also, as affording a motive for every effort to maintain Harvard in her exemplary position as leader and guide in the paths of learning. The greater the progress of Columbia and Cornell and Princeton and Yale and the rest, the greater the need of progress here. We have led them all, and we mean to keep our place at the head of the column. It seems, indeed, not unlikely that with such splendid gifts as those of President Low to Columbia, of Provost Harrison to the University of Pennsylvania, with the large and increasing endowments of Chicago, one or more of these universities will surpass Harvard in wealth, and in the means of education which wealth supplies. But in other possessions, possessions indispensable for the best influence and the highest usefulness of a seat of learning, Harvard has an unquestionable superiority. Inspiring traditions and historic associations, the memory and abiding influence of famous teachers, the heroic examples of past generations, the atmosphere of culture, are not to be bought. Money, says Irving, cannot make an avenue of oaks of a thousand years old.

"These precious sources and elements of a liberal education are of immeasurable worth in their influence on the imagination, and in shaping the character of the youth that gather here from year to year. It is on their influence that the preeminence of Harvard largely depends. They need careful and constant cherishing; they should be made vital and visible, visible as in this hall with its portraits and its memorial windows. One of the most important of them in its silent but effectual power over the imagination is the outward aspect and form of the university, as the visible representation of its historic spirit and its ideal aims. 'Material pomp and circumstance,' said Cardinal Newman, 'should environ a great seat of learning.' It is a grave reproach to us that this element of prime concern in the imaginative and spiritual life of the University has been greatly neglected. Other universities, younger, less richly endowed with inheritance of the spirit, have been building themselves into nobler form, with truer regard for the influence of their aspect upon the hearts and minds of their students. The very difficulties resulting from the local position of Harvard should have made her authorities more careful in the use of her limited opportunities. And if we would retain our leadership among American universities, and if we admit that the finest elements of a liberal education are nothing which can be bought, but lie in the subtle but controlling effect of noble examples and noble surroundings upon the imagination and the heart, we must see to it that the outward form of Harvard be made more nearly to correspond with her ideal image, and that such a garb be given to our Alma Mater as she requires and deserves. "But, gentlemen, in other respects, Harvard, so long as President Eliot remains in her service, will not fail to be what we desire her to be, and I ask him to tell you of her present power and prosperity."

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President Eliot, after being greeted with great applause, said:

"Mr. President and Gentlemen : -I was much impressed yesterday with the multiplicity and variety of the intellectual interests of the University. I went, first, to the dinner of the Harvard Medical School Association, meeting there a large body of the graduates of that School; next, to the celebration by the

Harvard Law School Association of Dean Langdell's twenty-fifth anniversary; then to the Commencement of Radcliffe, held, for the first time, in Sanders Theatre; and, lastly, to the annual meeting of the graduates of the Divinity School. Here was an extraordinary variety and complexity of interests, represented in the meetings of a single day; and I could not but ask myself as I went home, What is the central thought in all these gatherings of Harvard men, representing such a great variety of intellectual pursuits and spiritual interests? At home I met with this pregnant sentence: To what purpose should our thoughts be directed to the various kinds of knowledge, unless room be afforded for putting it into practice, so that public advantage may be the result?' That sentence has a modern sound, gentlemen; but it was written by Sir Philip Sidney in 1578 — sixty years before this University was founded. "We seek here at Harvard to put all the various sciences and arts into practice, so that 'public advantage may be the result.' We seek to train doers, achievers, -men whose successful personal careers are made subservient to the public good. We are not interested here in producing languid observers of the world, mere spectators at the game of life, or fastidious critics of other men's labors. We want to produce by hundreds and thousands strenuous workers in the world of to-day - — a more interesting world, I venture to say, than has ever yet offered a field for splendid intellectual and moral achievements.

