College of William and Mary - Colonial Echo Yearbook (Williamsburg, VA)

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A DEDICATION HE Spirit of William and Mary is a rich Inheri- tance from the Paft and a creative and transform- ing Force in the Prefent, for it manifefts a fpiritual Kinlhip between the Sudents of Today and thofe who have dwelt and developed at this College during the Two Hundred and Forty-three Years of its Lite and Service. In that quarter Millennium unimaginable phyfical and political Changes have taken place. Tranfportation has (hrunk the World to a mere Speck of its former Size. The Day of the little failing Ship and Oxcart has been fuperseded by the Aero- plane and Motor Car; the fwifteft Couriers are literally motion- lefs in comparifon with the Radio and Telephone, and coinci-

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Copyright 19 6: A. CRICHTON McCUTCHEON a« WARNE ROBINSON

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dentally the Telefcope has enlarged the Bounds of the Univerfe until the ordinary Man is driven to fall back upon fuch incom- prehenfible Standards as Light Years . Yet in thefe portentous, revolutionary and difquieting Changes the unconquerable Will of Man ftill ftands. The Forms of Faith have altered, but Man ' s Faith in Man remains. The Population, the Area, or the Wealth of this Country, important though they be, are in themfelves only one Phafe of the great Contribution made by the Sons of William and Mary to the accomplished Revolution in this Land. That Gift was firft Be- lief in themfelves and then the demonftrated Validity of that Belief in Man ' s Power to meet and deal with the Demands of Life. That is the Spirit we need to fee vital and energizing once more. At this Time of general Doubt and Uncertainty, confronted by new and menacing Forces, this Land is once again, as in 1776, thrown back upon the Light of Reafon and the Fortitude of Faith. Thofe were the moving Forces that have fliowed forth in the Sons of William and Mary in every Crifis which this College faced. With the fame Simplicity of Certitude the Spirit of William and Mary, today, turns inftinctively and furely to the unchanged Principles and the unobfcured Purpofes of the Student and Alumni of this College from its Beginnings and, like a great Artery throbbing and pulfmg from the Heart of Life, the Aims, the Obligations, the Courage and the Will of 1693 animate the William and Mary of 1936. John Stewart Bryan.