V^ 1 ADDRESSES INAUGURATION PRESIDENT HYDE, BOWDOIN COLLEGE, JUNE 23, 1886. ADDRESSES INAUGURATION OF THE J Rev, William DeWitt Hyde, AS PRESIDENT OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1886. BRUNSWICK, MAINE. 1886. >s STEPHEN BEKRY, PRINTER, PORTLAND. — &$&&§— oo- L ORDER OF EXERCISES I. Music. II. Prayer of Invocation. III. Congratulatory Address, by the Rev. John Orr Fiske, D. D. IV. Address and Investiture, by the Rev. Edwin Bonaparte Webb, D. D. V. Music. VI. Inaugural Address, by President Hyde. VII. Prayer by the Rev. Javan Knapp Mason, D. D. VIII. Benediction, by President Hyde. CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS, REV. JOHN ORR FISKE, D. D. CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS. Gentlemen of the Boards, Brethren of the Alumni and Friends : It is a welcome and auspicious day which has brought us to the inauguration of the new President of our College. It is our own profound conviction, in which we are confirmed by the cordial approval and co-operation of all who have a knowledge of the facts of the case, that it is the good providence of our God which has led us to the exercises of this hour. On former occasions of the death or removal of eminent Presidents and Instructors of this College, we have often been constrained sadly to exclaim " Sol occubuit " ; but by the rich blessing of God we have still- been enabled to add " Nox nulla secuta est ! " So is it to-day ; whatever we have lost, all is brightness and joyousness of prospect for the time to come. ADDRESS OF INVESTITURE, REV. EDWIN B. WEBB, D. D. ADDRESS OF INVESTITURE. My dear Sir: Speaking for the Boards, whom I have the honor to represent on this occasion, we congratulate ourselves and we congratulate you on the event which brings us together at this time. The College entered into the early designs, efforts and sacrifices of our fathers. The College has always held a prominent place in the life and history of New England. This College bears an honored name, — a name that carries us back to the days of trial and heroic endur- ance for Christ's sake. All the history of its years comes up before us very vividly to-day. And we count it a joy to introduce another President — and one so young, so full of promise, courage, zeal and pious devotion — into the long line of eminent scholars who have filled this honorable position. Just eighty years ago, the first President graduated the first class from this College. President McKeen was called, at a comparatively early age, from a sue- 12 ADDRESS OF INVESTITURE. cessful pastorate in the Mother Commonwealth, to enter into the prospects and shape the interests of the infant institution. And here, as in his ministry, he showed himself to be a man of great ability, of varied learning, of excellent judgment, of a mild and concilia- tory and yet fearless temper. Too brief was his life here. After him, still younger in years, came the almost model man and President, Appleton. From his rural parish he brought habits of earnest study and conse- crated living. Dignified but winning in manners, keen in discrimination, effective in wit, faithful in prepara- tion, clear and concise in statement, he did admirable service in the class room, and won for himself a posi- tion among the foremost of the theological and re- ligious thinkers of his day. If not brilliant, his course was ever upward and onward, and, like that of the just, shining more and more unto the perfect day. Next came President Allen — a man of literary dili- gence, of exact scholarship, of strong purposes, and deep religious convictions. At the early age of twenty-six, he succeeded his em- inent father in the pastoral office, and ministered to the people with marked fidelity and success. At Har- vard and at Dartmouth also, he served with distinc- tion. His American Biographical and Historical Diction- ary, surpassing anything which had hitherto appeared ( ADDRESS OF INVESTITURE. 13 in its line, was a monument of patient industry and literary research. We owe to him the idea, I believe, certainly the es- tablishment, of the Medical School in connection with the College. This beneficent piece of work, with some marked changes in the character of the College Boards, he accomplished before he had been one year in the President's chair. But I hasten to speak of another, also enrolled on the list of the departed. My own President, Leonard Woods — how vividly I recall the man : his dignified appearance : his graceful bearing : his voice, binding like a spell : his wealth of acquirements. At the early age of thirty-two he came here with a ripeness of scholarship, a felicity and affluence of conversation and a brilliancy of reputation that any man at fifty might well be thankful for. Very few of his pupils ever hear his name without a feeling of admiration and thankfulness. And when he sought to possess the inheritance to which he believed Bowdoin College entitled, he aston- ished such eminent lawyers as Jeremiah Mason and Charles G. Loring and Benjamin R. Curtis and Simon Greenleaf and Peleg W. Chandler with the practical wisdom and profound suggestions arising from his full and familiar understanding of the most intricate prob- lems of international