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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 861 



describe the tests of toil and pain, the tests 

 of fear, the tests of seductive pleasures, 

 and he tells us that "He who at every age 

 as boy and youth, and in mature life, has 

 come out of the trial victorious and pure, 

 shall be appointed a ruler and guardian of 

 the state. He shall be honored in life and 

 death, and shall receive sepulcher and 

 other memorials of honor, the greatest that 

 we have to give." 



The essentials of life and character have 

 not changed since the days when Socrates 

 talked of truth and justice in the groves of 

 Academus. You graduates to-day go forth 

 to be tested. You have in varying meas- 

 ure the vision of the university, the sense 

 of obligation which your .training lays 

 upon you. You must hear, be it ever so 

 faintly, the call to be servants of the com- 

 monwealth. Put to yourselves the ques- 

 tion which comes down through the cen- 

 turies, can you hold to this conviction that 

 the interests of the community should be 

 the rule of all your actions. You will face 

 intellectual sophistry and beguiling falla- 

 cies. Have you the keenness of mind and 

 the force of character to analyze these 

 specious assertions and to hold steadfastly 

 to things that are true and enduring? 

 You will be tested by fear, fear of financial 

 loss, fear of ridicule, fear it may be of 

 social ostracism. Have you the courage 

 and character to preserve your convictions 

 of loyalty to the general good? You will 

 be lured by pleasure, dazzled it may be by 

 luxury and ostentation, tempted to self-in- 

 dulgence and evanescent pleasures. Have 

 you the fiber to resist these appeals and to 

 remember that the social servant must be 

 ever strong, clear eyed and faithful to his 

 work? 



May you hold to the vision you have 

 caught : may it with the passing years grow 

 ever clearer, brighter, more commanding 

 in your lives. The university sends you 



forth to-day with God speed, entrusts to 

 you the good name of our widening com- 

 munity, summons you to loyalty, urges you 

 to organize all your resources of mind and 

 spirit into the unity of a high aim, the firm 

 resolve to realize in your own lives the 

 masterful purpose of the university which 

 is to be in ever fuller measure at once the 

 standard bearer and the servant of the 

 state. 



Go to your work and be strong, halting not in a 



world of men, 

 Balking the end half won for an instant dole of 



praise. 

 Stand to your work and be wise — certain of sword 



and pen. 

 Who are neither children nor Gods, but men in a 



world of men. 



George E. Vincent 



COUMSES IN SIGHES PUBE MATHEMATICS 

 The number of the objects of raathematieal 

 thought is infinite and the rapidly widening 

 range of developed mathematics is continually 

 directing mathematical attention to objects 

 which were previously either practically or 

 entirely ignored. Efforts to classify mathe- 

 matics have been only partially successful and 

 it is extremely difficult, in many cases, to 

 draw reliable conclusions as to the nature of 

 a course from its title. Hence the efforts to 

 ascertain from the announcements of the 

 leading universities of the world the relative 

 emphasis which different countries place on 

 the various subjects of higher mathematics 

 can not be expected to lead to entirely trust- 

 worthy results. 



The rapid development of our universities 

 has led to such a rapid increase in the num- 

 ber of different mathematical courses beyond 

 the first courses in differential and integral 

 calculus, that many well-educated people have 

 failed to keep informed as regards the gen- 

 eral meaning of the titles of some of these 

 courses. This is perhaps not surprising in 

 view of the fact that several of our strongest 

 universities offer their advanced courses under 

 more than thirty different titles. 



