IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION 261 



great 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 

 righteousness ; great in shame if she fail. I cannot 

 understand why other 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 

 individual 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 practical 

 activity to-morrow abundantly fulfil its high pur- 

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

 centre of free inquiry, 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 are 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. 