law and contingent inheritance. Other Presidents, distinguished, useful and honored, I may not detain you even to mention. Nor is it 14 ADDRESS OF INVESTITURE. needful. These names are enough to recall the worthy succession into whose lengthening line we introduce you to-day. And the service upon which you enter — one in which minds of the finest fibre and of imperial ca- pacity have been engaged all along — how noble and ennobling. To educe, call forth and develop the human mind : to find in the pupils committed to your care the divine image, and without sound of chisel or blow of mallet, bring it out to the glory of God and the advance of mankind, — what more congenial or inspiring than such service ? And then the fields of study into which you are to lead ; how large, how varied, how inexhaustible, how rich and rewarding. History, the story, the struggles, the growth, the decay of nations ; Science, whether dealing with material forms and numbers or with spir- itual forces and life ; Philosophy, with its astounding audacity and sublime generalizations ; Language, the common storehouse of human thought and feeling, of human anguish and resolve ; the English language, now spoken round the world, modern languages, and especially the classic languages, Greek and Latin, those affluent fountains on which we must depend still for the preservation and replenishment of a pure, sig- nificant and powerful speech : and, above all, Divinity, the study of the being, person and character of God — God, the invisible One, the uncreated One, the right- ADDRESS OF INVESTITURE. 15 eous Lawgiver, the infallible Judge, — ah, what ex- haustless and what inviting fields of study. And why, my brother, let me ask you as an educator, why should not the Bible have an authorized place in the college curriculum ■? To the mythology of Greece and Rome we give an appointed time — studies of limited advantage, at best- — studies of doubtful ten- dency, unless counteracted by other and better. Why not make the veritable theophany of the Bible, and the religion that stands upon immutable and unques- tionable facts, and has a history as far beyond fable as wisdom is beyond folly — why not make the Chris- tian's Bible, whose appeals to the youthful sensibilities neither excite lust, nor justify sin ; whose unmatched teachings expand the intellect, quicken the conscience, and purify the heart — I say, why not make the study of the Bible a part of the work of College life ? The prophet's salt healed the fountain at Jericho. And the Christian's Bible, why may it not do the same thing- for the college : heal its waters and make them sweet and life-giving wherever they flow? May we not lay this thought, with all its suggestive- ness, on the heart of our young President ? To our President, especially, the churches will look. And the instinct of piety is of quick apprehension. The College was founded not for secular education alone. It en- tered vitally into the elementary designs of the found- ers to make the College a fountain of living piety, as well as of sound learning. It grieves us, not to see 16 ADDRESS OF INVESTITURE. other claims urged, but to see the religion of the cruci- fied one ignored or neglected. It gladdens our hearts to see the Christian religion revived and enthroned in the College. We confide to you to-day that which is dearest to us here, the religious interests of the Col- lege. We demand, at your hands, as our commence- ments shall come round, the ablest and truest of all your pupils for the service of the Christian church. And yet we do not ask of you to forget one interest in order that you may forge another into excessive bulk. The College is not the place for specialties. The cry for electives, if heard sooner than the third year, is heard too soon. The College is to prescribe Study — study for every student — but more and more persistently ivhat to study. Otherwise, not symmetry but monstrosity may characterize the product. The architect whose aim is a building to be enjoyed and admired for a generation does not shoot a spire up into the air apart from the edifice and the foundations. On the other hand, the spire must rise from founda- tions deep and broad, and completing proportions to which the whole superstructure lends aid. After such a model give us education. For a hasty shift through specialties into professions we care little. It is a foundation laid upon the bed rock, and a superstruc- ture patiently raised in due proportions and symmetry that we covet. Let the specialty come after the cur- riculum has gone. But I must not stand longer between you and those ADDRESS OF INVESTITURE. 