in
chance, only shrivels, and strangles the very faculties he would
develop.

The trouble with most of us is that, in our efforts to sell ourselves
for selfish ends or for the most dollars, we impoverish our own lives,
stifle our better natures.

The graduate should show the world that he has something in him too
sacred to be tampered with, something marked "not for sale," a sacred
something that bribery cannot touch, that influence cannot buy. You
should so conduct yourself that every one will see that there is
something in you that would repel as an insult the very suggestion that
you could be bought or bribed, or influenced to stoop to anything low
or questionable.

The college man who is cursed with commonness, who gropes along in
mediocrity, who lives a shiftless, selfish life, and does not lift up
his head and show that he has made the most of his great privileges
disgraces the institution that gave him his chance.

You have not learned the best lesson from your school or college if you
have not discovered the secret of making life a glory instead of a
sordid grind. When you leave your _alma mater_, my young friend,
whatever your vocation, do not allow all that is finest within you,
your high ideals and noble purposes to be suffocated, strangled, in the
everlasting scramble for the dollar. Put beauty into your life, do not
let your esthetic faculties, your aspiring instincts, be atrophied in
your efforts to make a living. Do not, as thousands of graduates do,
sacrifice your social instincts, your friendships, your good name, for
power or position.

Whether you make money or lose it, never sell your divine heritage,
your good name, for a mess of pottage. Whatever you do, be larger than
your vocation; never let it be said of you that you succeeded in your
vocation, but failed as a man.

When William Story, the sculptor, was asked to make a speech at the
unveiling of his great statue of George Peabody, in London, he simply
pointed to the statue and said, "_That is my speech._"

So conduct yourself that your life shall need no eulogy in words. Let
it be its own eulogy, let your success tell to the world the story of a
noble career. However much money you may accumulate, carry your
greatest wealth with you, in _a clean record, an unsullied reputation_.
Then you will not need houses or lands or stocks or bonds to testify to
a rich life.

Never before did an opportunity to render such great service to m