The literary festival which we are assembled to commemorate is called
Commencement. To an interesting portion of my hearers it is the
commencement of a new life. The ingenuous student, having completed
his term of years--a classical Olympiad--amidst the restraints of the
academy, in the daily pursuits of the lecture-room, observant of forms,
obsequious to the college curfew, at length renounces these restraints,
heeds no longer the summoning bell, throws off the youthful gown, and
now, under the auspices of Alma Mater, assumes the robe of manhood. At
such a change, the mind and heart open to impressions which may send
an influence through remaining life. A seasonable word to-day may,
peradventure, like the acorn dropped into propitious soil, shoot upward
its invigorating growth, till its stately trunk, its multitudinous
branches, and sheltering foliage become an ornament and protection of
unspeakable beauty.
Feeling more than I can express the responsibility of the position
in which I am now placed by your partial kindness, I trust that what
I shall say may be not unworthy of careful meditation, and that it
may ripen in this generous soil with no unwelcome growth. I address
the literary societies of Amherst College, and my subject will
naturally bear some relation to the occasion and to the assembly.
But though addressing literary societies, I feel that I should
inadequately perform my duty at this time, if I spoke on any topic of
mere literature, without moralizing the theme; nor could I satisfy
myself,--I think I should not satisfy you,--if I strove to excite
merely a love of knowledge, of study, of books, or even of those
classics which, like the ancient Roman roads, the Appian and Flaminian
Ways, once trod by returning proconsuls and tributary kings, still
continue the thoroughfares of nations. These things I may well leave
to the lessons of your able instructors and to the influences of this
place; nor, indeed, can I expect to touch upon any topic which, under
the mingled teachings of the pulpit and the chair, has not been already
impressed upon your minds with more force than I can command. Still,
I may not vainly indulge the hope, by singling one special theme, to
present it with distinctness and unity, so that it will be connected
hereafter, in some humble measure, with the grave and the pleasant
memories of this occasion.
To you now standing on the threshold of life, anxious for its
honors,--more anxious, I hope, for its duties,--nothing can be more
important or interesting than the inquiry, what should be your aims,
and what your motives of conduct. The youthful bosom throbbing with
historic examples is stirred by the praises lavished upon those who
have gone before, and pants for fresh fields. The laurels of Miltiades
would not suffer Themistocles to sleep. Perhaps a kindred sleeplessness
consumes the early thoughts of our day, and, in those visions which it
is said young men shall see, Fame and Glory too often absorb the sight.
Turning the attention in this direction, we may, perhaps, ascertain
the true nature of these potent attractions, and to what extent they
can be justly regarded.
* * * * *
My subject is FAME AND GLORY. As I undertake this discussion,
I feel that I enter upon a theme which has become a commonplace of
declamation, while it has filled the aspirations of many of the noblest
natures that have lived. The great Roman orator, whose essay _De
Gloria_, surviving the wreck of antiquity, was lost in the darkness of
the Middle Ages, cannot claim exclusive possession of the topic he had
fondly made his own; nor is there enough in the chapter _De Cupiditate
Gloriæ_, by the Roman historiographer,[186] to supersede inquiry,
especially in a Christian age, when a speaker may hope to combine
lights and illustrations which had not dawned upon the Heathen.
[186] Valerius Maximus, Lib. VIII. c. 14.
Three questions present themselves: _First_, What, in the more popular
acceptation, are Fame and Glory? _Secondly_, To what extent, if
any, are they proper motives of conduct or objects of regard? and,
_Thirdly_, What are True Fame and Glory, and who are the men most
worthy of honor? Already, in stating these questions, scenes and
characters memorable in history rise before us, while from a distance
we discern the dazzling heights of human ambition.