17 who wait to hear you. Let me say only, in conclusion, that what we look to as the end of all your anxious toil and earnest teaching is character — pure, sound, abiding character. Not smartness, not shrewdness, not the power to outrun or. over-reach in any of life's relations, but integrity — intellectual, moral and spir- itual integrity — this is the want of to-day and of all days. Send out, therefore, men who shall enter into all the relations and pursuits of life, giving, spontane- ously, a 'strong arm to the support of order, law, schools, churches and all the institutions of the Repub- lic. Send us men to be trusted — to be trusted with leadership in all the walks of society, in all the strug- gles for pre-eminence and in all the offices of educa- tion, business and government. The work is great ? Yes. And the reward ? Beyond our reckoning. And now, as a sign of the confidence which we re- pose in you, and also as a symbol of the authority with which we invest you, I commit to your hand and keeping, Mr. President, the keys of Bowdoin College. And the Lord God of our fathers bless you with divinest gifts and crown your labors with an abundant success. Amen. INAUGURAL ADDRESS, PRESIDENT HYDE. • INAUGURAL ADDRESS. All life is organic. Nothing that lives, lives unto itself. In the tree, in the animal, in man, in society, each member is at once means and end to every other. Isolation is death. Self-sufficiency is suicide. The severed branch withers ; the fruitless tree is hewn down and cast into the flames. The unprofitable ser- vant is doomed to outer darkness and destruction. The nation that ceases to serve humanity is ripe for anarchy and overthrow. The church that neglects its saving mission is left to decay and desolation. To this inexorable law the College is no exception. When its ministry of elevation and enlightment ceases, its days are numbered. Its usefulness to the com- munity is its only claim to support. Its fruitfulness in service to church, society and state constitutes its sole right to be. Each day is for it, as for us all, a judgment day * and what it does or fails to do decides its fate. Were the chair I am to occupy one which had not been occupied by honored predecessors ; were the insti- tution in which I am to serve a new experiment, it 22 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. would be fitting that I should discuss in abstract terms the theoretical relationship existing between education on the one hand, and the social, civil and religious welfare of the community on the other ; appealing to the future to vindicate by facts the prophecies which theory might make. Such naturally enough was the course pursued by the earlier Presidents of the Col- lege, as on occasions similar to this they set forth the principles which led them to enter on their work. Indeed, faith in that future which with God's help they were destined to create was their only ground for con- fidence. To us, however, a different course is open. They have labored, and we have entered into their labors. And though we may not rest in their labors ; though for us as for them our work must be in the actual present, our hope in the future, and our confidence and our reward in God, yet we may justly look to the achievements of the past as a witness of what the Col- lege has done for the community ; as an inspiration to present effort ; and as a promise of continued prosperity. Let us then briefly review the results of work ac- complished since President McKeen was called to oc- cupy this chair, eighty-four years ago. Gathered from farm and store, from country district and from city home, two thousand one hundred forty- five young men have here pursued a four-years course of liberal studies, and received the Bachelor's degree. Consider that bare fact, stripped of its consequences to INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 23 the world. Is it not a noble work, to have taken seven hundred of the brightest youth of each of three generations, hungering and thirsting for deeper and wider careers and fuller lives than the narrow circum- stances and opportunities of their immediate locality could afford ; to have multiplied the power, softened the heart, strengthened the intellect, deepened the joy of these young men, as this College has done during its fourscore years of active service ? Is not this in itself a vindication of the essential dependence of the community upon the College, in this most vital matter of enabling its choicest youth to attain their highest ideals and realize their noblest aims ? Every member of the community who reverences man, who finds de- light in seeing lawful ambition gratified, latent power developed, cherished plans matured, and divine prompt- ings nobly responded to, must look with affectionate interest and favor on that kind hearted mother who welcomes to her family and offers her intellectual stores, and confers her own name, with all its rights, privileges, dignities and honors on every young man who has confidence enough in her generosity and his own energy to trust himself to her discipline and care. Yet after all, this is the College's lowest claim. So- ciety is organic. And if the work stopped with the benefit conferred upon the individual, its claim, though valid from the point of view of pure philanthropy, would yet lack the urgency of social necessity. The great claim of the College is not the benefits it has 24 INAUGUEAL ADDRESS. conferred on these two thousand one hundred forty- five graduates. It is rather the work that they have done. Let us- glance briefly, at the work these sons of Bowdoin have achieved. In the first place they have paid back to the community the instruction given at the college in the very coin in which they have re- ceived it. Of these two thousand