Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-06-22
DIR. v. |. BRIGHAM CALLSON YOUNG
GRADUATES IOMAKE| STUDY Of LIFE

things. / have indeed found them
some of the pIeasantest memories Of
my life; I cannot wish better for you.
The Lessons Of The Past
You have studied ancient history
which has told you how great nations
grow and flourish, then decay and
pass away; some like Assyria have
passed from the sight and almost from
the memory Of man until within my
own memory wise men have dug into
the sand hills that hide the remains;
have deciphered the strange charac-
tiers imprinted on the bits of clay,
until We even know the price Of fish
in the reigns Of kings whose names
had been forgotten. You have read
that some OF the once great nations
like Greece cared more for the arts
than for war, and raised sculptors and
architects whose works surpassed
those Of modern times as we see in
the few broken statues and ruined
temples that time has spared to show
us late corners what man can accomp-
hsh. What good is this study If you
have not learned to apply the lesson
to what is going on around you? You
have seen in your books pictures of
the ruined temples Of ancient Egypt,
grand still In the time of the Pharoahs
and covered with strange inscriptions
that no man could read after the Mos
lem conquest until that wise French
man Champollion taught US to read
these wonderfully abundant inscrip-
tions until now we can read the his
tory of kings who reared the pyramids
of GiZeh and Saccara, and we can
name each portrait statue as it is dug
from the sands which for thousands
of years have preserved them. Learn
to apply these lessons to the nations
now growing on this little planet of
ours; look what Greece is now, what
Turkey Is becoming after carrying her
great conquests to the very gates of
Vienna.
You have perhaps the feeling that
as all parts Of the earth have been
discovered from pole to pole there
Is not much left for you to do. Do
not despair! I should like to show
you q few OF the maps we studied in
school so years ago. The center of AZ.
RIGA was a blank extending nearly to
the shores marked Unknown" and on
our own American continent the
Great American Desert was almost
as extensive and unexplored. Oh!
There are parts Of islands such as
New Guinea and the Solomons still
and this ocean we are
living in the midst of has much for
man IN find mt xuhan The ti,,oo 1900. .
Seventy years ago there was no
science Of geology taught in the
schools. Sir Charles Lyell was even
then preparing a text book, and in
after years l talked with him in his
study In London as he told me the
difficulties he had conquered in inter
esting people in the new science.
Ethnology and anthropology are also
very modern sciences, unknown in my
school days; and vet !, have met some
OF the founders. In chemistry and the
physical sclences wonderful strides
have been made in the last century,
and who shall say that they have ex-
hausted Invention? well. remember
when a little boy my father took me
to see q store window on Washington
street in Boston, lighted with gas.
The burner was placed on the end of
a glass tube so We could see that no
oil nor wick was used; it seemed very
Eonderful, and yet l have lived to
see kerosene drive cut whale Oil. AL
though the arc light was shown as a
curiosity in the college lecture room,
no one dreamed Except Edison) that
by the incandcscenG lamp electricity
would largely supplant gas as an H.
lnainant have seen Morse, the in