n those exact studies which compel subtleness and
precision of thought, which habituate the mind to long trains of
controlled reasoning, which discipline alike the attention and the
will, the conservative and the elaborative powers. She has given full
honor to the masterpieces of human language and human thought, through
which, while we come to a more complete knowledge of peoples and
nations, of poetry and eloquence, we feel more profoundly the life of
history, and comprehend the changes of custom and thought, while the
finer and more subtle powers of fancy and imagination stir within the
sensitive mind, and gradually by constant and imperceptible
inspiration lift the soul to regions of larger beauty and freedom.

"So may she ever hold on her way, undeluded by specious promises of
easier methods, inuring her students to toil as the price of success;
not rigid and motionless, but plastic and adapting herself to the
necessities of different minds; yet never confounding things that
differ, nor vainly hoping on a narrow basis of culture to rear the
superstructure of the broadest attainment and character, but ever
determined to make her instructions the most truly liberal and noble.

"With no purpose of personal advantage, but with the deepest filial
love and gratitude have we assembled this day. Of all professions and
callings, from many States, from public business and from engrossing
private pursuits,--you, my young friend who have just come, with
hesitation and ingenuous fear, to add your name if you may, to the
honored rolls of the college, and you Sir,[37] whose memory runs back
to the beginning of the century, the oldest or nearly the oldest
living alumnus of the college, the contemporary of Chapman and Harvey,
and Fletcher, and Parris, and Weston, and Webster,--you who came from
beyond the 'Father of Waters,' and you who have retreated for a moment
from the shore of the dark Atlantic--you Sir,[38] our brother by
hearty and affectionate adoption, who led our armies in that memorable
march from the mountain to the sea, which shall be remembered as long
as the march of the Ten Thousand, and repeated in story and song as
long as history and romance shall be written, and you, Sir, who hold
the even scales of justice in that august tribunal, from which
Marshall proclaimed the law which insured to us our ancient name and
rights and privileges, unchanged, untarnished, unharmed,--all of us,
my brothers, with one purpose hav