one hundred forty- five men, over eight hundred have engaged in teaching for a longer or shorter period. Many of these to be sure have made teaching a stepping-stone to another profession. Yet a goodly number have made it their life work. Who can estimate the benefits the community has received from eight hundred teachers, occupying positions in the high schools and academies of this and other states ? The schools would doubtless have been taught, if unsupplied by Bowdoin men. Yet in the great majority of cases, they have taught in schools where men of equal training were not at the time to be secured. Bowdoin was a pioneer College, and her teachers have largely been themselves pioneers in the cause of sound and thorough teaching. Nor have the teachers whom Bowdoin has sent out been confined to high schools and academies alone. One in every twenty-one of her graduates, that is one hundred and seven in all, have been College professors. One in every hundred, or twenty-three in all, have been College Presidents. The list of those who have contributed to literature is too familiar to be repeated here. It is sufficient to INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 25 say that the alumni alcove of our Library contains one thousand books and four thousand pamphlets. Among < the authors of these books there are not less than twenty men with whose works in literature, philosophy, the- ology and science every educated American is familiar. Two hundred and sixty, or twelve per cent, of the entire number, have practiced medicine, eighteen of whom have been Professors in schools of medicine. Four hundred and twenty-nine, or exactly twenty per cent, of the graduates, have given themselves to the ministry of the gospel, in our own and in foreign lands. Of these eighteen have been Professors in the- ological seminaries, and to-day Bangor, Bates, Andover, Harvard, Yale and Union have Bowdoin graduates upon their faculties. Eight hundred and one, or thirty-seven per cent, of the number, have studied law ; a large proportion of whom have sat upon the bench. Two hundred and fourteen, or ten per cent, of the number, have either as members of State Legislatures or as State executive officers, or as members of Con- gress, or as foreign ministers taken active part in politics. Twenty-three, or one in each hundred, have been in Congress. Seven have been in the United States Sen- ate ; and one has held the highest office in the nation. With the single exception of the unexpired term follow- ing the death of her most distinguished Senator, the 26 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. State of Maine has had a Bowdoin graduate in her Congressional delegation continuously since 1825, and during fourteen out of its sixty-six years the State has had a Bowdoin graduate for Governor. Sixty-five have devoted themselves to journalism, and among the papers whose editorial staff has con- tained Bowdoin men are nearly all the leading papers of Maine, Boston and New York city. Very nearly seventy per cent, of the graduates have engaged in one of the three leading professions ; and if we include teaching and journalism we may say that ninety per cent, of all the graduates have engaged for a longer or shorter period in distinctively literary and professional work. In speaking within these memorial walls of what Bowdoin College has contributed to the community, it is appropriate that the service rendered by Bowdoin men in defence of their country should conclude the list. Bowdoin gave to the late war two hundred and sixty- six of her sons. The generousness of her response may be seen from the fact that the ten classes from '56 to '65, out of three hundred and ninety-five men gave one hundred and seventy-eight, or forty-five per cent, of the total number. Without reference to the dis- tinguished services of individual men, the simple recital of the bare facts must here suffice. Such are the plain facts, not as projected by an en- thusiastic imagination ; not as developed logically from assumed premises ; but as achieved in actual ex- INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 27 perience. and written down in the irreversible pages of history. These facts I commend to the attention of all friends of Bowdoin and citizens of Maine. Think what it means to a community that its health, its rights of person and of property, its political policy, its educational interests, its interpretation of current events, its religious faith have been guarded and guided and maintained by men who brought to these high services the fruits of ancient wisdom, the results of contemporary experience accessible only in foreign tongues, the sound results of the latest science, and above all minds trained to habitual contemplation of great historic movements and lofty moral ideas ? Take out of the life of this community the work of these men in these various departments of social and public service ; substitute for their thorough unselfish work the slip-shod performances of untrained, unprincipled, or narrow-minded men, and to a great degree you would strip this community of those qualities of general in- telligence, political leadership, professional integrity and Christian charity