Forty-fifth Annual Meeting. 9 



niiglity orb careering in majesty along the path of ages. Even 

 then the analogy would be imperfect. The bubble and the star are 

 a like material; they differ only in the degree of their duration; 

 for, not even those glorious constellations, which, Mr. Everett says, 

 far up in the everlasting belfries of the skies chime twelve at mid- 

 night, can compare in their material glories with one infant mind. 

 The youngest child who shall wait on the teacher's instructions 

 gives material to work upon as far above the grandest objects of 

 inanimate creation as the mighty substance of eternity surpasses 

 the fitful and feverish sliadows of • time. Next to the infinite and 

 everhisting God, the grandest thing in this whole creation is the 

 human mind. How dignified, how responsible, how sublime that 

 vocation which works on such material as this. An unskillful 

 sculptor may spoil a block of marble, an unskillful physician may 

 damage a mortal body, but an unskillful teacher may ruin forever 

 an immortal mind. Working with such material, we naturally ex- 

 pect that the results of their labors would be of corresponding 

 value and permanence. To demonstrate this Ihe entire history of 

 literature brings its records; its most illustrious names come forth 

 at our command and give their testimony. All the world's learn- 

 ing is but the product of mind, the fruit of the teacher's work; the 

 splendid and enduring results of that vocation. The illustrious 

 disciple of Socrates centuries ago gave to the world a system of 

 learning — -a system which for insight into ultimate principles is 

 to-day at the head of all human knowledge. The Novum Organum 

 of Bacon and the Principia of Newton will outlive the proudest 

 material works of the age which gave them birth. 



Hugo Grotius, as he sat in his quiet retreat in one of the Ital- 

 ian cities where he sojourned in exile from his country, and there 

 wrote in his secluded study a treatise which gave law to mankind 

 in all future ages. On sea aid on land, on all seas and all lands, 

 he shall bear sway. In the silence of that quiet study the same 

 Grotius forged a scepter which to-day compels the allegiance of 

 princes and people, defines their rights, arranges their intercourse, 

 and gives them terms of war and peace which they may not disre- 

 gard. In the day of battle, too, when king and kingdoms are 

 thundering in the shock of arms, this same thoughtful student 

 shall be there in all the turmoil of passion and the smoke of ruin, 

 as a presiding throne of law, commanding above the commanders, 

 and, when the fortunes of the day are decided, prescribing to the 

 victor terms of mercy and justice which not even his hatred of the 

 foe nor the exultation of the hour may dare to transcend. When 



