Bradford Academy - Chimes Yearbook (Haverhill, MA)

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'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

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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

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grad ord .J-4n21a 115 1' if of cxierience Yotliinif is finished nothin' of life deposits some teacung 'xt ' . . 5 . - , g stationary. The whole world moves, and moves continually. And can it be that in this mighty flux and rush of things man alone is to remain stationary, and that the process which fits him to understand the world in which his lives and his own place in it, and his own significance to himself, ever is finished or has an end? The joy of life and inspiration of it spring from the belief that there is no end. And the great resource of life and the promise of the future lies in the fact that you and l are never going to be out of school or done with teachers. YVhen you try to explain life tu me philosophically I can follow you, and I accept certain things that you say: but vou do not reallv get at the heart of the mystery for me. XYlien you endeavor to explain life to me from the scientific point tif view there are certain great truths which I discern, but you do not put your hand yet on the heart of the tnystery. But when you tell me that life is an education, that the harder the process of education the greater the thing for which it trains: when you remind me that if l am to do at bit of meclianical or manual work I may be trained for it in :t week, or :t month, or at tear. but if I ani to master and to command the resources in me. l must gite myself. lititly, soul and mind, year after year, to heroic toil and untiring patience: when you remind me of these things and then tell me that lite is education. I will accept that because I can understand it. Xu man or woman would shrink from the most terrihle discipline, if till! of that discipline w as to come the assurance of power. No man or woman would slirink from the most thorough training. if out of that training was In come the largest liberty and the ability to deal nobly and freely with all the materials and tools which must be used. No man would shrink from the terrible pressure of experi- ence, if he could only be sure that under that pressure sotiictliillg noble was being shaped in his own spirit. XX'hen you tell nie that lite is education, I understand it and can bear it. .-Xml the harder it is, the more l eompreliene the dignity and the beauty of the thing for which it tits tue. .Mid the more Severe and rlilmious W5 fli5l'lPlllN'. Illc llitirc prtipllctit' it lwtwotllcs to me Ui my final emancipation into freedom and power. Nothing is finished: every- thing is begun. Ihe school and the college and the university are all pre- paratory schools. Life itself is the great school. and beyond lite eternity.--only ' Otllu SCIIOOI, with lllglltl tourses and diyiner teachers and more sublime opportunities. issi Thr WGH ' --tis In M 'fu 'M I if BF mr' if 15- Q7 PW' P4- fivfg 5 gr: Tit' 5? T... :xp I - . ,a , H 'H ,nv s. ,.,.,, M... :Lf- x 'S .. A.. F- . 4. AS?