which constitute the glory of a state. Yes ; the difference between the scholar and the ignoramus in your teachers' chairs ; the difference between the jurist and the pettifogger in your courts ; the difference between the scientific physician and the quack by the bedside of the sick ; the difference be- tween the man of learning and the fool on your edito- rial staffs ; the difference between the statesman and the demagogue in your legislative halls ; the difference 28 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. between the rational believer and the declaiming char- latan in your sacred desk is in large measure the dif- ference between civilization and barbarism ; between the peaceful security of society and the lawless violence of anarchy ; between the glory and liberty of the kingdom of God and the darkness and bondage of a perpetual reign of superstition, injustice and oppres- sion. He that can appreciate aright the infinite width of that celestial diameter that separates these two con- ditions knows how vital is the relationship between the College and the community. It is the law of all organic life that each member shall be at once means and end to every other. I shall speak first of that side of the relationship in virtue of which the community is under obligation to furnish the means whereby the ends of the College are to be attained. After the simple recital of Bowdoin's con- tributions to the community it needs no argument to convince you that the College has a just and rightful claim upon the community, both for the choicest of the young men of the state, and for ample funds to carry on her work. The College, like every other liv- ing institution, wants men and money. In some com- munities this obligation of the state to its institutions of higher learning is recognized by statute, and en- forced by taxation. Our fathers, however, wisely see- ing that the cause of higher learning, like that of religion, is too sacred to be intrusted to the vicissitudes of political interference, generously gave the means by INAUGURAL ADDRESS. -29 which this College was founded, and vested the gov- ernment in boards, responsible ■ only to the public sen- timent of the community, and dependent for support entirely upon the voluntary generosity of those citizens whose enlightened public spirit should enable them to appreciate its claim. They had the confidence to be- lieve that, having been founded and started by their generous self-sacrifice, the College would never ask in vain from any generation of their sons the means of sufficient maintenance. And though it is true the funds to-day are insuf- ficient ; though in view of decreasing income from investments, and imperative necessity of immediate extension of our teaching force, the need is sore and pressing, yet I enter on this work in full faith that the needed funds will not be wanting. Were these build- ings newly reared ; were the audience that gathers here to-clay a mere group of curious spectators ; were the community about us composed of adventurous money-makers devoid of intelligent public spirit ; then, indeed, it would be a hopeless task to undertake to carry on the work of a first-rate College with the funds at our disposal. But Bowdoin's history is worth more than thousands of dollars ; her sons are better sureties of her future prosperity than bonds ; the com- munity which she has done so much to form is a safer resource than a bank account. It is because I have this faith that in time of need these resources will never be found unavailing, that, notwithstanding a 30 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. full consciousness of present financial needs, I cheer- fully and hopefully enter on the duties connected with this chair. Before leaving this subject, let me turn aside to answer one serious practical objection. Some one will say, — and would that this objection were confined to words alone — " There are institutions elsewhere, already well endowed, and well supplied with students. Why not send our men and give our money there ? " Let us look at that objection in the light of the organic relationship of the College and the community. It is not every young man desirous of an education who can afford to go to distant states to procure it. Again, if you allow the educational interests of your own locality to become feeble and die out, you thereby withdraw from the community a mighty awakening force. The College creates half its local constituency ; and where there is no vigorous College in the neigh- borhood, attracting the attention and rousing the en- thusiasm of young men, there the number of students who go away to any College is small. The community needs the College within its own limits, to rouse its young men to be students. The history of the College, however, furnishes the conclusive refutation of this fallacious objection. When Maine was politically a province, the wisdom and generosity of the fathers decreed that intellectually this community should be free and independent. The history of the College has established the intellectual INAUGUKAL ADDRESS. 