92 THE ALUMNI JOURNAL 



exercises of the College of Pharmacy, and he asked me whether 

 that was an agricultural institution. 



I sometimes think it is dangerous to talk on any kind of a 

 subject hefore expert men and women in any calling, but it is 

 truly perilous for me to speak at length to these young men and 

 women, because they may turn to me, and, using the phraseology 

 of their calling, say: "'Can't we have a concentrated essence of 

 that speech?" 



My dear young friends : The distinguished Vice-President of 

 this institution has dwelt so earnestly and effectively upon the 

 duties and the discouragements which alike await you, that it is 

 really useless for me to dwell on them further, but I want to say 

 a few words of counsel to you. I will say to you to-night, that 

 there are three things you ought to remember, and they can be 

 put in most brief fashion. First: Be men. Be men and women. 

 I say men and women in contra-distinction to machines. In the 

 second place, be honest men and women and in the third place, 

 be efficient men and women. When I talk to-night to these men 

 and the small number of women here gathered ; when I talk to 

 the men and say to everyone of them: "Be a man," I meant to 

 remind them that that quotation means exactly what it says. You 

 take life by degrees. You have just taken a single step, and if 

 any of you imagine that you are finished, that you have finished, 

 then you are finished. It is always the man who is intellectually 

 underdone, who thinks he is done. You have all heard of the 

 professor who wanted the words "I died learned" inscribed on his 

 tomb. Now, I do not want you to die learned, but I want you 

 i< live learned. I am always sorry for those people who go to 

 finishing schools. Professor Chandler was right when he said that 

 this is a commencement school, a beginning school. It is a 

 G liege or a University which teaches how to master the tools and 

 implements of learning. When I turn to these young men and 

 women and ask them to be men and women, I mean that thev 

 are- to be thinking men and women; they are to be reasoning men 

 and women, and not merely machines. I would remind them too, 

 of the great opportunities which their chosen vocation offers them. 

 You are beginners in one of the highest, one of the most useful 

 and vital of the arts and sciences and when I say "Be men," I 

 mean men, not machines. Remember what Emerson said: "There 



