Columbia University - Columbian Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 12 text:

DEAN'S LETTER To the Class of 1908, Columbia College. Dear Fellow Collegians: I respond very gladly to your invitation to say a final word to you as students, just before you assume the dignity of alumni. I have said many words to you during your residence here. I would believe, if I could, that they have always been wise and helpfulg but as that would be too great a demand upon self- confidence, I must content myself with the hope that some of them at least have been of service to you. If you have had justice done you, and have done justice to yourselves, what is it of most worth that you will carry away With you? It is not knowledge-of Which, nevertheless, I hope you have acquired a great deal in many departments of learn- ing. It is training, through which knowledge has come to you, it is character, without which knowledge is of comparatively little value, it is a nice sense of personal obligation, without the possession of which by the principal part of a community, the community must suffer that degeneracy of manners and con- tempt of religion that, as Swift said, presage the ruin of a state , it is an appreciation of the value of time and of the necessity of its careful apportionment, without which no man can attain the highest happiness or reach the full measure of his usefulness, it is a capacity for friendship, fostered by associa- tion with each other in student activities of one kind or another and without which life must lack grace and charm, it is a store of recollections that grow more precious with the passing years and serve to mitigate the diminutions of age. By ceaseless action all that is subsistsv-that is true of nature, it is true also of institutions of learning. Said Cowper in his Task', : Constant rotation of th' unwearied Wheel That nature rides upon, maintains her health,

Page 11 text:

PRESIDENT,S LETTER The name of this year will always have for you an attraction and a significance of its own, and I trust that it may be only the forerunner of many that will be rich in happiness, in use- fulness and in honorable service. With cordial greeting and warmest regard for each and all, I am, Faithfully yours, NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER, President. April 7, 1908.

Page 13 text:

DEAN's LETTER Her beauty, her fertility. She dreads An instant's pause, and lives but While she moves.', ml Columbia 'glives but While she moves. Since you Were ad- mitted to the company of the elect in 1904, the College has umovedf, Its relations to other parts of the University are different, courses of study have been readjusted and rearticu- lated, the internal economy has been modifiedg and the external appearance has been vastly changed for the better. At the time of your entrance, the College had no home of its own. It was camping out on its own domain, it was a visitor, and not always a Welcome one, among the children of its own begetting. Hamilton Hall, which was begun, finished and occupied within your time, is a beautiful home of the College-and it is more. It stands as the declaration of a policy, on the part of the Trustees, to foster the College and advance its interests. That is surely movement worth while and in the right direction, such as will strengthen Columbia in maintaining her health, her beauty, her fertility. Her health would be impaired, her beauty marred and her fertility sadly restricted, if, by any catastrophe, the College should lose its distinct and rightful place in the general scheme. Any professional or specialized training should be preceded by a liberal, i. e. a liberalizing education, such as a good college is intended to give and does give. The importance of this antecedent and preparatory education, such as you have had, I commend to your favor and advocacy. Let no opportunity of upholding and urging' it escape-and so do good to your Alma lVIater and to the com- munity at large. Witli my best Wishes to you all for useful, prosperous and happy lives, I am, with affectionate regard, Sincerely yours, J. H. VAN AMRINGE. Hamilton Hall, April 141, 1908.