Honored Sir: Because of the office I am temporarily holding, I am given
the unexpected honor of placing in your hands the diploma that entitles
you to honorary membership in the Mexican Academy of Legislation and
Jurisprudence.
You have come to the country of snowy mountains and flowering valleys
which perfume our tropical breezes, preceded by the meritorious fame of
having preserved always, unblemished during the course of your fruitful
life, the reputation and profession of a lawyer, of having penetrated
the secrets of the juridical science and of consecrating today all your
energies and abilities to the service of your country.
By a happy coincidence, you will find engraved in this parchment as our
motto: "Professional Honor, Science, and Country"--the same great ends
that have consecrated your life. Never was the diploma bearing this
motto conferred upon a more meritorious or greater man.
In science, you have not been the selfish investigator nor in the
service of your country have you confined yourself to directing from
your place in the Cabinet the important matters of the foreign relations
of a world-power.
Knowing that the time has passed for studies merely speculative, and
that at the present day every scientific truth cannot be such unless it
is applicable, you have most happily found time to scatter the treasures
of your studies, either when carrying them as the apostle of peace and
concord to other countries, or through your invaluable publications.
The Academy could hardly be indifferent to this phase of your labors, as
we owe to it the great satisfaction of knowing you intellectually and
personally; and we pay you our profound respect.
Therefore, selecting from among your works the last you have published,
entitled _The Citizen's Part in Government_,[6] it was agreed that we
should offer you a translation of the same, in the hope that it may
please you as it comes from the able and learned pen of an Academician
for whom you have shown particular friendship prior to this time, and
who feels for you the just admiration expressed in the eloquent words of
welcome that we have all seconded.
We find in this illuminating work of yours the double revelation of the
genius that pursues the development of a great idea, and of the generous
heart that instills it with an ardor that will make it successful.
I will not take the liberty, Mr. Secretary, of commenting on the
selection made by the Academy; but I can assure you that the collection
of your lectures at Yale University, appear to me worthy, for the clear
observation and teaching they contain, to be designated as the text-book
to be read in all schools by youths preparing to exercise the rights of
citizenship. Therefore, I beg you, kindly to accept the special copy of
this translation presented by the Academy.
Among those who devote themselves to the study of science in general,
Mr. Secretary, and more particularly among those who cultivate one
special branch, is formed a sort of fraternity of feelings and
affections--the fruit of the communion of ideas--and also of respect
caused in every really broad man, for the talents and learning of
others.
This fraternal feeling has always existed among the jurists of all
nations, and in every language there is a word to describe it:
_companero_, in our Castilian tongue; _confrere_, in French; and in
yours, the most virile and the most expressive, you use the word
_brother_.
As a brother, therefore, this Academy has the honor to receive you in
its midst. Foreign though it is by virtue of its by-laws to all matters
of militant politics, the Academy hopes and desires that, forgetting for
a moment the high official functions with which you are vested and
recalling the happy times when you were simply a lawyer, you may come to
us to aid with your vast knowledge and generosity of character, in the
success of this ideal: "Justice among men and justice among nations."
We hope, sir, that when once more in the calm of your honored home, far
from the madding crowd and the cares of business, in the company of the
two beings most dear to you, who as a blessing may come to your side to
fill your affections and to venerate your white head; when in that
tranquillity of the soul you may recall the incidents of your busy life,
we hope that the recollection of the brief days you are passing among us
may be pleasing, and that in the depths of your heart you may be able to
say: "I went to Mexico in search of friends, and I found brothers...."
Members of the Academy, and Committees of Scientific Societies, and all
you who have kindly contributed with your presence to enhance the
solemnity of this function in honor of an illustrious lawyer: this is a
time when he who gives gains more than those who receive. Let us all
greet the reception of the new Academician!