Bradford Academy - Chimes Yearbook (Haverhill, MA)

Page 60 text:

Brad Ord 942123355 -. .. L tions of that larger community to which all schools minister and of which all schools form an essential part. A school is, I need not say here, one of the prime forces of civilizationg and the birthdays of the great schools are notable days to all who care for the higher civilization of the world. In the past quarter of a century, when some of the oldest schools have commemo- rated their great anniversaries, the world of scholars has turned to them, recognizing that their work was not national nor temporary, but for all time and for all men. So when Bologna-one of the three oldest universities in the world-celebrated the eight hundredth anniversary of its birth a few years ago, troops of American scholars went there to express the recognition of America of the service which the earliest Italian institutions had renderee to our western world. lVhen Harvard celebrated its two hundred and fif- tieth anniversary, you remember that one of the first of .-Xmerican poets anti one of the most gifted and gracious of .-Xmerican men, expressed the feelings of the nation when he spoke of the national service which the university hae rendered. And a few years later, when Yale celebrated its anniversary. the President of the United States and men of position and authority from al parts of the country were present to testify to the universal affection in which America holds its schools and colleges. It is a fortunate thing when a school is one hundred years old. In the rush and the mutations of our modern life it is a fortunate thing when the aims and methods are not made out of hand in an institution uf learning. but have their roots far back in the past, and are modified and enlarged by the wise hand and the wise memory of experience. lt is a fortunate thing, too, when such a school as this is allied, from the verv beginning, not only with the pursuit of knowledge, but with the pursuit of truth and the exem- plification of righteousness. I find it especially appropriate, representing a college which has been so intimately allied with the missionary work of the Country, to Say a word here to-day about the earlv missionary interests of this institution. I have often thought that the pessimism of our modern times comes largely from those who dissociate action from thought. No man or woman can face this universe, or the life men live in it. simplv as a spectacle, without being oppressed and dismayed by it. 'lihe only way in Which we can understand life, bear its burdens, hold ourselves serene and cour ' ' ' . - - - - - - ageous under its manifold trials and in its manifold confusions, is by L sta 1 f all HI ,I ,ii F' ,gi gl til' gg!! mpg! will ,112 QM' IRI' mes mm 9-me Illia HMP his 8-,, lisa, in tg, Inari, amp lima EN' 'Ns Ima N lr i .funn 5 ' 1 'N

Page 59 text:

.ML fxuf' ig? .. 15 5' '- in 1 x 'Wig . HQ' . ij MW Q42 'Mraz Lg Luna .0 44045 4, ,av an-UQ ...and mm 4 H . P-Y-V w'G ,ur .--dv. ,ni F lv P' I, E2-ad Ord Q4nnaL5 flzenfenniaf Gxercifses gum: 5CDCI1fCC1'l, Qlinefeen Zbunbreb cmb Zfiree Annizrgss in H A KI I LIU N XV R I G H 'I' KI A I3 I If, I,.H.ID., I,I,.ID. NI,-xnxx: Pkixcw.-xi,, hlliillll-1RSOI 'rin-3GR.-xnt'.-wixc: C'i,,xss .-xxn oi' 'rin-1 Scnoor, I'1RIliNIJSUl Iiiamnfokn Ac..ximi:x1i' :- HIS audience is so arranged that it is ' impossible to speak to it face to face. - lint that is significant of the occasion, for to-day the old Academy finds itself girt about by a host of friends. To-day the arrow shot into the air a century ago is at the mark. 'Iio-day the song sent into the air with the flight of a bird a century ago, is re-echoed in the chorus of unnumbered voices. To-day the seed sown a century ago in the forest of that old time, in prayer and faith and with the aspiration of New England, blossoms in a hundred fields. To-day Bradford Academy, from many States and many classes, summons its children and its friends to com- memorate the hundredth anniversary of its birth. It is not for me to speak in detail of what this century has been. It is not for me to characterize in detail what this school has done and is. But I mLlSt voice my satisfaction in being able to share in these exercises, and to bring here the congratula- I55l

Page 61 text:

'il ,ms 'Q mv' KT ,, f :AM di Brad Ord odnnabs making ourselves part of it. And no education is worth counting, in the long run, by the larger scales, unless it ends in some form of service. And no man really contributes to his times or gets his own full growth, unless to the gaining of knowledge he adds the expression and the impulse of powerful character put forth in action. So that which has saved our western world from pessimism, and which will save it, if it is to be saved at all, will not be simply devotion to knowledge, but the expression of knowledge in action. :Xnd it is a great thing in the history of a school or of a college to have had a group of men and women devoted, HOI to themselves but to others, and who, from the start, wrote the words self-sacrihcew over the aims and ideals of the school. In the admirable address which the principal of this school made when she came here to assume her duties, I find four words which seem to me to interpret the history and its spirit from the very start: Scholarship, health, culture and character. In these one hundred years great advances have been made in educational methods: the horizons of knowledge have been pushed far back 3 there have come new and powerful influences into our edu- cational life. But to-day, as then, in those four words are summed up all the final results of education. And to-day, as then, in those four words are summed up what I believe to be the ultimate significance of life. We use to have, or our ancestors used to have, finishing schools. We have long ago discerned that there is no such thing as an ended thing here. VVhat is finished? Not the heavens above us, in which the astrono- mers tell us new worlds are continually coming into being and old worlds are burning out to ashes. Not the earth on which we live, the coast lines of which are constantly shifting and changing. Not the society to which we belong, which in every century takes on new aspects and modifies its organization. Not the government under which we live, which, in spite of its written constitution, finds the vital life of men more powerful than a written law, and from time to time mL1St adjust its written law to the new needs of the new times. Not even the churches to which we belong, which, while holding to certain ancient and historic facts, find themselves in every century compelled to deal with new questions of new men living under new conditions. Not we ourselves, on whose faces every day the invisible hand of time writes its meaning, and in whose hearts every day the invisible hand l 57 I