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opportunities, of advantageous positions and lucky chances in 

 life, but after all life is to each of us very much what we choose 

 to make it, and the fact that few attain to positions of com- 

 manding eminence or achieve extraordinary results, affords no 

 excuse for half-hearted labor, or listless indifference to the vast 

 interests of life, for if we take a large view of its possibilities 

 and of the returns which labor brings, we shall at least have 

 started aright, success lies in that direction. Says Lowell, 

 " Life is a sheet of paper, white, 



Whereon each one of us may write - 



His word or two, and then comes night. 



Greatly begin ! though thou have time 



But for a line, be that sublime 



Not failure, but low aim is crime." 



These then are some of the methods of science, some of the 

 characteristics of scientific work. In considering them, my de- 

 sire has been to exhibit something of the spirit which instigates 

 and directs such work ; to show the value of scientific training 

 in the conduct of our daily affairs, be they what they may, and 

 the consequent advantages which result from giving to the study 

 of science a prominent place in our educational systems. For, 

 surely, if exactitude or a love for truth ; painstaking, patient 

 labor, actuated by higher motives than a mere desire for gain ; 

 a spirit of judicial fairness, and a hopeful enthusiasm, are habits 

 or qualities of mind which it is desirable to cultivate, then the 

 study of some branch or branches of science, rightly pursued, is 

 capable of yielding the most valuable results, and developing 

 the best and highest powers of the mind, fitting it to deal with 

 the ordinary affairs of daily life, or to grapple with the deep- 

 est problems which engage the attention of mankind. In the 

 hints which I have given you there is, I am well aware, nothing 

 that is new, nothing original. "All truly wise thoughts," says 

 Goethe, " have been thought already thousands of times, but to 

 make them truly ours we must think them over again honestly, 

 till they take root in our personal experience." To see truths 

 clearly, does not suffice. We must live them, make them our 

 own, be governed by them, and only when we thus do, are our 

 lives ordered aright. 



Allow me, in conclusion, again to extend to you all, on behalf 

 of the trustees and faculty of this school, a hearty welcome. 

 We earnestly hope that the coming session may be a profitable 