"The honorary degrees conferred this morning represent just such diversity of achievement as the University desires for her own children. The University recognized to-day achievements in a singular variety of fields. We honored a young African explorer, a player, an editor of a public journal which, I think, may fairly be called controversial in character, a divine, three men devoted to the law, - a judge, a teacher of law, and an historian of the law, a captain in the United States Navy, whose writings have had profound effect on the policy of at least one great European power, and an Adams, the fourth of his line in successive generations to receive the doctorate of laws from this University.

"We are proud of all sorts of achievements by our graduates; it makes no difference in what profession or in what field of human labor. During the great strike on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, one of our young graduates was a passenger on an express train to Chicago. The engineer having deserted his post one hundred miles from the city, this young graduate of ours took charge of the engine, and brought the express train into Chicago on time. He was prepared to put his knowledge into practice at a critical moment. We delight in the exhibition of that lonely courage which springs from independent conviction. We honor it to-day in the Governor of the Commonwealth. We count here, gentlemen, all kinds of intellectual fruition an historic argument before the Supreme Court of the United States, for example, or leadership in the organized efforts now being made for municipal reform. We do not fail to recognize achievements by our graduates even higher and more durable than these. We remember an immortal Essay on Manners. Who can ever forget the Commemoration Poem of thirty years ago?

"All these achievements of her children the University delights in. They show the young men who have crowded her halls this year what it is that the University stands for, and what the real fruits are of serious study and the daily inculcation of honor and public spirit. Those of you who attended the exercises in Sanders Theatre this morning perceived, I am sure, that the example of the elders has not been lost on the young men who are now coming forward into active life. Those exercises were full of one sentiment—the purpose and desire to be of service in the world."

Professor Norton, in introducing Governor Greenhalge, remarked that the Governor had lately said that his ambition was to write a novel, and that he had the scheme of an opera in mind. "But in these times you can't fool round with romantic ideals," the Governor had added. Mr. Norton went on to say that "it is pleasanter than usual to welcome the Chief Magistrate because of the opportunity to express, in the name of Harvard, her recognition of good service done to the State. The attempt was vain to save our veterans from dishonor, to recall our Legislature to its duty to the people at large, and to save it from the discredit of incredible folly. But the very failure makes the credit of the attempt the greater. For the sense, the manly independence, the vigorous moral sentiment displayed by Governor Greenhalge, I offer him the grateful honor of his fellow-students, the alumni of Harvard College.”

Governor Greenhalge, who had an enthusiastic greeting, said in part:

"I am glad to be a part of this great festival of Harvard. From every quarter of the country the crimson tide turns yearly to the mighty heart of Harvard, to return with fresh inspiration and new strength to the farthest extremities of this country. The Commonwealth cannot look on this scene with languid indifference. The relation between the College and the Commonwealth is as intimate, affectionate, and cordial as ever. Together they came into existence, together they passed through the early struggles of their history, and together they are to face the future. When the Commonwealth has had occasion to collect its forces to the accomplishment of a great purpose, the great banner of Harvard has always been unfurled, and its motto of Veritas has flung new inspiration along the whole array. It may be that the field of lower athletics will be relegated to others; but the higher athletics, the adjoining of the physical to the intellectual, which best fits for the vicissitudes and the duties of life, in this Harvard will always find her true centre of activity. I have come to the conclusion that the old attitude of passiveness with which Harvard has been credited has passed away. There was a time when Harvard men seemed to have an idea that their part in life was to watch the trend of things from a position of inactivity. Now we find them wherever manliness, courage, and ability are required. We find them solving the hard practical problems of the day, and working them out as successfully as the graduates of any college in the world. The names of the men who have been honored this morning show the real work that Harvard is doing.

"Friends, it is an inspiration to be here. It is well that the sons of our Alma Mater come here yearly to express their opinions as to the way in which a Harvard man has done his duty or has tried to do it. The future is full of activity, the activity that moves and executes and moulds. Such a future will make the Commonwealth more like an institution of learning, and the College will always be a commonwealth and a republic in which justice and right shall ever be done."

