Lincoln University - Lion Yearbook (Lincoln University, PA)

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our advisor As descendents of the Royal Line of Phi, I congratulate you upon reaching this signi- ficant milestone in your lives. You are about to embark into the cold, cold world at a crucial time in history. You will be tested many times after you leave these sacred walls but you will recall these lines thy sons will e'er be true. It is my wish for each of you that the qualities of courage, steadfastness of purpose and faith that have prompted you to make Lincoln your Alma Mater may continue as guiding stars through life wherever you are called to serve your fellowmen. Bon Voyage! Sincerely yours, Leroy D. Johnson '31 Faculty Adviser

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Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death; nor yet const thou kill me. SONNET: DEATH by John Donne The language of sorrow is a universal language. It is the language of human emotions and is born of human experience. Wherever death brings grief and the sense of loss,- wherever love brings disillusionment; wherever hopes are shattered and visions dimmed—there will be found sorrow. So this Lion is dedicated in humble respect to a man who was not only a great scholar but an inspiration to all who knew him—Philip Sheridan Miller. Any attempt by me to detach the figure of Philip Sheridan Miller from the evanescent element of Parnassus and Mount Olympus re-created under the magical spell of his voice, and to incorporate it in the more enduring substance of the written word, must become something more than the mere babbling of a disciple. To try to describe Dr. Miller's services to the spirit of Art and Learning and his wizard's influence over his audience is describing, above all, an ethical deed. Dr. Miller was one of the sincerest men of our time, devoting himself to the service of the Classics with such fidelity, ardour, and humility as we are rarely privileged to admire in any other sphere of learning. He bowed his head before the higher will of the master he revered, so that he combined the mediating function of the priest with the fervour of the disciple, combined the strictness of the teacher with the unresting dili- gence and veneration of the pupil. Since he invariably put a touch of his personal genius and the whole of his peculiar moral and spiritual energy, no student, majoring in the Classics or not, can truthfully say that he walked out from Dr. Miller's presence without having been captivated by the wormth of his charm and the genuine interest in the student's welfare. Not only was Dr. Miller a teacher, but he was also an author. His individual triumphs in the realm of writing transcended the boundaries of ordinary authors to become the suprapersonal victory of creative will over the inertia of matter—a splendid proof that, even in a disintegrated and shattered age like ours, now and again it is possible for the gifted few to achieve the miracle of perfection. Dr. Miller was a man who demanded perfection from both himself and his students. The fairly good, the nearly perfect, the approximate, he could not endure. In vain I have often tried to remind him that the perfect, the absolute, are rarely attainable in this world; that, even to the sublimest will, no more is possible than an approach to perfection, since perfection is God's attribute, not man's. To him the idea of the absolute was supreme in any form of art. He believed that if we were ever to achieve anything worthwhile in life, we must demand and strive for the absolute or the perfect. Every student who has been guided by Dr. Miller will testify that, within the range of the elemental energy that radiated from him, lassitude and incompetence were dispelled. At the beginning of a course each individual would be inspired with the power of a divine terror, with a communicable strength which, after an initial phase of palsied alarm, induced in those affected by it a might which greatly transcended the ordinary. The discharge of his own tensions increased the capacity for a better and greater appreciation of the Classics for those who happened to be in his neighborhood, thus expanding the faculties of every student.

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