31 equality and independence of this community. In the face of these historic facts, will any son of Maine now rise up and say that, having become politically an equal and independent state, she shall now begin to take a dependent and provincial attitude in matters of education ? The man who, without* specific reason, neglects the institutions of his own state to support those of others, reverses the work of those who made a political province an intellectual sovereignty, and, so far as is in his power, reduces a sovereign state to an intellectual province. There is another much debated question on which the principle of the organic relationship of College and community throws light. I refer to the aid of students by scholarships. Much has been said of late against this form of benevolence. It is urged that such aid destroys the young man's independence. Undoubtedly there is a certain sort of independence of which such aid is destructive. If by independence you mean freedom from all sense of personal obligation, I grant that the aid received from a scholarship destroys it. In fact, the acceptance of an education from any endowed in- stitution destroys such independence. And I may add, the sooner such independence as that is destroyed the better. Freedom from the sense of personal obligation is by no means the ideal of the scholar's consciousness. At the breakingfout of the late war, General Grant offered his services to his country, saying that, having been educated at the country's expense, he felt that his 32 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. services of right belonged to her. Was that sense of grateful, loyal dependence a blemish to be ashamed of, a defect to be deplored ? If such gratuitous education on the part of the government, and the consequent ob- ligation devolving upon all the recipients of such edu- cation to defend the nation in time of war receives the approving suffrage of all good citizens, why should not the community likewise help her chosen youth to prepare themselves for those no less important services to the community which good citizenship requires in time of peace ? The ideal College graduate is not the self-sufficient, independent savant who feels no obliga- tion, and acknowledges no consequent responsibility. Rather is he the man who, deeply grateful for the op- portunities he has received, feels himself henceforth in duty bound to devote his learning to the support and furtherance of every cause whereby he may contribute to the intellectual, social, political and religious welfare of the community, and so repay the debt it is his privilege to have contracted and his honor to acknowl- edge. That there is a base and servile dependence likely to be fostered in some cases by excessive help is not to be denied. In some quarters no doubt where students for the ministry have been helped too much before entering on their work and paid too little after their work begun, self-respect has suffered. Here, as elsewhere, abuses may fasten themselves on worthiest endeavors. But until evidence is furnished that one needy Bowdoin student has been injured by having INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 33 his way made too easy, to all friends who wish to per- petuate their devotion to the College, and to promote the cause of education, we shall present this as one of the many ways in which such purpose may find accepta- ble expression. As this principle of the organic connection of the College and the community makes clear the duty of the citizens to support the College, so likewise it marks out for the College a course from which it may not dare to depart. It determines the curriculum so pre- cisely that no man's caprice may venture to meddle with it. On the question of retaining the classics it speaks with no uncertain sound. These ancient tongues contain the words, and sing the deeds of the bright, gladsome, hopeful, Godlike childhood of the race. Wise with the insight of open vision ; warm with a passion untainted by introspection and uncorrupted by self- consciousness ; aglow with an enthusiasm that has no sordid mixture of material calculations to deaden its flame ; animated by a religious spirit, which, if earth- born and familiar, was genuine and hearty, these writings are the perennial fountain whence all later attempts to give to the prosaic facts of daily life their ideal meaning and relations, must take their standards and draw their inspiration. The community has a right to say whether those of its members who are to be the standard bearers of its literature, and the exponents of its life, shall stand in living continuity with these great masters of literature, 34 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. and interpreters of life, or whether they shall be left to the pitiful alternative of either using second-hand copies, or relying on their own unchastened originality. And when we bear in mind the fact that the commu- nity whose scholars do not read the classic authors, will itself be found without poet or historian to record its own life in words which other men and other ages shall care to read ; when we realize that neglect of the Classics means for a community the severing of itself from the continuity of the world's literary life, we shall wait for a more emphatic and unanimous