Professor Norton, in introducing Captain A. T. Mahan, spoke of him as the author of books which not only revise our study of history, but also affect the international policy of nations. Captain Mahan said in reply:

"The honor which your University has this day conferred upon me is only an indication of that universality of interests which characterizes the modern universities in all countries. It is an instance of the interest which universities are taking in the art of war, such as has never before been shown. But pray, what have I done to merit these honors at your hands? I have preached a sermon on a text taken from the past. But the past is forever dead. The application of this text may have a bearing on the future. Herein, then, lies its value. If those of you who have done me the honor of reading my book shall take unto themselves the lesson of the past, I shall consider my purpose amply accomplished. Great Britain has taken the lesson, and I have it on reliable authority that she is now working upon it. As for my own country, it is a cause for regret to me that I have fired a blank shot, as it were. The honor you have done me will be robbed of half its satisfaction if it is only a personal one, and has no connection with the problem which I have set before me."

Professor Norton next called upon Sir Frederick Pollock, saying that the best part of liberal English education is the converse of educated men, and quoting the lines:

"Our English blood its rights reclaims,

In vain the sea his barrier rears,

Our pride is fed on England's fames,

Ours are her triumphs and her tears,

And ours her length of glorious years."

After the band played "God Save the Queen," Sir Frederick replied, referring pleasantly to Judge Holmes and Prof. J. C. Gray, and describing Captain Mahan as the American to whom it had been given to reveal to Great Britain the secret of her greatness:

"If there is any other feeling than that of gratitude which comes to me to-day," he continued, "it is something like envy when I think that probably there are very many of those before me who have trod the wine-press of war. Great as was the price of that war, it was worth the price, and I cannot but feel that there is something in your traditions which is not in ours. I am a man of peace. I have never faced anything more dangerous than an Alpine

mountain or an elevated car, but I cannot be insensible to the precious significance that attaches to the man through whose currents flows the life-blood of the nation. You will have no more war in this country; but peace has her victories no less than war."

Justice Horace Gray, '45, was the next speaker. He responded for the Class of 1845, and recalled the Harvard of fifty years ago. Of the Faculty then, he said:

"There were few professors in those days. There was only one professor of political economy and moral philosophy, but that one was James Walker; there was one professor of mathematics, but that one was Benjamin Peirce ; there was one professor of history, but that one was Jared Sparks. It has become the fashion now to believe that Jared Sparks was always dry and sometimes dreamy, but any one who has heard him lecture on Washington and his campaigns and remembers how he used to pass back and forth before the map, knows that he could become enthusiastic. There was one professor of Latin, too, in those times, but that one was Charles Beck, and one professor of Greek, Cornelius Conway Felton, and one professor of English literature, E. T. Channing."

In introducing Charles Francis Adams, '56, Professor Norton quoted from the "Vicar of Wakefield" the remarks of the Principal of the University of Louvain, who said: "You see me, young man, I never learned Greek, and I don't find that I ever missed it. I have had a doctor's cap and gown without Greek; I have had ten thousand florins a year without Greek; and I can eat heartily without Greek;' in short, continued he, as I don't know Greek, I do not believe there is any use in it.'"

Mr. Adams said:

"Some years ago a distinguished literary character, as well as accomplished and lovable man, - since gone over to the silent majority, - stood here, as I now am standing, having a few hours before received Harvard's highest degree. Not himself a child of the University, he had been invited here a stranger, though in Cambridge he was by no means a stranger in a strange land, to receive well-deserved recognition for the good life-work he had done, and the high standard of character he had ever maintained. When called upon by the presiding officer of that occasion, as I now am called upon by you, he responded by saying that the day before he had left his New York home to come to Cambridge a simple, ordinary man; he would go back, 'ennobled.'

“In America, patents of nobility may not be conferred, the fundamental law itself inhibits; so, when from the mother country the name of Sir Henry Irving comes sounding across the Atlantic, we cannot answer in reply with a Sir Joseph Jefferson, but we do not less, perhaps, in honor of great Shakespeare's craft, by inviting him to whom you have this day given the greatest ovation on any bestowed, to come up and join the family circle which sur