and showed sta 1.-the. graduates and their friends the meaning of the symmetrical life.''
 The dnst to be taken up was depth. God he said. thinks for the animal through instinct, but man must stand
 upon his feet and think for hinself The greatest king Of au Is the man that thinks for himself He told of how Athens fell but the thoughts of Socrates still lived on and are read of today Jerusalem. she declared, was
 razed by Rome, but the sayings of the Man of Nazareth still live on, and.
 will live on in the ages to come.
 The true aim of e1ncatton is to teach us how to think declared the speaker. Economic, religious, social principles have been thought out for us. but we must think for Ourselves land learn how these may be Improved
 for the benefit of the future inhab- itants Of the country. All through the years the men and women who thought for themselves have been re-
 gsarded with Suspicion, they have beeb
 thruscf into dungeons. they have been
 tortured until death relieved them, but
 still their thoughts have lived
 We must think of the great thinks truth. beauty and g0odness-if we de-
 sire to be the ones who are to think
 for the present geheration Those. he .i pointed out who have attained the greatest success. the greatest happi- ness in this life, are not however.
 11, but those who have thought. and have
 attended the trivial things Of fife. We are elevated to the heights Of gran
 deur. of beauty. and of greatness, only
 through allowing our minds to dwell not only upon the great things of life
 but, upon the things of beauty. truth.
 and goodness.
 We must think until we have at
 tained the hidden meaning, the great
 ness that lies beyond. The pessirnist
 is one. he declared. who has delved, i,
 but through fright or because of the Il loneliness of going alone into what -nnight be called an undiscovered coun- try, untrodden yet by the foot Of man.
 He turns his back to the truth before
 he attains 1t. and criticises the man
 who has not yet even attempted. Ldfe becomes atnaless, unsatisfactory, and hopeless unless he thinks Of the things both great and small.
 The breadth of life is measured he T continued. by the sympathy Of man. No person can attain breadth of life
 unless he has sympathy for his fellow men, No man possesses the truth of , life unless he can contribute to the happiness of hIs fellow creatures through sympathy that is real. that ia felt by the one, offering 1t.
 Everyone needs three classes of friends those of his own class. those in class to whom he can look up to, for we all need that which benef1ts us,
 and those who are below ua for not
 only can we teach them, but there are many things which can be taught to us by the 1owly.
 By the length of symmetrical life it is not meant the years we live. but
 what we do for the world while we are upon it. Some, he said live the ] full allotted years of sItfe and yet ac- comp1ish -naught. while again aome live but few years, and their +1,.,,zI,+u live r,-, 11,,4i7 f1.< .s,s7 sf a n
 things. The dreamer who never ma
 feria1fzes his thoughts is not living, he
 never attains the height Of truth, he does not even climb to the first step of t1ae ladder.
 The last sdi4nension of the symnnet-
 rical Hfe hedghth measured by our aspirations It issa great thing, he told the graduates, to be born
 In this world, but 1t is a. greater thing, Ito be born into the unseen world the world unseen, and above those
 who fail to think Self satisfaction is a thing not be condoned. When we
 become se1f-satisHed, we lose our as- p1rations. and becomesa dreamer No matter how far we go into the
 things of life we never attain truth,
 but it stretches out in unm easurable
 space beyond always just before uss
 The world is coming to new trend
 of thought, slowly but surely, strug- gling with the prejudices of the pact, IOV0EcoIH1nS Lne11a OaS by .OASsz LII LII ] eventually we may attain to the heights of truth The present gen. eration is reaching out for a larger,
 a broader and a truer expression of
 the spirit.
 Dr. Randall then turned to the graduates and then made an appeal
 for them to endeavor to attain the
 truth He said that they had already ? caught the insight of the symmetrical life which deal with the men and
 women of the world. are beset with ! the trials, the trfbulations, the hap piness and the sorrows of the world, : they will understand his meaning g clearer and clearer until they them
 selves strike out for themselves to AI- -l..l.-