University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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privilege it has been to trace these words of reminiscence and of prophecy. In conclusion, allow him to bridge the intervening years and chisel upon the gilded tomb of '91 its epitaph, a tribute conceived in the spirit of just appreciation, as the inevitable verdict of a future historian. Verily, virtue hath her own reward : When Learning's triumph o'er her barbarous foes First reared the stage, grand '91 arose. Each change of college life then hurried throughg Fashioned the world and all therein anew. Existence saw them spurn her bounded reign, And panting time toiled after them in vain. 18

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theless, that the moment our Alma Nlater sadly waves us farewell we shall count merely as ordinary mortals. We should continually bear in mind that college graduates are infinitely too numerous to admit of any audible murmur of admiration or astonishment even before the conbined splendor of our intellectual attainments. Our mental colossus may, by sheer magnitude of cranial development, occasion a partial eclipse of political ignorance, but, even he should clip the wing of too extravagant expectation. In such an attitude, then, does the world await us. On the other hand, what is due from us as an antidote to the distemper with which we may in consequence be afflicted ? Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia, escaped from the tedium of the Happy Valley, fired with the desire to breathe a richer atmosphere of fellowship and experience, to lead the ideally perfect life, whose condition was unmixed happiness. With this as a goal he wandered up and down, entering the society of the gay and spirited, whose mirth he found at heart strained and hollow, studying critically the exalted rich and the lowly poor, only to prove the former burdenedwith cares and encircled by treachery, the latter groaning in the bitterness of poverty. Wisdom presented only mock felicity, while every feature of the social organism appeared unnatural and perverted. Weary of his fruitless search he nnally deemed his ideal impossible and returned to Abyssinia, there perhaps to pass a life sable-tinged by consciousness of the world's imperfection. Here we have the type of the universal life. Each of us shall be a Rasselas g and well for us if we may see his vital mistake and comprehend its meaning. The Happy Valley presented an ideally perfect existence in all save actual touch with experience. As he entered the world to gain the latter Rasselas should have taken with him all the beauty and all the exalted sentiment of the former. Woe to the man who leaves the Happy Valley of his Alma Mater for a world naught but ideally practical and discrimi- nating without importing the leaven of the ideal into the mass of the real. Indeed, despite an abounding spirit of worldliness which emphat- ically declares to the contrary, the ideal is the only true real, and the more vividly we realize this fact the less fatally shall we chase the phantom of perfect happiness as being something external and within the grasp of material prosperity. Lest your historian be too free with the proverbial wisdom of an unpretending class, he will now reluctantly lay aside the pen whose I7

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enior Qlagg Class Colors: Class Yell : Black and Yellow. Kai 'ydp eawev, MD 3CS XCI U. V. M. GFFIQE-IRS F. W. MOULD, 6 Presiderzzf. E. H. SHEDD, Vice-Presiderli. G. H. RANDALL, Secretary. F. -G. WARD, T1'ecz5u1'e1'. G. H. RANDALL, Historian. MEMBERS BERT WOOD ABBEY, A. I.,. ..... . EDGAR HIRAM ADAMS, QP. A. G., . . Sp. Ch HATTIE KATHARINE ANDREWS, . . . L. S BIRNEY BOARDMAN BOSWORTH, dw. A. O., MARY HELEN BOSWORTH, K. A, 9.,. . . CHARLES WYMAN BUCRHAM, E. fb., . . Cl C1 STEPHEN TRACY BYINGTON, ...... NEWMAN KEYES CHAEFEE, A. Alf., . . . Cl. Ch THOMAS CHARLES CHENEY, fb. A. G., . . WALLACE GRANVILLE DERBY, A. xp., . HORACE TUCKER EASTMAN, A. T. Q., . . E CARLISLE FRANKLIN FERRIN, A. XII., . . Cl CLARENCE STORY GROVV, A. I., . . . . . FRED SAMUEL GROW, dv. A. 9., . . . Cl JAMES NIADISON HAMILTON, . . . . 19 Sp. ISABELLE MAUD BENNEIT, K. A. 9., . L. S. Cl. Cl. Cl. E. Cl. ffz'11esbzz1jgfh, , IS Lafayette Place Bzzrlifzgiozz ,.... 220 Pearl St. Wes! ,l3'erk5!zi1'e, . . 183 Pearl St. Chafcazqgfay, IV. lf, . 489 Main St. Brisfol ,...... I North Hall H7'Z.5f0Z, .... 2 Colchester Ave. Bzcrliwzgiolz, . 28 University Place East Ha,1'r!2cfifrk, . . 7 North Hall !r'm'lrz1za' ,..... 412 Maple St. M0rr1'571i!!e, .... 3 North Hall Sjzaifzgjield, . . 2 Colchester Ave B1'zzdf01'd, . . . 20 XVi1IooSki Ave. E.vse.1'j1mffz'o:z, . . 6 South Hall Rafzdolph, ..... 489 Main St. l777'LZlff01'fl', . . . 26 NVinOOSki Ave. Ajllffff-0l'd, . . . . I2 South Hall