IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 261 



cities, and the pressure of want is felt, the gaunt 

 spectre of pauperism will stalk among you, and 

 communism and socialism will claim to be heard. 

 Truly America has a great future before her; great 

 in toil, in care, and in responsibility; great in true 

 glory if she be guided in wisdom and righteous- 

 ness; great in shame if she fail. I cannot under- 

 stand why otlier nations should envy you, or be 

 blind to the fact that it is for the highest interest 

 of mankind that you should succeed; but the one 

 condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the 

 moral worth and intellectual clearness of the in- 

 dividual citizen. Education cannot give these, but 

 it may cherish them and bring them to the front 

 in whatever station of society they are to be found; 

 and the universities ought to be, and may be, the 

 fortresses of the higher life of the nation. 



May the university which commences its practi- 

 cal activity to-morrow abundantly fulfil its high 

 purpose; may its renown as a seat of true learning, 

 a centre of free inquir}^, a focus of intellectual 

 light, increase year by year, until men wander 

 hither from all parts of the earth, as of old they 

 sought Bologna, or Paris, or Oxford. 



And it is pleasant to me to fancy that, among 

 the English students who arc drawn to you at that 

 time, there may linger a dim tradition that a 

 countryman of theirs was permitted to address you 

 as he has done to-day, and to feel as if your hopes 

 were his hopes and your success his joy. 



