Colby College - Oracle Yearbook (Waterville, ME)

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aphorisms which included the Whole mystery of the Apolline Ethics: Know Thyselff' and Measure in All Things. - As priests of Apollo, interpreters of the Oracle within old Colby's walls, our work is done, and yet we-fain would linger in these fair-wrought halls. It cannot be, for other priests will soon put on the sacred vestments we have laid aside. From the temple to the people we must go. W'e fear them not, for we have done our best to keep the ancient laws. Those laws just and commend- able in the days of Solon, Thales or Epimenides, are no less just and com- mendable to-day. And we have sought to follow them. Ever bearing in mind the Apolline command Know Thyselif' we have endeavored by a few well-meant suggestions to cause you all to see yourselves as others see you, but in so doing we have carefully observed the second maxim, Measure in All Thingsf' And so we believe that if we have interpreted the utterances in all sincerity .and truth, if we have not used the Oracle tribe against tribe, if We have sought to com- pose all differences and avert disputes, if we have ev.er aimed at an ideal unity and brotherhood among our fellows, then, and only then, have we done well the work assigned us. ,q But how is it with you, sons and daughters of Colby? You, too, have your duties to perform. Have you in piety and love adorned old Colby's templed walls as did those men of old? Have you, Oh Alumnus, when Fortune smiled, brought to Colby in return for her good counsels, the golden summer and laid it lovingly, willingly, upon 'her shrine? Have you all sought by every means in your power to raise here a grand temple of learning, and make Colby the centre of the Maine college world? If so, you may scan our work and cri-ticise our shortcomings. But, if per- chance your duty is -not yet done, see to it that your debts are all discharged be- fore you lay your finger on this work, and say, Herein have they failed. ear I2

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l 1 A 1 - HOUSANDS of years ago on the sunny slopes of Mount Par- : , ' lx nassus within the western border of Phoicis, a goat-herd W tending his flocks discovered among the mountain crags P a natural amphitheatre. Here a deep cavern discharged X-i y from a narrow oriflce a vapor which so powerfully affected ,K the brain of those who came within its influence that it ' I S caused them to become inspired and utter prophecies. 'J ' F' The fame of this place soon spread abroad, until finally above that rocky cavern there arose a beautiful temple to Apollo, adorned by the greatest sculptors, painters and architects that Greece could produce. Beau- tifled and enriched by gifts from all parts of the Grecian world, this temple held within its walls the treasures of state and individual. The Grecian colonist, far from his home-land, never forgot the oracle, but contined to send into the Delphic treasury his harvest tithe in gold-the golden summer. ' VVithin the adyton of this fair temple the seer Pythia, thrown into an ecstatic fury by -the influence of the vapor, uttered the words and cries interpreted by the priests as the answers of Apollo. The Rock of Delphi was held to be the centre of the earth's surface, and certainly in a social and religious sense this was the case for all the Grecian world. Delphi was the knot wherein every strand of civilized life were united. Hither came all those who were in anxiety, doubt, and distress, to go away comforted and enlightened by the utterances of the Oracle. In the progress of Grecian history, as religious and intellectual thought developed, there was a progressive development in the character of the Oracle. It sought to avert all disputes between the tribes, and to compose existing differences. Hence there was an old Hellenic law that one state should not em- ploy the Oracle against another. Gradually the Oracle became the guiding in- fluence in Grecian progress, the centre of the' Amphictionic league, and perhaps the most powerful influence in promoting that ideal unity of the whole which floated always before the Grecian mind. Inscribed within the court of the Delphic temple were the two profound II

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PHI ...... THETA .... X1 ..... SIGMA .... GAMMA . . . PSI ....... UPSILON . . . CHI ...... BETA . . . ETA .... Iii-XPPA ..... LAMBDA .... PI ....... IOTA ....... PILPHA .ALPHA GMICRON . . . EPSILON .... R110 ..... TAU .... MU ...... NU ......... BETA PHI . . . PHI CHI .... PSI PHI .... GAMMA PHI . PSI OMEGA . BETA CHI . .. DELTA CHI . . DELTA DELTA PHI GAMMA . GAMMA BETA THETA ZETA ALPHA CI-II . PHI EPSILON SIGMA TAU . . DELTA KAPPJA EPSULQNQ Founded at Yale University, 1844. Alfa 4 ROLL OF CHAPTERS. . . . . Yale University . . . . . . .. Bowdoin College . . . . . . . Colby University . . . .. .. Amherst College . . . . . . . . . Vanderbilt University . . . . . . . University of Alabama . . . . . . . Brown University . . . . . . . . . . . . . University of Mississippi . . . . . . . . . University of North Carolina . . . . . . . University of Virginia . . . . . . . . . . . . Miami University . . . . . Kenyon College Dartmouth College . . . . Central University of Kentucky . . . . ....MiddleburyCollege . . . . University of Michigan . . . . . . . VVilliams College . . . . . . . . . . . Lafayette College . . . . . Hamilton College ColgateUniversity . . . . College oi the City oi New York . . . . . . . . University of Rochester . . . . . . . . . Rutgers College . . . . De Pauw University . . . . . . . . Wfesleyan University . . . . . . . . Rensselaer Polytechnic . . . . . .. Adelbert College .. . . . .. . . . . Cornell University . . . . . . . . . . . . Chicago University . . . . . . . Syracuse University . . . . . . . Columbia College . . . . . . . . . . . University of California . . . . ....TrinityCollege .. University of Minnesota .. . . Massachusetts Institute of Technology 15 1844 1344 1345 1846 5347 1847 1850 185o 1851 1852 1852 1852 1853 1854 1354 1855 1855 1355 1856 1856 1856 1856 1861 1866 1867 1867 1868 I87O I87o 1871 1874 1876 1879 1889 189o