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.[6]
[Footnote 6: Macaulay's _Essay on Milton_.]
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 defences 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 search
To vaster issues.[7]
[Footnote 7: George Eliot's "O may I join the choir invisible."]