Princeton University - Nassau Herald Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

Page 18 text:

THE NASSAU IIERALD. 13 Sling: Qratinn. HOWARD BRYANT, MD. CLASSMATES :-For four years the tide of life has borne us on through our joyous college days at Nassau Hall. N ow the refiuent wave is reached, and the ideal life of the student is soon to be merged into that of the practical man of the world. Will you not, therefore, pardon your fellow- student of to-day if he ventures to confess to you some of thefthrobbings of the heart and the impulses of the mind that this occasion inspires? More than a generation ago Emerson wasplaughed at for his transcendentalism when he advised every young man to hitch his wagon to a star. But when, a few days since, he was taken to his burial, all men did homage to a life which had embodied his striking phrase. It means that life should not be spent in paltry works which serve our pot and bag alone, but in the path of the celestial circuits where we can harness evil agents, the powers of darkness, and force them to serve against their will the ends of wisdom, virtue, and love. To-morrow will offer to each of us a future, and with it come our successes or our defeats. Our occupations will each have their es- pecial moral characteristics, their peculiar temptations, and their peculiar influences. We are now upon the threshold of- life, and, gathering up our energies, let us resolve to follow the good, ashamed to lie, to live beyond our means, to court our false superiors, to 2

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i 12 THE NASSAU IIERALD. the nineteenth century is growing more and more to under- stand- I have felt with my race, I am one with my kind 7 Let us then, in all that awaits us, be true to these facts, true to our manhood, true to ourselves, true to Old Nassau. I would not preach to you an abstract morality-a scheme theoretically perfect, but practically worthless. It is a plain fact of experience that life becomes happier, more satisfac- tory, more enjoyable, the more thoroughly we identify and bring ourselves into harrnony with the struggles, the suc- cesses, and the failures of the great mass of our kind. It is only then that we realize what is the true glory of humanity -the true nobleness of our own nature. With some such thoughts as these, let us spend the few hours which remain to us. And when the farewell shall have been spoken, when the class shall have ceased to exist as such, let us be strong in our hopes for the future, rather than sad over memories of the past.

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14 THE NASSAU HERALD. deceive our honest inferiors, or to yield to the applause and fascinations of might without right, power propped by in- justice, unsustained by honor. If our theater of life be in gorgeous palaces, whose stately columns, representing the wealth and art of the day, shall in an hour become a mass of worthless ruins, or in broad acres loaded with rich grain, which shall, by a single evolution of nature, be changed into a desolate waste, or whatever individual or national calamities shall come, may our principles be such that they will give to us in our adversity strength by which to re- build our fallen fortunes. But if we would overcome circumstances and wrest the prizes from unwilling fortune, we must labor with uncon- querable diligence. We, who are to be the future trades- men, artisans, merchants, lawyers, and divines, in order to be honest, temperate, and happy, must labor in our youth. All habits gather by unseen degrees, As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. Early form habits marked by diligence,Iselfiabnegation, and moderation. Grreat is the man who never rests upon the mountain top while yet a peak remains unclimbed. But for what end are we toiling? What motives are lead- ing us on? To what goal are we bending our steps ? Is our ambition simply to gain an honorable position and the prizes of life, or are We struggling, with heroic efforts, for the performance of high and noble deeds, that we may aid and uplift suffering humanity, that we may be wise and just in whatever occupations we undertake, and thus leave an example and an influence that shall live after us of which our country may well be proud? . All may not become great. If we go back through the ages and recall the military chieftains and heroes, the master minds in art, science and literature, and the great political diplomatists, the creators of kingdoms and empires, we shall count them all but drops amidst the unceasing roll and rush of the unresting sea of the millions of human beings that