To come from the press of public affairs, where the practical side of
life is at its flood, into these calm and classic surroundings, where
ideals are cherished for their own sake, is an intense relief and
satisfaction. Even in the full flow of Commencement exercises it is
apparent that here abide the truth and the servants of the truth. Here
appears the fulfillment of the past in the grand company of alumni,
recalling a history already so thick with laurels. Here is the hope of
the future, brighter yet in the young men to-day sent forth.
"The unarmed youth of heaven. But o'er their heads
Celestial armory, shield, helm and spear,
Hung bright, with diamond flaming and with gold."
In them the dead past lives. They represent the college. They are the
college. It is not in the campus with its imposing halls and temples,
nor in the silent lore of the vast library or the scientific instruments
of well-equipped laboratories, but in the men who are the incarnation of
all these, that your college lives. It is not enough that there be
knowledge, history and poetry, eloquence and art, science and
mathematics, philosophy and ethics, ideas and ideals. They must be
vitalized. They must be fashioned into life. To send forth men who live
all these is to be a college. This temple of learning must be translated
into human form if it is to exercise any influence over the affairs of
mankind, or if its alumni are to wield the power of education.
A great thinker and master of the expression of thought has told us:
"It was before Deity, embodied in a human form, walking among men,
partaking of their infirmities, leaning on their bosoms, weeping over
their graves, slumbering in the manger, bleeding on the cross, that the
prejudices of the Synagogue, and the doubts of the Academy, and the
pride of the Portico, and the fasces of the Lictor, and the swords of
thirty Legions, were humbled in the dust."
If college-bred men are to exercise the influence over the progress of
the world which ought to be their portion, they must exhibit in their
lives a knowledge and a learning which is marked with candor, humility,
and the honest mind.
The present is ever influenced mightily by the past. Patrick Henry spoke
with great wisdom when he declared to the Continental Congress, "I have
but one lamp by which my feet are guided and that is the lamp of
experience." Mankind is finite. It has the limits of all things finite.
The processes of government are subject to the same limitations, and,
lacking imperfections, would be something more than human. It is always
easy to discover flaws, and, pointing them out, to criticize. It is not
so easy to suggest substantial remedies or propose constructive
policies. It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever
proposing something which is old, and, because it has recently come to
their own attention, supposing it to be new. Into this error men of
liberal education ought not to fall. The forms and processes of
government are not new. They have been known, discussed, and tried in
all their varieties through the past ages. That which America
exemplifies in her Constitution and system of representative government
is the most modern, and of any yet devised gives promise of being the
most substantial and enduring.
It is not unusual to hear arguments against our institutions and our
Government, addressed particularly to recent arrivals and the sons of
recent arrivals to our shores. They sometimes take the form of a claim
that our institutions were founded long ago; that changed conditions
require that they now be changed. Especially is it claimed by those
seeking such changes that these new arrivals and men of their race and
ideas had no hand in the making of our country, and that it was formed
by those who were hostile to them and therefore they owe it no support.
Whatever may be the condition in relation to others, and whatever
ignorance and bigotry may imagine, such arguments do not apply to those
of the race and blood so prominent in this assemblage. To establish this
it were but necessary to cite eleven of the fifty-five signers of the
Declaration of Independence and recall that on the roll of Washington's
generals were Sullivan, Knox, Wayne, and the gallant son of Trinity
College, Dublin, who fell at Quebec at the head of his troops,—Richard
Montgomery. But scholarship has answered ignorance. The learned and
patriotic research of men of the education of Dr. James J. Walsh and
Michael J. O'Brien, the historian of the Irish American Society, has
demonstrated that a generous portion of the rank and file of the men who
fought in the Revolution and supported those who framed our institutions
was not alien to those who are represented here. It is no wonder that
from among such that which is American has drawn some of its most
steadfast defenders.
In these days of violent agitation scholarly men should reflect that the
progress of the past has been accomplished not by the total overthrow of
institutions so much as by discarding that which was bad and preserving
that which was good; not by revolution but by evolution has man worked
out his destiny. We shall miss the central feature of all progress
unless we hold to that process now. It is not a question of whether our
institutions are perfect. The most beneficent of our institutions had
their beginnings in forms which would be particularly odious to us now.
Civilization began with war and slavery; government began in absolute
despotism; and religion itself grew out of superstition which was
oftentimes marked with human sacrifices. So out of our present
imperfections we shall develop that which is more perfect. But the
candid mind of the scholar will admit and seek to remedy all wrongs with
the same zeal with which it defends all rights.
From the knowledge and the learning of the scholar there ought to be
developed an abiding faith. What is the teaching of all history? That
which is necessary for the welfare and progress of the human race has
never been destroyed. The discoverers of truth, the teachers of science,
the makers of inventions, have passed to their last rewards, but their
works have survived. The Phoenician galleys and the civilization which
was born of their commerce have perished, but the alphabet which that
people perfected remains. The shepherd kings of Israel, the temple and
empire of Solomon, have gone the way of all the earth, but the Old
Testament has been preserved for the inspiration of mankind. The ark of
the covenant and the seven-pronged candlestick have passed from human
view; the inhabitants of Judea have been dispersed to the ends of the
earth, but the New Testament has survived and increased in its influence
among men. The glory of Athens and Sparta, the grandeur of the Imperial
City, are a long-lost memory, but the poetry of Homer and Virgil, the
oratory of Demosthenes and Cicero, the philosophy of Plato and
Aristotle, abide with us forevermore. Whatever America holds that may be
of value to posterity will not pass away.
The long and toilsome processes which have marked the progress of the
past cannot be shunned by the present generation to our advantage. We
have no right to expect as our portion something substantially different
from human experience in the past. The constitution of the universe
does not change. Human nature remains constant. That service and
sacrifice which have been the price of past progress are the price of
progress now.
This is not a gospel of despair, but of hope and high expectation. Out
of many tribulations mankind has pressed steadily onward. The
opportunity for a rational existence was never before so great.
Blessings were never so bountiful. But the evidence was never so
overwhelming as now that men and nations must live rationally or perish.
The defenses of our Commonwealth are not material but mental and
spiritual. Her fortifications, her castles, are her institutions of
learning. Those who are admitted to the college campus tread the
ramparts of the State. The classic halls are the armories from which are
furnished forth the knights in armor to defend and support our liberty.
For such high purpose has Holy Cross been called into being. A firm
foundation of the Commonwealth. A defender of righteousness. A teacher
of holy men. Let her turrets continue to rise, showing forth "the way,
the truth and the light"—
"In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man's arch
To vaster issues."