Princeton University - Nassau Herald Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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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

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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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THE NASSAU HERALD. 15 have lived and died. Let us, therefore, content ourselves with life as we find it. Let us not neglect an honest oppor- tunity to gain worldly honors. Above all things, let us be true to our individual being. ,How many lives have been lost for want of the-unerring compass which -it supplies! How many a brilliant genius has drifted into shallows or been wrecked by hidden rocks, because of a refusal to be guided by the pole star of truth, which never misleads, for, be assured, our failures in life are nearly always the result of our own errors. Whether the result shall be victory or defeat depends upon our moral courage, our purity of soul, our heroism of heart, and last, but not least, 4' the rarity of Christian charityf' Classmates, we are now about to plant the ivy, which is emblematic of our existence as a Class. During four years of college life friendships have been formed that will know no breaking. What lessons of independence, patience, and self-reliance, gives to us the 'C Ivy green that 'creepeth over ruins old! The little ivy plant, as it mantels and canopies the picturesque towers of fallen castles, or trails over some lonely tomb, in a varied language, speaks of the spirit of the past, telling, perhaps, the story of a once great, but now forgotten people, or, solve for us the mys- teries of the shadowy unknown 5 or records how brave men, in ancient times, wreathed the ivy into garlands, and gave them as a national reward for heroic virtues upon the battle-Held. May it be no less expressive or historic when you, my classmates, after many years, near the close of the last fight in the battle of life, with eye undimmed and mental powers unabatedf' return again to Nassau Hall and claim, as your rewcwcl, a garland, wreathed by our Alma Maier, from the ivies we have planted upon many a yester- day, and the heart's'enduring fellowships of to-day.