New Jersey College of Pharmacy - Scarlet Ray Yearbook (Newark, NJ)

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' fthe Scarletkaq r o WfJere ibe Brook :xml River meet. LONGFELLOW. With graduation we are entering a new phase in our lives. From the hands of the moulder into the arms of the world and the active phase of usefulness and service. It is not long ago that we were but the crude clay from which the hand of the master was to fashion a masterpiece. The work is never com- plete. Though beautiful it acquires strength and worth from the furnace of hard knocks and practical experience. Up through the years since we first entered the portals of a school as irre- sponsible, carefree youngsters we have acquired little by little, the knowledge which is the heritage of our lives-we have laid the solid foundation for the edihce that will serve us for the remainder of our lives. These first attempts at gaining knowledge passed like a dream and prepared us for a more serious phase of our careers. High School is the most memorable period of our lives. There we come face to face with the bigger, worthier things of life. There, perhaps, we meet our Hrst loves-the sweetest ones-and we experience the first hard knocks that awaken us to the true nature of life and of the world. There, too, our characters are fashioned from the basic clay laid down in earlier years. We be- come men and women and the world is at our feet. We become its heritors- the spark of life glowing with unshadowed brilliancy within our breasts. And like the brook, fed by many a spring, gathers volume and rushes onward with ever-increasing force toward the river's broad expanse, we enter our college career. No phase of our lives is so important. Here the master moulder applies his Hnishing touches with utmost Care and patience, finishing every detail unto perfection. Here, also, we come to the crossing of the roads and are required to choose the path we wish to tread. We discern at the journey's end, the city of promise-all agleam-and with the star of hope in the firmament of heaven to light our way. We tread boldly on, turning neither to left nor right, but with resolute steps strive to achieve the chosen goal. And so like the brook, gaining volume at every turn, we rush on to the meeting of the river and stand upon the threshold of new and greater things. Broad and long is the river, winding through valleys unexplored, between forest clad shores and towering hills, and far away through the realm of unborn years. The way is not always smooth, at intervals huge boulders impede its even progress or treacherously hide beneath its surface. Here it leaps a water- fall and there it forms a turbulent cataract, till at its journey's end it merges with the sea. Its passing is unmarked except for its song of joy that is wafted 'to the winds and echoed through the land that we may know its theme and judge therefrom the river's worth. Even so, we are facing the broad river of our lives that will carry us to the waters of the sea, which is rest from toil-the reward of work well done. The road is beset with many dangers and pitfalls. No one's life is smooth. It is the lot of man to know hardships, grief and suffering. So, like the river, we must always find the way and smilingly reach the end of our tether. May the song we carry through our lives be one of joy and happiness in our work and we be judged by it. -F. L. T. wage 1231

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The Laurel The word laurel has its etymology in Laurus,', the laurel tree that was sacred to Apollo and was known to the Greeks under the name of Daphne It was customary among the ancient Greeks to crown with the laurel leaves popular poets who had sung their verses and played the lyre at the Olym- pic games. Due to the influence that the Greek civilization exerted upon the Latin people the Romans also adopted the laurel to symbolize the recognition of poetical genius and later to recognize the achievement of the great generals of the Roman army. This practice was carried down to the Middle Ages when Petrarch, among others, was crowned with great solemnity in Rome 113341. At Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge the laurel wreath was sometimes placed on the head of exceptionally brilliant scholars. John Skelton QISOOQ received the distinction from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and styled him- self Poeta Laureatusf' In most cases, however, the laurel was granted to poetic talents only after a long, fatiguing work. Many a time, sad enough, the unsought recognition became a reality after the great deserver had died from misery and hardships. The idea of the laurel nowadays is almost a myth of which we hear very little and refers pre-eminently to the great genius of poetic writing. With the modern conception of learning only a few would pretend that every graduate ought to make a tangible contribution to culture or science in order to be meritorious of a diploma. Some graduates of higher institutions of learning at the present regard the possession of a degree or diploma as their sole goal and pre-occupation, whether that distinction is well earned or not in terms of knowledge. This attitude is due to the fact that the diploma is regarded by many as an irre- fragable assertion of a certain degree of learning. It would be so, in many cases, but should not at all signify that it necessarily must be the end of one's preparation for his life work. On the contrary there are few students who estimate the value of a degree lightly, providing they know thoroughly the subject matter which the diploma is supposed to certify. For the latter class of men it is not the document that satisfies them, but the conscious realization that they know what they have been striving to know. In conclusion, the Laurel --let us call it by this illusive term-should mean merely a Visc, whereby one may proceed into the still obscure and un- trodden field of scientific phenomena through which humanity is still groping along. V. D. C. fPagc 1221

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