demand from the community than has yet been heard before any man receives the degree of Bachelor of Arts, who has not in his possession the two ancient keys which alone unlock the literary storehouse of the world. Improved methods may diminish the time necessary for their acquisition ; other studies may rise in relative importance ; but so long as the College remains the faithful guardian of the rights of the community to be represented in the supreme parliament of the world's greatest minds ; so long as the College stands to vindi- cate the claim of the community to its share in all that is grandest, and purest, and brightest in human thought and achievement, so long will these mother tongues of civilized humanity demand of each candidate for col- legiate honors that he render account of his native powers and acquired training in terms of their own perspicuous elegance and fine precision. Fidelity to the trust imposed upon it by the com- INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 35 munity will likewise compel the College to require of each student, ability to read the two leading languages of modern Europe, the discipline of Mathematics, the elements of Chemistry, the principles of one or more of the special Sciences, some knowledge of the lessons of History ; some acqaintance with the theories and ter- minology of Political Economy; a good degree of training in Ehetoric and Oratory. An apprehension of the nature and processes of the Human Intellect, of the plain principles of Morality, and of the grounds of Christian Faith should likewise be required of every student in a College which becomes responsible to the community for the training and furnishing of those who are to be in matters of such prime importance her leading citizens. The College must however bear in mind, what the community is never slow to remind us of, that a man who is merely stuffed with information is no credit to himself, brings no honor to the College and confers no benefit on the community. All that was indicated above may be thoroughly accomplished, and yet leave a fraction of the time throughout the last two or three years, small at first but gradually increasing as the conclusion of the course is approached, which may be devoted wisely to elective studies. The aim of such election is twofold, moral and mental. The prime object is to enlist the student's will directly in the work of his own education. Where everything is required, the student is tempted to regard his educa- 36 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. tion as handed over to the authorities of the College, and he consequently adopts a passive attitude. Dur- ing his course he receives what is offered him, and after he is thrown out upon the world must begin the all-important work of mental self-determination. Unaccustomed to self-direction in mental pursuits, he drifts with the current in which he finds himself ; and unless he has a strong native power of resolution, he ceases his intellectual activity when the College pres- sure is withdrawn, and so is lost to the cause of thorough scholarship. The elective system aims first of all to cultivate this moral power of self-determination in intellectual work. It aims to remove the leading strings, in order that the developing mind may the sooner learn to walk alone. So far as the experience of this College goes, the interest in the work is increased, and the moral attitude of the student toward his work is elevated wherever election is allowed. A second advantage of a degree of option in those studies which are additional to the essential require- ments already indicated is that special tastes and apti- tudes are thereby developed, and particular lines of future interest and study established. The one occa- sion for regret one finds in reading the biographies of College alumni is that so many of them have shifted about from one profession or pursuit to another. They were not ready for their final choice until several years after graduation ; and changes from law to the INAUGURAL ADDEESS. 37 ministry, from the ministry to medicine, from med- icine to law, from profession to business, and from business to profession are excessively frequent. By combining trie required course and the elective system, the College endeavors to give the student the general education which he ought to have for whatever course of life he enters ; and in addition, to give him an opportunity to find out in which of the various lines of mental work he can do best, and to give him a start in that. The precise proportion of required elective work is a matter for cautious experiment to determine. Suffice it to say that so long as Classic and Modern Languages, Mathematics, at least one Physical Science, Rhetoric, Political Science and Mental and Moral Philosophy are required, the elective system need give no uneasiness even to its most strenuous opponents. The community, watchful critic of College policy as it is and ever ought to be, has long complained that students have purchased their mental attainments at the expense of their physical vigor and vitality. The College certainly owes to the community that the men she gives them shall be men of vigorous health, steady