Girard College - Corinthian Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 6 text:

4 (loxintku Sons of Girard — I charge you never to forget the great benefits you have received in his school, and, in time to come, according to your means, to do all that you can to enable others to enjoy similar advantages; and remem¬ ber that you carry with you, wher¬ ever you go, here or abroad, the good name of Girard College. May God Almighty bless you in your ways and keep you in the knowledge of His love, now and forever. MERLE M. ODGERS, Ph D., Litt.D.,(hon. , L.H.D.lhon.), LL.D.Ihon.i President

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anuuxy K)j3 James D. White M.Ed., Ph.D. Head of the Business E ducation Department His cordial attitude and advice as a Girard graduate established a genuine bond of friendship.

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January D Do tL of Qanuaxy 1Q53 : Some two hundred years ago there lived in London a man whose contem¬ poraries named him an important fig¬ ure in the political world of that day. The personal acquaintance of Addison, Swift and Pope, the ally of Pitt and the enemy of three Georges, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, might have gained some measure of immor¬ tality from these associations or from the posts of honor which he held. Today these facts are almost forgotten and yet his name is famous. Not for posterity nor for publication, but for the guidance of his sixteen-year-old son, he wrote a series of letters setting forth the worldly wisdom of the age which he so thoroughly typified. Much of what he wrote belongs to any age that reads it. I could not help but think the other night, as I re-read his Letters, that I heard the voice of Miss McGhee and Mr. Andrews, of Dr. White and Mr. MacGregor, the combined voice of all your College preceptors, speaking to you through these pages. Read them some day for what they are worth. I give you a taste of their wit and wisdom in a few random samples: Be extremely clean in your person, and perfectly well dressed, according to the fashion ... Your negligence of dress, while you were a schoolboy, was pardon¬ able, but would not be so now.” No man can make a fortune or a figure in this country, without speaking, and speaking well, in public.” An awkward address, ungraceful attitudes and actions and a certain left- handedness (if I may use that word), loudly proclaim low education and low company.” Never from a mistaken economy, buy a thing you do not want, because it is cheap; or from a silly p ride, because it is dear. Keep an account, in a book, of all that you receive and of all that you pay, for no man who knows what he receives and what he pays ever runs over.” I would pass some of my time in reading, and the rest in the company of people of sense and learning... Read only useful books; and never quit a subject until you are thoroughly master of it, but read and inquire on till then.” A young fellow who seems to have no will of his own, and who does everything that is asked of him, is called a very good-natured, but at the same time is thought a very silly fellow. Act wisely, upon solid principles and from true motives.” Well, that is a fair start in the Letters Written by Lord Chesterfield to His Son” and perhaps a fair start in the life that awaits you outside the Main Gate. Our words of advice to you may never bring us fame, but who knows, they may bring it to you. The best of luck, sons of Girard! Sincerely yours, W. B. WOLCOTT Director of Secondary Education