[Footnote 4: _From Have Faith in Massachusetts_, by Calvin Coolidge. The
selection is used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, the
Houghton Mifflin Co., the authorized publishers. Copyright, 1919, by
Houghton Mifflin Co. The address was delivered June 25, 1919.]
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.[5]
[Footnote 5: _Paradise Lost_, IV, 1. 552.]
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.