24 On the Campus 



Shakespeare, the histories, the poets, not for informa- 

 tion merely, not merely for the intellectual delight, in- 

 spiration and pleasure that these things so wonderfully 

 afford, but that you may become adept, expert in the 

 use of the most mighty instrument now at the service 

 of the intellect of man ! 



A third essential, as it seems to me, in any man's edu- 

 cation to-day is a knowledge of his own history. I mean, 

 of course, history in a broad but after all, personal 

 sense. It was the wise remark of a French philosopher 

 that every man should know at least two things qui 

 il est, et ou il est, who he is and where he is ; that is, it 

 behooves a man to know both where he is and what he is 

 in this world-stream of change that we call time. Now 

 the knowledge of history as I would have it at this mo- 

 ment, is not the mere perfunctory acquaintance with the 

 recorded facts of days gone by ; not the mere knowledge 

 of the text-books, that Columbus, for instance, went 

 traveling with three small vessels, the Nina, the Pinta, 

 and the Santa Maria, or that General Grant fought the 

 battles of the Wilderness, but an appreciative knowledge 

 of the history that touches immediately you and me, 

 that teaches us that we are to-day and now, ourselves, a 

 definite part of history, that we are what we are and 

 where we are, because of the facts of the past and that 

 to the interpretation of these facts we this day are set. 



History touches us on every hand. We live, for in- 

 stance, in Delaware county; but why Delaware county? 

 The name of your county brings you face to face with 

 the history of England for a thousand years. Nay, 

 there could be no county had there been no count, in 



