Merrimac High School - Yearbook (Merrimac, MA)

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Salutcxtory Doctor Page, members of the school committeefparents, teachers, and friends: Once again as we gather together to pass over the threshold of graduation, fond mem- ories of the past years are recollected in our minds, Deep rooted in these memories are the guidance, knowledge, and understanding which you have given us, We extend our deepest gratitude to you and earnest hopes that we shall prosper by your wisdom, and that our paths will lead us on the shining road of happiness and success, RALPH WALDO EMERSON The momentous question of our time is whether a man shall control his own af- fairs or obey the order of some central authority, Since the Declaration of Independ- ence asserted that all men are created equal, no one has spoken more eloquently in defense of the individual than Ralph Waldo Emerson, His essays, published just one hundred years ago, emphatically urge that a man know his worth: A true man is the , very center of the universe, Government, society, and nature itself revolve about him, In reading these philosophies of Emerson we know we have been on the heights, Gentleness, purity, idealism, and crystal sincerity shone through his personality to a rare degree, He was the most stimulating ethical teacher in America and one of the few great international forces in literature, Emerson was born in 1803 in Boston, where his father, the Reverend William Emerson, was pastor of the First Church, Among his ancestral inheritance were seven ministers, so it seemed that Ralph for Waldo as he preferred to be called,l would be destined to become a minister also, There were five other children and life was far from easy for the family, Nevertheless Emerson worked his way through Harvard by running errands and waiting on tables, After graduation he taught school before enter- ing the Harvard Divinity School to study for the ministry, He had not been in the pas- torate long before he realized that the Unitarian theology, a doctrine of God in one per- son, was too limited, He began to think of God as a completely personal, moral force pervading the world, a spiritual truth transcending natural law, Our age is retro- spective, he began, While the foregoing generation beheld the world face to face, we see it only through their eyes, Why should we not also enjoy an original relation to the universe ? There are new lands, new men, new thoughts, Let us demand our own world and law and worship, Self-reliance is the first lesson Emerson drew from this philisophy, He told men -- The world exists for you, All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do , , , , ,Build therefore your own world, Although Emerson himself was a voluminous reader of all literature, the scholars he portrays will not rely primarily upon books for knowledge, Their influence is that of the past, Real education begins where formal education leaves off, The true scholar is no cloistered bookworm, Experience is his language, Life his dictionary, This way of self-reliance is not an easy one, Poverty, neglect, even the hostility of society are the common penalty for those who dare to be themselves, Emerson, therefore, might not wonder that he seemed to stand alone, All men aspire to the high- est, and most of them spend their lives seeking money and power only because they see nothing higher, There lies the scholar's duty, Wake them and they shall quit false food and leap to the true, 13

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Teachers: To you we owe more than we can ever repay for it is through your un- tiring efforts that we have been armed with a good, solid foundation which will help us in the years to come, For this foundation, and for the many other numerous ways in which you have helped us we wish to extend our deepest and most sincere thanks, Schoolmates: The time will soon come when you, too, must venture into the world?-Your days in high school will soon be over, They are the happiest days of your life, so make the most of school, your studies, your friends, We have enjoyed our associations with you and wish you the best of luck in the future, Classmates: The time has come for us to part, to go our separate ways, This is probably the last time that we shall all be assembled together, Always remember our good times at M, H, S, and the many friendships we have made there, We sincerely hope that each of you will attain your chosen goal and live a full and happy life, The class of 1952 bids you all farewell, George Duncan Larkin 12

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Many merely shook their heads while others openly attacked Emerson's radical philosophy, Exclusion from pulpits where he used to be welcome gave him time to work on his essays, To supplement his small income he turned to lecturing, This was the age where every community had its lecture courses, For these Emerson was in great demand, the ideas that were so shocking from the pulpit proved very inspiring from the platform, His success was so great that it even carried him abroad which in- creased his reputation at home, both as lecturer and author, Firmly, but without of- fense, he held himself aloofg he had taken his stand, and the world had at length come round, g , . Emerson's idealism, though it forms the core of his philisophy, must not be over emphasized, His practical side--sound Yankee shrewdness--was also strongly develop ed, Self-reliance was no idle advice from one who had earned his way through college, He knew from experience the penalty for being oneself, He knew better than to count on luck to raise his spirits, The wise and just man will always feel that he stands on his own feet, that he imparts strength, not receives security, The older generation of E.merson's day mistrusted him as a radical, tearing the foundation from under their lives, They used transcendental as a term of derision applied to anything fantastic or contrary to common sense, But their children understood what he meant, james Russell Lowell described the walk back to Cambridge on a crisp winter night, after listening to that thrilling voice of his, so charged with subtle meaning and subtle music, Did they say he was disconnected? So were the stars, that seemed larger to our eyes still keen with that excitement, as we walked homeward with prouder stride over the creaking snow, Thus it is that Emerson leads us up the shining trail of the ideal and eternal, He was the product of an era where science gradually replaced tradition, Imperceptibly Emerson's ideas passed into general currency, His phrases became familiar quo- tations., Today his influence has spread so wide, that, like atmospheric pressure, we are unaware of it, But it has played a vast part in shaping the American way of life, Margaret A, Weigel 14