Valparaiso University - Beacon / Record Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

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advancement by farsightedness and independence. Moved by this same idea, Lowell said: Count me oier earth,s chosen heroesr-they were souls that stood alone, While the men they agonized for hurled the contu- melious stone, Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline T0 the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, By one Inan7s plain truth to manhood and t0 Godls supreme design. But as has always been the ease in evolution, we find in this matter of independence two opposing forces. One group of individuals uses its originality for im- provement and the other is merely a dragathe heaviest burden the truly great men have to bear. Someone has called the one a god and the other a beast. As I have suggested before, the beast is in- dependent without being great. To be truly great one must possess this faculty of independence, but at the same time must be able to sympathize with and assimilate the predominating authority. This is the god. He is broad enough to see the right as well as the wrong in everything and follows this right as far as will assist him. At the same time he insists on his own originality and supplements the deficiency in custom with this. The beast can not appreciate the tendencies of his time and stands obstinately alone - he is isolated, not truly independent. Tennyson eX- pressed his feeling concerning these men when he said, ttI envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time. Unfettefd by the sense of crime, To whom a conscience never wakesW Here, then, lurks the danger of independence-the retarding force, the beast, lacks sympathy. But as it has before been true that these negative forces have been subordinate to the upward movement, Why should we lack faith and fear now that the beast can triumph over the god? No, this is no reason for sup- pressing what spontaneity we possess. Nor should one become discouraged if at iirst he is taunted or abused on account of his seemingly radical ideas. Everyone lives in a universe of his own and perhaps your world is so far ahead of your aeouserys that he is not able to recognize the good in it. All great men dwell in a universe so much in ad- vance of their age that sometimes it takes posterity centuries before it can sympathize with their lofty thinking. These are the men who are first to plunge into an unknown chaos and snatch us from the claws of custom. They are the motive power of evolution. Because they have broken their fetters and become a mark for the society which has not yet succeeded in reducing them to commonplace, why should they be termed ttwild,l or tterratie any more than one should complain of the Niagara river for not flowing evenly down its course like a sluggish Dutch canal. It is not that they are eccentric but that we are weak. The ordinary man lays his original idea aside because it sprang from his genius and is, perhaps, contrary to custom. We should not be satisned to entrust this great divine gift of independence into the hands of a few, who through its power become heroes. It is ours7 and we should employ it. Progress and the attain- ment of perfection will never be realized through the ideas of others but in the independent development of ourselves. ttNot in their houses stand the stars But oler the pinnacles of thine W

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CLASS ORATION Robert H . Bogarte VOLUTION. is the mightiest and loftiest process E known to mankind. It not only affects the entire vegetable kingdom but sways power- fully all animal life from the simple protozoa to that complex and noble creatureeinan; We have good reason to believe that every variety of life originally sprang from the lowest form of protoplasm and passed very, very slowly through higher states until it iinally arrived at a certain temporary destination. This change from one condition to another has been, as far as we can see, ultimately for the better. Necessarily there have been forces acting on and delaying this upward procession, but happily they have been minor forees and only retarded advance- ment rather than caused retrogression. What then could be nobler or more niajestie than this constant progression of all life toward perfection? Man is the highest being this process has as yet produced, so it now rests with him to make an ap- proach nearer the ideal. Anda indeed, there lives no real man but that desires to benefit the environment in which he exists. In contemplating this undertak- ing he is immediately confronted with the question, how shall I set about this task? what can I do that will yield the greatest returns? To me the answer is inevitable; he can do nothing more sublime than in tentionally to aid this process of evolution. With this in View it will be necessary to know how a mere individual can assist in that great movement. Per- haps the only clue can be found by going back and examining the history of evolution. From what sources and how has it received its impetus through former ages? Take for example the fish: long ages ago it was the highest form of life. By some accident or infin- eneed by some supreme power. have it as you will. a small group of these animals were separated from the rest of their kind and placed in a new environ- ment. Here the conditions necessary for life were greatly different from those to which they were ae- eustomed, so different in fact. that many could not survive them and died. Some few. however7 slowly adapted themselves to the new surroundings and in doing so beearne slightly changed in form. Through ages and ages they gradually grew more habituated to the various influences until at last they developed into an entirely different animal. Thus by the power of those few who separated from the rest of their class and stood alone, life was advanced one step nearer perfection. This is the clue for which we have been searching. Man can perform his greatest function by standing aloof from the masses, that is, by Independence. Heretofore the most remarkable change has been, probably, the physical. XVe ean not intention- ally change our physical being but it is possible to better our social, moral and aesthetic natures. This is undoubtedly best accomplished by independence. Every man and woman is endowed with some origi- nal genius and it is in the cultivation of this that our h ope lies. Unfortunately, however, it seems to be the tendaney of the individual to suppress this godlike instinet and'rather force himself to follow the deep eut gorge of precedent than stand on a loftier spot and believe things as he sees them. If this tendaney predominates, the progress we have already made will not only cease but we shall recede again to a lower. stage. If, on the other hand, we can produce men strong enough to have. faith in their own: thoughts then, in accordance with the rigid laws of evolution, we must develop into a higher state. In choosing a station in life men too often fail to ask themselves, what would suit my character and disposition? or, what would allow the best and high- est in me to have free play and- enable it to thriveh Instead they feebly ask, what is suitable to my posi- tion? what is usually done by persons of my station? Too often they subjugate themselves to custom rather than encourage any inclination except for what is customary. The trouble is men think their social and other conditions are good enough for them because they were good enough for their fathers be- fore them. It is no detriment that they should travel the conventional highway; indeed, precedent ought to be followed to a certain extent, otherwise self-re- liant men with their advances would be of no use e:- eept to themselves. The harm lies in the fact that they accept conditions as they are, unqualified, with- out scrutinizing them and applying them to their own well being. If one of these meek advocates of custom, who believes it turbulent and riotous to be independent and oppose the common trend of things. would take the trouble. to examine the source of the very customs he follows he would find that they sprang from the soul of one or two men, who stood alone and were even persecuted for their independ- ence whieh afterwards proved so blessed. Emerson and Carlyle both insist that every institution is the shadow of some great man. A single man with a great. strong individuality has power enough to speak his beliefs, and others, hearing the same senti- ments voieed that they themselves possessed but weakly crushed, soon take courage and follow tliis hero. The greatest institution we have. Christianity. has more constituents than any other body, still it is a stream whose source and impetus came from one lonely man. And so throughout we find society divided into a comparatively few sects each one real- ly glorifying a single self-reliant individual. How true it is, then, that Hall history is the biography of a few great men?H men who have engendered our

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PROF. M. E. BOGARTE PROF. KATHRINE CARVER ' PROF. J. H. CLOUD