The completing of a course of study affords one of the few unalloyed
satisfactions of life. It is an end reached—and it has been reached
by personal effort. The class is at the goal, and it is there because
it chose to be there, and resolutely and persistently labored to be
there. We get many good things without effort, but they give us less
satisfaction than meaner things which we have earned. There is a charm
in winning a race, which does not consist either in being at the end of
it, or in getting a prize. The victory is “our very own,” as the children
say. But in a course of study completed one feels that the prize is
worth his pains. He may feel discontented with the imperfections of his
knowledge, but he would not for the world be put back where he began. We
hold many things only with our hands; the fruits of a course of study are
more secure—they are in our minds and hearts, and therefore can not fall
out of our possession, or be wrested from us.
It is a good thing for the student to take the refreshment of looking
back to the place of beginning. “What was I when I began?” This sense
of gain is apt to be supplanted by discontent and looking forward; but
the student should give himself the comfort of the backward glance. No
one has pursued our course of reading and study to the end without very
great improvement in mental power and method, or without large additions
to his knowledge. “Look to the hole of the pit.” Take a long look at
your old self and do not hesitate to prefer the new self. You are wiser,
stronger, better. Allow yourself the luxury of fully realizing that. And
how little it has cost you! A piecing together of fragments of time that
would otherwise have been wasted, that is the greater part of the cost
of your course. Whatever else you have spent you would have spent less
wisely if you had not been in the course. You have sacrificed nothing of
any moment to this object. All else that you had you keep still; this
fruit of patient study you have as a clean and pure gain. It is a matter
to be happy about. A good hour of self-complacency will do you no harm.
Indulge your self-respect a little. All might do what you have done; most
of them have not done it. Your graduation is of itself a proof that you
have pluck, constancy, and self-control.
It is worth while to consider the elements of this victory. You have
mixed time and method with reading and study. Hap-hazard study would not
yield the fruit; it could not be ripened in a day. “Four months—and
harvest.” Nor could method be left out. There is method in any work;
method distinguishes work from play. There is method on the farm, in the
mill, in the store. There must be method in gaining knowledge. Method
makes tasks easy and combines many strokes into one result. In this
combination of time and method lies the power of a course of study. All
the mental effort is probably put forth by others spasmodically and
unmethodically. You are at the end simply because you harnessed your
efforts with years and system. Only stable and earnest characters are
capable of the patient continuance in well-doing which is necessary to
the completion of a course of study. College men say that the majority of
those who begin a course fall out by the way; and they add that, whatever
pretexts are used, the real reason is usually defective character.
It is a rule in all undertakings of mankind; holdfast is the master
quality. The men and women who complete the C. L. S. C. course do so
on purpose and because they are capable of tenacity of purpose, and it
is an education in tenacity. The man who has run such a race _through_
is capable of running other races. He has learned how to “keep pegging
away,” as Lincoln put it. He knows how to run—how to study. He likes to
study. He has only begun in the great museum of knowledge, but he will go
on searching its shelves until he is graduated into the large university
of immortality. Ingratitude to our past selves is a human frailty which
is often displayed, even ostentatiously, by men and women. Many there
are who boast that they learned nothing at school; there are more who
complain that they were taught nothing. Dr. Samuel Johnson was truer to
himself in saying that he had learned nothing since. We hope that C. L.
S. C. graduates will never fall into this cant. Be just now and always
to yourselves and to those who have guided you through this journey. You
have not learned everything, but you have learned how to learn. What you
build yourself into hereafter will be built on this foundation. If you
come to more wisdom do not be guilty of the meanness of despising these
foundations. If the building rises high and stands firm, the glory of it
will be these well-laid stones. If the building does not rise, yours the
fault, for you will have neglected the solid base which invites you to
build. Go on with the building; but do not forget now and again to bless
the years when you were laying the first blocks of a studious life. In
short, we have read you a little homily on self-respect. Take an honest
satisfaction in your course; keep a just respect for your tenacity and
application; cherish your love for those who have helped and inspired you
in the good work.