Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-10

are engaged and that you are pressing
on with a commendable determination
to achieve success in this important
| undertaking. Sir. Walter Raleigh
once said that history hath tri-
umphed over time, which besides it,
nothing but eternity hath triumphed
over" The decision that disappoint-
ment shall not overwhelm you aids in
your triumph over time in the fullness
of which was your adversely.
Historical societies like yours and
the one that l am privileged to repre-
sent here, are engaged in gathering
and preserving the records of impor-
tant local events of the past and the
present which have occurred in the
| communities of which we are part;
of the lives of the men and women
who have by their achievements
founded this State, these counties,
cities and towns; who have created
industry, fostered education, en!ight-
eminent and progress, consoled the
hearts of men with religion, and de-
Tended their country in the hour OF
peril. This is the task which we have
ourselves chosen to do. We engage in
it not only with full sense of the
enjoyment which will be ours in the
performance, but also with the knowl-
edge that we shall transmit to future
genera tons that which will be OF
great worth and benefit to them. The
Colonial history of Maine has still to
be written. We can by our efforts
here and now become co-workers with
whosoever may in the near or the
distant future undertake to do this,
and thus may we know that we have
not lived in vain.
A twofold interest attaches to the
early records and antiquities of
Maine Not only are they more an
cient than our State but they ante
date the political jurisdiction of Mas
sachusetts. and spring from a eoloniz-
ing impulse directly from the England
of Queen Elizabeth and the France of
Henry ". In this our history is I'M
like that of Connecticut and Rhode
Island whose origins were the fruition
of the older colony of Massachusetts,.
study of the tells, the failures and
the achievements of men in the life
storms and stress of yesterday should
be an inspiration to the men of today
and of tomorrow to be brave where
they may have faltered, to advance
where they may have halted, and to
build higher and grander the strue-
ture which they begun as best they
could in the light of their time and the
material within their reach.
/ am so fully convinced that the
study of our own remote beginnings
as a commonwealth leads the way to
purer citizenship and good govern
ment, to patriotism and progress and
lofty ideals, that my reiteration OF
the thought whenever occasions offers
opportunity may become tiresome.
But to me it seems a truism of such
import that it cannot be too oft re-
peated.
One of the aims of our historical So
cieties should always be to encourage
and promulgate public sentiment
favorable to such study and research,
and l believe that there is no more
fertile field for such effort than in
Mainc's public schools and seats of
learning and none that needs our
stimulation more than do the school
officers, trustees, professors, tutors
and teachers of our State. They
should be leaders and enthusiasts on
these lines and as q general rule they
are not. The citizen who supports
the school by his tribute is ever agi-
tating the need of its doing more
practical work. and adding the study
of state history to its curriculum is
surely one of the first reforms in this
direction that should be adopted.
/ congratulate you upon your main
tanning an existence of fifty years as
a society devoted TO the vast subject
of Maine history; and / am impelled
to express the hope that you viii not,
during the remainder of your LIES
first century. keep the light of your
research hidden under a bushel, but
will send its rays forth into the world
in pamphlet, book or brochure, for the
world needs it.