Drexel University - Spartan Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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THE CONVOCATION ADDRESS BY SIR ROBERT A. FALCONER, K.C.M.G. President of the University of Toronto. Mr. President, Trustees of The Drexel Institute, Members ot' the Staff, my Fellow Guests, Students of the Institute, Ladies and Gentlemen: That is a long introduetion, but this is the twenty-tit'th anniversay ol' the l'ounding ol' 'l'he ,Drexel Institute, and you may bear with me in a. long introduetion. I have to thank you very heartily, sir, fturn- ing to the Presidentj for the extremely kind way in which you have introduced me to your students, whom I had the pleasure and privilege ol' speaking to a little more than a. year ago. After the very etteetive presentation ot' the aims and principles of this foun- dation, whieh you gave yourself, sir, and the 1'eeord at onee 4-haste and impressive that. was given hy Mr. Tower otf its work during the past quarter otf a eentury, you will allow me, and I think 1 may speak for my fellow guests, to eongratulate you and all who have been eoneerned with the Institute most heartily upon the work that has been aeeomplished. You stand in this eity, in this country, as setting forth an aim that is in a eertain measure distinetive ol? the American people, and you fnllil that aim with consummate success. In asking me to speak to-night you gave me no subject, and while I thought that, our minds being as they are, eonstantly directed on the one great suhjeet otf the war, you might expect me in some degree to speak upon that., I nevertheless, upon t'ur- ther consideration, was of the opinion that perhaps it would be nnbeeoming in me to take this theme, and also for us in Canada, it is somewhat of an old tale. And then I turned to education, particularly as I knew that a large number of the leading representatives of the edueational institutions ot' the United States would be present to-night. But education itself is a haekneycd theme among us eollege men, as you a1'e aware, Mr. Chair- man, and it is pretty ditiieult to get mneh wheat out of straw that has been thrashed so often. Nevertheless, I am venturing to take as lny suhjeet The Qltlduc-ation of the lflng- lish-speaking Peoples. However, when I use the word edueation in this C-onneetion, I do not intend to deal with standards, methods of training, or programs and eontent of studies. When I speak of edueation I shall refer to the broad diseipline that has been given to the Iflnglisli-speaking peoples through that great master, l'lxperienee, who, with a, judgment at onee stern and benetieent, metes out rewards and punislnnent with a level hand to the peoples 11ot only in the present age, but has done so in the past and will - 22

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3-, INTRODUCING SIR ROBERT FALCONER DR. :HOLLIS GODFREY: IVilIia1n James startled us only a decade or more ago with his theory of second wind, of that mental state that goes beyond our ordinary power, when, having reached our limit, we go on to other powers greater and unknown, and so passing to a second state of powers, we may conceive a third. And I have thought in this last year that we were coming more clearly to that concept of NVillia1n James in the different lives that a. man or a woman seems to live to-day compared with the old lives. There is the life of every day, the life of the home, of the ofliee, of the shop, that life that was near ns, that is near us still, the immediate life, and out beyond that in the old days, in the very old days, was the national life. For very few of us then realized any more than we realize the earth or the air, very few of us realized that nation or realized how great a thing it is to be a citizen. And now we have come to recognize that as never before, and to see that life of the nation, and gradually we have come to still a third, a life beyond that, a sphere beyond that, the life that is important not only to ns of one nation, but important to every nation, standing together in this great struggle for life and for democracy. IVe are coming to know all sorts of pleasant things in this new life that were little known before. New relationships are coming up, new responsi- bilities. The border line of education, as I said, is rapidly being wiped out, and to-night we have with us one who is known almost as well on one side of the line as the other, one of the 1111311 who has done most for his country in this great war, one of the 1nen whom it is always an honor to have with us. I take great pleasure in introducing as the orator of the Convocation, Sir Robert Falconer, President of the University of Toronto. 21 .4-

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continue to do so in the ages that are to eome. lly the diseipline of the l'lnglish-speaking peoples I mean the way we have heen edueated into our present, views and eonditions of life. Possihly I may seem inexaet, in speaking here to-night ot the lilnglish-speaking peoples, for I am going to make an assumption. I am thoroughly well aware that while the American people a.re the largest body of lilnglish-speaking people in point' of num- hers, they are not homogeneous in deseent, and many ot' them might not he willing to aeeept some otf the diseipline and some ol' the tradition that I am referring to to-night. And yet I make my assumption heeause I know that the great' majority ol' the Anieriean people will eonsider that what I have to say does eoneern them hy reason ol' their in- heritauee and their past. litany rills have tlowefl in to make the stream ot' your life,- rills from Holland and mo1'e than rills from the 'l'eutonie eountries and from southern lflurope. llut the great hody and stream ol' your lite took its rise in the home ot' the English-speaking peoples, and theretore I eau speak to-night as l intend to. 'l'here is that other great volmne ol' ltlnglish-speaking peoples that, remained in its old home and that has sinee then sent out its hranehes l'ar and wide over the earth, hranehes whieh have not yet, and I helieve never will, lose their eonneetion with the parent l'ountain. These two great streams separated. liarriers and mountains have risen hetween them, hut in these later days, in a happier time, ehannels have heen made l'rom one stream to the other, and there is a growing eommeree and intereourse hetween the two. Therefore, in speaking otf our edueation, I ean assume a eommon edueation, a eom- mon diseipline, that hegan in a period het'ore the two were dissevered. 'llo some extent, you ean estimate a people's past hy the men who heeame its heroes. In the haekground otf the lil'e ot' the lflnglish-speaking peoples in their priniordial eonnnon stom k there stand two great names, one historieal, and the other more or less mythieal, Alfred and Arthur. And ot' hoth these it: may he said that they l'ound their glory in redressing lnunan wrongs and in bringing order out ol' ehaosg that they sought to estahlish a realm in whit-h or- dered liherty, to some extent at least, heeame more evident, and in whieh the rudiments of a divine law were imparted to the national mind. Time went ou, and the hroadening endeavor ol' liherty to tind seope t'or itselt' in government and in the midst ot' the people was manifested, and with it eame a growing respeet t'or law. In the ages that we sometimes eall the Dark Ages, hut' whieh are not properly so termed, an intluenee from l+'ranee atfeeted the lives wolf our aneestors and un- questionably moulded their eharaeter. t'hivalry was an ideal in those days. Chivalry, l am aware, is eritieised as heing narrow, as eontining its virtues to a limited numher, as taking small aeeount otf the eommon man or woman. And yet ehivalry, the 4-hivalry ot' France and of England, did instil virtues of honor and ot' purity and of loyalty into those generations. Before -passing to a new element, I may just refer in a word to the 23