Billerica Memorial High School - BMHS Yearbook (Billerica, MA)

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ee te 8 SE RON Ore ee cee ee ee o. = - sideration, the charactcr of a wreat scholar whose reflec- ofive aie results in inaction. Hamlet's inaction is the cause of 211 the bloodshed in the pvlay. Hanloet typifies the writers, bookmen, and men of sedentary life who cannot do be- cause they see so many ways of doing. A final value in the study of literature, closely re- lated to the insight it gives into sijnificant types of hu- man character, is the knowledge it gives of the way people in different lands interpret the world cbout them. Colonel F. E. Lavrence, in his Revolt In The Desert, describes his exploits among barbarous, uncivilized Arabs, who were antag= onistic to the Inglish efforts to bring modern ways of liv- ing and modern industrial methods into ‘the wilds of the Sa- hera. The Arabs did not think that the plundering | of small tovms or of tradirg caravans was wrong, since that was their only lucrative occupation in the wastes of the desert. Books, then, are an inexhaustible source of delight, of inspiration, and of informetion. They bring beavty into our lives; they acquaint us with the ideas and ideals that heve influenced the world; they give us a better knowledge of hu- man nature,and they familiarize us with the customs and tra- ditions of other lands. Dreams, bool:s, are each a vorld, cnd boolts, we know, Are a substential world, both »ire enc ;.ood. Rouna these, with tendrils strcoag es flesh and bliod, Our pastiise and our hap; iness will -rov. John Andrew Condon, Ir. wn

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ae my wikiy 4, AR mae] sAaatl: Kae Roe? i. also acqueints one wit the ueas and iceals that have in- Piuenced the world. In the fdvils of The Ainge, ..fred..Lord ome — ns On ee mae Demet. ee Tennyson presents, in the wores ai Aznshur,,.the idealemanner of living according to vhbe 31%ta contury code of chivalry I made them lay thei: hands tn mins and swear To reverence the King us if 16 wore @eeer conscienze, su toes conscience as their King, To Dreek “She heathen and uoacld the Christ, To ride aorcad redressing timan wronss, To speak iio; slarder, no, nor listen to. ii, To honor his own vord as if his Cod's, To lead sweet lives in purest chastity, To love one maiden only, cleave to her, And whoship her by years of noble deeuvs Until they won her. Tennyson stressed integrity. Raiph ‘Weldo Emexson, on the other hand, stressed originality. He belleved that a genius is a person who is strong enough to stick by his own ideas and convictiong, although he be criticized on every Mane. The ideas cf the following juotations from his essay Self Relinnce have inspired mauy e@ gomius ir ais work: “Trust thysvlf; overy hear vibrates to that iron string Nothing is at lact sacred but the integrity of your own mind . An institution is the le engthened shadow of one man. The life of the electrical wizard, Thomas dison, serves well to illustrate the advisability of following ‘“merson's idea. Edison was scoffed at on every hand, but his self-re- liance urged him on to complete triuwnrph. | ) Another peat Ws in the study of liters Risse ts is that it of- fers one a chance to meet end appraise significant types of human character. damlet, by Shakespeare, gives one, for con- |7

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On a Noble American An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man. The Piictican public school, introduced one hundred years ago, bears out the truth of tinis statement, for in that institution is reflected “the character of the great ploneer of American education, Horace Mann. Paramount in his character were self-sacrifice and con- plete surrender to a cause... Contrary to the advice of his friends, prompted only by altruism, he gave up a promising law career to accept the secretaryship of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of Education. From an occupation which offered merely great pecuniary returns, he turned away his footsteps to slave fora creat idenal--free education for everyone--an ideal which he accormlished after twelve years of pnp ing against the indifference and hostility of the public and the lack of sympatiy of the legislature. As strongly ingrained in Mr. Mann's charicter ac self- sacrifice was truthfulness. He wags the bee of truth, and hé would have it at all cost. “Zducation is to inspire the love of geathit he maintained, “as the supremest good, and to clariry the vision of the intellect to discern 1%, Patience was one of his cardinal attributes. During his years of teaching, he graciously suffered the errors and ignorance of his pupils, and always had a kind and sympa- thetic word for. tnhcm.