Bradford Academy - Chimes Yearbook (Haverhill, MA)

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Q, N, ...K 'Q-KEY . .wg N. .gi . N . 'w M fn ,, N-. L P NR I lb gut 4 mi 'V 'll in-is mmm., 591' 'r'r'ff'1Bl .mum li nl? L. fir! ,not mi self' nv' ,di nv rl 5 .4- , ar E rad Ord o4nna Ls occasion by occasion. Go to the successful men of our times, and, so far as my experience goes, they will tell you, one and all, that the moment of their great advancement, as they look back over their lives, came when they did not expect it: and unless they had been prepared it would have slipped from them, as it is going to slip this morning from a thousand men the world over because they do not see what is in their hands, and they are not putting their life into their work. The battles of life are never won where they are fought. They are always won in advance. The battle of Manila was not won in the harbor of Nlanila, it was won in the harbor of Hong Kong in the marvelous prepa- ration made, and in the marvelous foresight displayed there. And, back of that, it was won at Annapolis, where the battles of the future, if there are to he battles-and I wish to heaven I could say there were not-are to be won or lost. In the colleges and the school rooms, in the lecture rooms and 'the libraries to-day, the battles are being won and lost which are to be fought twenty, thirty and fifty years hence. This was what Y'Vellington meant when he said that the battle of XVaterloo was won on the cricket Field of Eton. YVhen Dr. Angell, our minister at Constantinople, was asked by the Sultan, shortly after the battle of Manila, if he, the Sultan, could not buy such guns as were on Admiral Dewey's fleet, the minister answered, Yes, your majesty, you can undoubtedly buy such guns, but you cannot buy the men who were behind them. Ah, the gun is useless unless the man is trained to the gun. And the more delicate the machine, and the more nicely adjusted to its ends, the greater the necessity for training. So I say to you, my friends, that there can be no matter of more supreme importance at the end of the century of the life of Bradford Academy than the necessity of giving here the very finest education that can be given., and -of inspiring every student to get the best, not for to-day, but for to-morrow, and for a thousand years from to-day. The school is the great liherator. We are born into various kinds of bondage, we are born into slavery to a place. And unless you get out of that place in which you are born, it does not make much difference where your place is. Some of the most provincial people I have ever known were people who live in great cities. You will not have to go farther than Boston to find some of the most provincial people in the world. And so it is in New York and in Paris and in London. The person who lives in the town .in which he or she was born, and never gets out of it in sympathy or in range, f65l

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Brad ord gg it always provincial. To be born in a little community is one thing 3 to live in a nation is another thing. They tell us in the West, and I think they have good grounds for their complaint, that most of us along the Atlantic seaboard live in a section, and have not yet learned to live in the nation. The only Way to cease to be a provincial and to become a citizen of the world is by education. You cannot do it bv travel. YVhat is travel without education? There is no sig it so pi ia father and husband, who, with the devotion and the sagacitv of the American l 't' ble as that of the self-made American man, has made a fortune, and in the making of it has been so absorbed that he has had no time for his owi in one of the great picture galleries, or on one of those memorable battle- i mind, and takes his family abroad and stands fields, and wonders what in the world people come there for, and what it is all about. QLaughter.l Nlanv of you are going abroad this year. I have no doubt. Now, vou are not going to see anvthing in lfurope which vou do not take with you in the capacitv to see. You are not going to see anv more of Europe than lies to-dav in the back of vour mind. Nobodv can stand on VVaterloo bridge and look at that vast citv stretching up and down the Thames, and at the great minster, and at VN'estminster Palace, and understand what England is unless he can go back of lYestminster Abbev, with its centuries of devotion, and prayer, and aspiration, and love of heautv and skill, to the old times in which was reared that great praver into stone. No man can understand what lVestminster Palace means unless he can recall the great figures who stood there, and hear again the great voices pleading for freedom in other centuries, and see the great men who, bv their voices and their character, their broad intelligence and their grasp, made English power and authority what it is to-dav at the ends of the earth. No man can understand what the Place de la Concorde in Paris means unless he can see with the imagination the armies moving out with bur- nished eagles, or coming back with tattered standards, victorious, from half the capitals of Europe, or unless he can hear in memory the tumult and uproar of those great mobs which have made that square the stage of some of the most colossal tragedies of historv. . No man can understand his own time unless he can get out of it. This .15 UIld0UlDtCClly fl great century. The newspapers are telling us, and will continue-to tell us, that it is the greatest centurv since time began. And i isis 1 v

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Brad ord 5241111141115 it always provincial. To be born in a little community is one thing g to live in a nation is another thing. They tell us in the VVest, and I think they have good grounds for their complaint, that most of us along the Atlantic seaboard live in a section, and have not yet learned to live in the nation. The only way to cease to be a provincial and to become a citizen of the world is by education. You cannot do it by travel. XVhat is travel without education? There is no sight so pitiable as that of the self-made American father and husband, who, with the devotion and the sagacitv of the American man, has made a fortune, and in the making of it has been so absorbed that he has had no time for his own mind, and takes his famillv abroad and stands in one of the great picture galleries, or on one of those memorable battle- Helds, and wonders what in the world people come there for, and what it is all about. CLaughter.l Manx' of vou are going abroad this vear, l have no doubt. Now, vou are not going to see anvthing in lfurope which vou do not take with vou in the capacitv to see. You are not going to see anv more of Europe than lies to-dav in the back of vour mind. Nobody can stand on Wfaterloo bridge and look at that vast citv stretching up and down the Thames, and at the great minster, and at XN'c-stminster Palace, and understand what England is unless he can go back of XX'estminster Abbev, with its centuries of devotion, and praver, and aspiration, and love of beauty and skill, to the old times in which was reared that great pravcr into stone. No man can understand what XVestminster Palace means unless he can recall the great figures who stood there, and hear again the great voices pleading for freedom in other centuries, and see the great men who, bv their voices and their character, their broad intelligence and their grasp, made English power and authority what it is to-dav at the ends of the earth. No man can understand what the Place de la Concurtlc in Paris means unless he can see with the imagination the IH'lllit's moving out with bur- nished eagles, or coming back with tattered standards, victorious, from half the capitals of Europe, or unless he can hear in memorv the tumult and uproar of those great mobs which have made that square the stage of some of the most colossal tragedies of historv. No man can understand his own time unless he can get ullt of it. This IS undoubtedly a great century. The newspapers are telling us. and will continue-to tell us, that it is the greatest centurv since time began. :Xml 1 isis 3