Princeton University - Nassau Herald Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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26 THE NASSAU HERALD. flowers and' leaves, leaping from the masonry like a thing of life, independent of the law of gravity, uncontrolled, helps to bear its share of the massive tower that rises to a dizzy height above it, and so thel most insigniicant life forms an important part in the great tissue of mankind. Therefore, let no life be Hobjectless and in vain, we are necessary links in the great chain which, from the full development of consciousness in the first man, reaches forward into eternity. This day we plant the Ivy which will perpetuate the memory of our Class. The lessons of this climbing vine are numerous 3 beauty in each leaf, activity in each growing fibre, love in its clinging to these memorable walls. Time, action, duty, call upon us to take our place in the outside world, to sever the ties which have, during four years, bound us to this institution and to one another. For us the hours of the present are golden, and we leave this tender Ivy to treasure up and perpetuate all the memories of the past. Our recollections, not we, can live on with this Ivyg ours is a life of the future, of dreams, of aspirations, of hopes. Then, upon each one of you, my classmates, I enjoin, Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine. Gro forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with at manly heartf' God speed the Class of '85.

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THE NASSAU HERALD. 25 morn till night the clink of coin and the hum of machinery rise as prayers from metallic lips, addressing the divinity of trafiic. We must not mistake the spirit of the times. Be it activity, then men must learn to harmonize with activity, to ennoble it and make it conform with the spirit of nature. Study the simplest iiower, its texture, its coloring, its bud- ding, blossoming and fruit, all demonstrate a life of action Contemplate the life of a St. Paul, its doubts, its conflicts, its activities, all culminating in that heroic, divine burst of victory, I have fought the good ight. The particles that circled in that flower disk, the soul-substance of that power- ful man, are alike forms of activity, presenting their phe- nomena through different mediums. The fossil strata of the earth show us that nature began with rudimental forms, and rose to the more complex, and that the lower perish as the higher appear. This same law holds as true in the development of man's soul as of his body. To-day we are far from the summit, there are yet clinging to us ' the fossil remains which time itself must erode, but the very fact that a higher stratum has been reached places man in a different, superior position with regard to his fellow man. The instant a ray of light pene- trates a darkened room, its nature first requires it to chase away the darkness. Light becomes an activity, the removal of the darkness its duty. Carry this law one degree higher, and let it become a formula of life. We can only attain the highest point of development, the high mark of the ideal, when We fulfill this altruistic law of nature, which alone can solve the puzzling problems of life. God, immortality, duty, said George Eliot, U The first, inconceivable 5 the second, unbelievable 5 the last, awful, with inevitable fates? In the interdependence of nature, duty is a mechanism, a self- regulated mode of action, among men, duty means that dis- order has destroyed the perfection and mechanism of the soul, Restore man this perfect law, and you give him his whole duty. The flying buttress, laden with the carved festoons of 3 .

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THE NASSAU HERALD. 27 itreseutatinn Elratizxm. BY A. BRADLEY GAITHER, MD. Fathers, Mothers, and others-During the last four years Princeton has been a hive of knowledge. The Class of '85 has had her drones and her workers. The drones have grown and prospered, and, as a natural result of the grading system, taken most of the honors, while the hard workers have been left in the rear, not having had the time to get Professors under their thumbs, as Wreck Crawford once thought 'he had Brackett, but after the examination found that Brackett had him in two senses 'of the word. Princeton has been honored by the presence of many great men. Aaron Burruand James Madison used to tramp through the mud on this Campus until Commencement approached and the walks were repaired, and now Call me Arthur Tree has to do likewise. When you gaze upon this band of smiling cherubs you must not form an opinion of them too hastily, based only on their appearance, but must remember that when they put on their store clothes they also donned their society manners, and now it would be as diffi- cult to tell their true characters as it was for the young ladies of Newark to tell what Charley Van Ausdal looked like from the picture which he sent them. They thought a great deal of him until they saw him, and in order that you may escape a similar disappointment, the traits of some of these most deceptive men xwill be disclosed to you. Judging by appearances, who would think that Stub Bryan was an