42 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 654 



masterful management which has bound all 

 of these factors together and wrought out 

 this magnificent creation, I shall always, 

 respectfully and heartfully, remove my 

 hat. 



I can not close without a direct word to 

 this graduating class. It is essentially 

 their day and my direct word to them has 

 already been too long delayed. They 

 would hardly realize that they had been 

 graduated, without a little preachment. 

 Young men and women, you have now 

 learned enough to cause you to fear a little. 

 But fear not overmuch. You are reason- 

 ably prepared for work; hesitate not to go 

 about it. There is a place for you, but you 

 will have to go and win it. The rivalries 

 will be sharp ; but you have as much chance 

 as any. Your salvation is to come through 

 work. The world honors the man or 

 woman who loves and honors work. It 

 makes little matter what the work may be ; 

 take a step at a time and keep doing it all 

 the time. You will always have knowledge 

 and strength for the next step. Think not 

 so much about the wages as about health 

 and responsibility and the knowledge and 

 skill for more and better work. You are 

 not entitled to exact much yet. Make the 

 best of whatever opens to you. Be pru- 

 dent, but not over-prudent. "A penny 

 saved is a penny earned" is a maxim which 

 is not true. In many a case the penny' 

 saved is a dollar lost, and it sometimes 

 happens that it is public respect and fra- 

 ternal regard lost. Do not stand aloof; 

 certainly do not be a cynic; above all, do 

 not get to be a freak. Keep step with the 

 procession. It is a pretty good crowd and 

 it is generally moving in the right direc- 

 tion. Have standards and stand by them. 

 You can live by yourself and maintain your 

 standards with little trouble, but then the 

 standards will be of small account and you 

 will make no more impression upon life 



than as though you had never lived. Kein- 

 force yourself all the time. Accumulate a 

 library. While you follow a business with 

 devotion, seek recreation in literature, par- 

 ticularly in the literature of biography and 

 history, that your lives may have more joy 

 in them, that you may gain the inspiration 

 that quickens action, that you may follow 

 your business to the fullest measure of suc- 

 cess and round out your years with the 

 fullest regard of the people among whom 

 you live. Be patient. Keep steady. Bide 

 your time. Success in the game will not 

 come by a chance play, no matter how bril- 

 liant, so much as by uniform efficiency and 

 unceasing persistence. It is remarkable 

 how men and women go up or down ac- 

 cording to the direction they take and the 

 regularity Avith which they keep at it. If 

 you have a fair foothold at forty, you will 

 be a round success at sixty. Be tolerant, 

 but have faith in things. Do not let your 

 student habit of inquiry and investigation 

 unsettle all the faith that you learned at 

 your mother's knee. Believe in your vil- 

 lage, your ward, your city, your state. 

 Sustain a church and at least some of the 

 philanthropic effort that sets rather heavily 

 on one half of the world but ameliorates 

 the hard situations of the other half. Act 

 with a party; yell for a ticket; whoop it up 

 for the flag. Withal, don't take yourselves 

 too seriously. You will count for more if 

 you do not. See things in sane perspect- 

 ive. Have a sense of humor in your outfit. 

 Cultivate cheerfulness. Love sport, and 

 play for all you are worth. Don't get to 

 be one of the lunatics who work eighteen 

 hours a day, recognize no Sundays, and 

 never take a vacation. Submit to no co- 

 ercion. Think out what is about right and 

 stand by it. The others will eventually 

 have to come to it. If you find you are in 

 error, back out without attempting to dis- 

 guise it; the farther on you go the more 



