The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-06-15
L COMMENCEMENT AT ACADEMY

simply men who started out with
opportunities such as lie before
the members of this graduating
class.
Recently there has been pub
lished 4 series of books telling the
life romance of several Americans
peculiarly illustrative of the same
trait. AS summer reading | COM
mend to you the "The Americana
cation of Edward Box" that
youthful Dutch immigrant forced
to leave Brooklyn schools at the
age of twelve but with his first
spare earnings buying an encyclo-
pedia and reading the lives of
great men living and dead. He
began correspondence with
prominent personages of the day
and grasped every chance to meet
and talk with them. Recently the
immigrant Dutch boy retired from
business at the age of fifty-six, one
of the most respected citizens of
Philadelphia, possessed not only of
ample means but of broad culture,
and a record If usefulness in jour
nalism and public reforms rarely
matched in any land.
"Read if you will the life and
letters of Henry Lee Higginson,
who was obliged to leave college
with impaired eyesight in his
Freshman year but continued his
education tramping over Europe,
and ripened it on the bloody bat
tlefields of the Civil War. Many
years before the end of his long
life, he became a leading banker
of Boston, and one of its most
cultured, generous and trusted cit
liens. Or again peruse the fascin-
ating biography of Theodore N.
Vail, man so well known in this
part of Vermont. To all of these
men life was a constant series of
surprises. None of them as it
happened pursued his youthful
hobbies or deliberately planned
his career. But each one early
acquired the habit of intellectual
and moral mastery of which /
have spoken. Each one continued
his education. Fortune may play
you strange pranks. By forces be-
yond your control you may find
yourselves engaged in the most
unlikely occupations or cast to the
! uttermost ends of the world. But
I whatever you do or wherever you
may be, the trained minds among
you will inevitably forge to the
front. Whether you begin as
clerk or farmer, teacher, steno-
grapher or house keeper, my plea
to you is to enter upon your oc-
cupation with the determination
to master it as a stepping stone 20
something higher up. Bound it on
all sides Let your intellectual
curiosity never flag And present
ly, perhaps in the most unexpected
quarter, the door of opportunity
will swing wide open. If Ameri-
ca today in many respects the
most powerful nation on earth,
it is largely because of the many
thousands of men and women with
a sound start in their education,
the product of our public school
system, who are able to apply
themselves productivity to the
varying needs of the hour. 1t was
this adaptability which enabled us
to turn our whole national energy
so quickly to the waging of war.
Men imbued with the habit of in
tellectual mastery in many peace
full professions found the same
qualities of mind and character
qualifying them to learn the I'M
familiar business of war and give
pointers to their enemies.
ain conclusion let me extend to
I you my congratulations on this
commencement and to wish each
: and everyone of you that measure
of success which a faithful con-
tinuance of your education will
surely bring you. Eighty years
ago this school was founded on
the principle | have asked you to
make a rule of your lives-'That
the primary object of education is
to draw out and discipline the
mental and moral faculties and
that the accumulation of knowl-
edge should be subsidiary to this
"Today our venerable Academy
exemplifying this spirit and not
content to rest on past accom-
plishment is starting out anew To
develop its own possibilities and
to provide a broader foundation
for future usefulness. 1t is eager
+ to forge ahead. This is in a true
sense a commencement for the in
stitution itself. You and your
Alma Mater together enter new
fields. Long may you both live
and prosper"