Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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We live in an age in which no achievement is to be cheaply had. ... If college be one of the highways to life and achievement it must be one of the highways to work. . . . Work, definite, exacting, long continued, but not nar- row or petty or rule of thumb, must be its law of life for those who would pass its gates and go out with its authentication. Recreation is necessary not only for maintain- ing our powers of work so far as these are dependent on our vitality, but also for main- taining our happiness in so far as this is dependent on our health. These two statements, the first by a great statesman and the second by a renowned scientist, seem to me, if they are taken together, to formulate the Swarthmore ideal. HAROLD E. B. SPEIGHT. Dean of Men, Harold E. B. Speight My best wish for the Class of 1935 is that each of you may realize the hope which Socrates expressed for himself in his prayer to Pan: Beloved Pan, and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul; and may the outward and inward man be at one. May I reckon the wise to be the wealthy, and may I have such a quantity of gold as none but the temperate can carry. FRANCES BLANSHARD. Dean of Women, Frances Blanshard

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President Frank Aydelotte CHANCE FAVORS THE PREPARED MIND In December, 1854, Louis Pasteur, in his inaugural address as Dean of the Scientific Faculty of Lille, told the story of the chance observation which led to the invention of the electric telegraph. Oersted, a Danish physicist, happened to notice that a wire carrying an electric current caused a magnetized needle to deviate from its position. From this accidental observation followed the developments which in twenty years produced the telegraph. Pasteur ' s comment was that, while this happened by chance, the fact is that chance only favors the mind which is prepared. Pasteur ' s own career offers a dramatic illustration of the truth of his aphorism. He began life as a chemist. Eager to make his laboratory useful to the important dis- tilling industry of Lille, he devoted some time to the study of alcoholic fermentation. This led him directly to the discovery of the fact that contagious and infectious dis- eases are propagated by living germs and thus to the control of such infections by medical science. Of the importance of Pasteur ' s work to medicine Sir William Osier said, To no one man has it ever been given to accomplish work of such great importance for the well-being of humanity. So momentous were the results of the fact that by chance the new Scientific Faculty of Lille needed a Professor, by chance Louis Pasteur was appointed to that post, by chance a certain M. Bigo had trouble in his manufacture of beet-root alcohol, and by chance he asked for help in his difficulty from the new Professor] Such chances have happened before and will happen again; but the opportunities will be signifi- cant only to minds which are prepared. The power is not given to any individual to control the workings of chance, but it is within his power and it is his first duty to do all that he can to make sure that he has disciplined his own mind to be ready to take advantage of the opportunities which life may offer. FRANK AYDELOTTE.

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SWARTHMORE Physiology, Zoology — Palmer, Enders, Jones, Scott Physics and Chemistry — Top Row: Garrett, Wright Bottom Row: Creighton, Keighton, Foster Astronomy — Miller 1. Mathematics — Brinkmann, Pitman, Dresden, Kovalenko 10