ADDRESS TO THE SENIOR CLASS, 1887 



YOUNG GENTLEMEN OF THE SENIOR CLASS: As the 

 hour draws nigh when we must part, I feel that I cannot 

 let you go without in some more personal manner wishing 

 you God-speed, and that good fortune and success that 

 waits on honest endeavor. Four times since first we met 

 the year has renewed its beauty, and now the spring 

 stands crowned in all its loveliness. 



Wherever the eye may rest, on valley, wood, or mountain, 

 everywhere is life life in its prime of beauty. This week 

 you enter upon your life-work, whose harvest will be what 

 you make it. Can I do more wisely than to recall to mind 

 the golden words the Hindoo uttered more than two thou- 

 sand years ago: "Man follows the bent of his will; subdues, 

 or is led by his passion; bows to the law of his conscience 

 or willfully lives in rebellion. He says to himself, *I am 

 free!' He says true! He is free to grow noble; he is free, 

 too, to work his undoing. But though he act as he will, he 

 is but a tool in the great hand of destiny, used to perfect its 

 fabric of life. Out of evil comes good, but not for the doer 

 of evil; he has earned for himself sorrow that he did freely; 

 he has worked for the good that he did blindly. Out of evil 

 comes good, from sorrow shall follow a blessing." 



Yours will be a stirring age. The great questions now 

 agitating humanity will confront you at every step, and 

 you will have to decide for yourself their right or wrong. 

 Consciously, or unconsciously, you will play your little part 

 in the great drama of life, and work for the general harmony 

 of the whole. Stand fast for the right ; strike at the root of evil. 



