"12? *' '<"' On -the Campus 



shout and sing and to realize that for them and theirs 

 the world begins to-day. Pessimistic indeed would he be 

 who should in his vain heart imagine that his world were 

 the only world ; that the concerns of life as these appear 

 to older people are alone real and substantial, and that 

 the gladness of youth and the all-importance of its af- 

 fairs, shall not also find appropriate mention in the epic 

 which depicts the life-experience of the race. 



Nevertheless, I suppose all will allow that one who 

 looks back upon a scene like this in his own history may 

 see some things unnoted by those who share its gayety, 

 or even by those who, hasting forward along the way 

 yet hold in expectation, hold largely in anticipation, the 

 joys of a commencement day. 



The mountains which divide the continent and deter- 

 mine the course of rivers and the floating of rain-clouds, 

 are as we pass them, full of beauty ; of leafy groves and 

 brilliant flowers and the music of flitting birds; only 

 as we recede do these things all more or less disappear, 

 and we see at last, only those things which are eternal, 

 the immovable peaks, the impregnable walls, the unfail- 

 ing caps of snow that make possible and perennial the 

 springs and streams and rivers and rains to gladden the 

 wide habitable world. And so in the course of life ; ex- 

 perience teaches us at last those things which are best; 

 and while we may never cease to find interest in every- 

 thing that can concern or engage the attention of in- 

 telligent people, nevertheless it is more easy for us to 

 see that some things are more nearly universal than oth- 

 ers, and therefore more worthy of perpetual apprecia- 

 tion and esteem. 