nerves, and capable of enduring the intense strain which responsibility in public and professional life in- variably involves. To meet this end an ample and commodious gymnasium has been erected during the past year, and with a competent director in charge, 38 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. the College will enter upon the coming year fully equipped for the important work of physical training. As the College in fidelity to the trust imposed upon it by public support and confidence must recognize the claims of the physical nature on which all mental ac- tivity depends, so it must include the training of the moral and religious nature to which all mental power should be subservient. To send forth men disciplined in mind, yet undeveloped in moral sentiment and des- titute of true religious reverence, would be to render to the community a service akin to that of turning loose upon them an army of soldiers, well equipped and dis- ciplined, yet with no commander to control them, and no campaign to absorb their energies. Plunder and devastation would be the inevitable result. If the community is to receive into its numbers annually a company of men provided with superior equipments for the conflicts of civil life, it has a right to the as- surance that so far as the regular observance of reli- gious worship, and the personal influence and example of the professors can contribute to it, the graduates shall go forth in a spirit of reverence toward God, and of faithful, unselfish service to their fellow men. Inasmuch as the Christian church is divided into sects, and in view of the fact that all other religious interests are at present administered by these several sects, it is obviously fitting that the religious control of the College should rest in the hands of some one of these denominations. And that the College shall in INAUGUKAL ADDRESS. 39 this sense be under the control of the Congregationalist denomination is admitted and recognized by all con- cerned in its government and administration. At the same time, since the College belongs in the widest sense to the community, and to the Church Catholic, every form of sincere Christian faith should be re- spected ; denominational proselyting should never be attempted ; and each student should be encouraged to live consistently in the form of faith which parental example and early association has hallowed and made sacred. The religious teaching should be positively evangelical ; avoiding controversial attacks on other forms of faith. The College must first of all be loyal to Christ ; secondly, it must squarely identify itself with that interpretation of Christianity to which its history and ecclesiastical affiliation commit it. It must do this, however with all due respect for the va- rious forms of faith prevailing in the community at large. The community likewise has a right to expect that the young men whom it intrusts to the College, should there learn obedience and reverence for law. It is also to be remembered that the State is democratic ; that the laws which the citizen is to obey are those which he himself enacts and enforces, though by no means deriving their authority from his individual will. The College, therefore, owes it to the community that the students of the College shall have that discipline, in both enforcing and obeying just and needful laws, which 40 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. is so vital to good citizenship in a democratic state. Self-government has been in operation in Bowdoin Col- lege for three years. All rights of person, all ques- tions of good order in the buildings and about the grounds have been placed in their hands, and an expe- rience of three years has established the ability and readiness of the students themselves to deal satisfacto- rily with all these matters. In no College in the country have the democratic principles of government been so thoroughly adopted ; and as a result the rela- tions between the faculty and students are pleasant and friendly ; and the moral sentiment of the College community is vigorous and manly. That vice and disorder should be rebuked and discountenanced by a College faculty is a matter of course. But that these things should be frowned upon, prosecuted and con- demned by the body of students themselves is an achievement in College government at which the friends of education and morality everywhere must rejoice. Friends and guardians of the College, citizens of this community, patrons of learning, to you I submit these considerations on the organic relationship of the com- munity and the College. I enter on this work with the assurance that having satisfied yourselves, that, whoever may occupy this chair, the College, still as of old, is efficiently and faithfully doing the work so vital to the common welfare, you will never suffer her to want for needed support so long as this Common- wealth endures to require her services ; so long as the INAUGURAL ADDEESS. 41 Son of Man continues to h*we need of well-trained ser- vants to contribute by their learning and their labors to the establishment on earth of his eternal kingdom of Truth and Righteousness. ^.J Jt!£ RARY 0F CONGRESS 029 915 706 4