LIBRARY 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
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jHtUtilelJur^ College 
 
 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 
 1800— 1900 
 
^ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
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 A RECORD 
 
 Centennial i^nnit^ersiatg 
 
 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 or THE ^ 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE COLLEGE 
 BY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON (Inc.) 
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CONTENTS 
 
 Portrait of President Atwater (1800- 1809) . . Frontispiece 
 
 Sketch of the Centennial: Page 
 
 Committees i 
 
 Official Programme . 2 
 
 Invited Guests in Ati-endance 12 
 
 Sunday f July First 
 Morning Service : 
 
 Baccalaureate Sermon by President Brainerd . . 16 
 Evening Service : 
 
 Anniversary Address by President Boardman . . 32 
 
 Monday^ July Second 
 
 Class Day Exercises 2 
 
 Baseball Game 2 
 
 Parker and Merrill Prize Speaking 2 
 
 Tuesday, July Third 
 
 Commencement Exercises 5 
 
 Dedication of the Egbert Starr Library: 
 
 Address by Professor Kellogg 81 
 
 Hymn by Professor Wright 6 
 
 Wednesday y July Fourth 
 
 Educational Conference. Addresses: 
 
 President Rankin 103 
 
 President Murkland 112 
 
 President Carter 126 
 
 President Buckham 142 
 
 President Tucker ,» .... 154 
 
 The Roman Drama 166 
 
 116722 
 
VIU CONTENTS 
 
 Thursday^ July Fifth 
 
 Centennial Services : Page 
 
 Oration by Professor Howard 183 
 
 Poem by Professor Higley 216 
 
 Hymn by President Rankin 8 
 
 Conferring of Degrees 9 
 
 The Luncheon. Speeches : 
 
 Governor Smith 224 
 
 Professor John H. Wright 227 
 
 Rev. Cornelius L. Kitchel 232 
 
 President Buckham 236 
 
 President Carter 240 
 
 Rev, Dr. Winslow 244 
 
 President Snow 248 
 
 Rev. Dr. Sunderland 251 
 
 Rev. Dr. George N. Boardman 256 
 
 President Hamlin 263 
 
 Mr. Capen 263 
 
 General McCullough 268 
 
 Rev. Dr. John C. Labaree 272 
 
 Rev. Dr. Holmes 273 
 
 Colonel Walker 274 
 
 Mr. Gifford . 276 
 
 Alumni Register 279 
 
 Index 289 
 
MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE CENTENNIAL 
 
 THE purpose of this volume is to preserve the 
 formal utterances of the centennial anniversary. 
 That they may be given their proper setting, 
 however, the various addresses are prefaced by this run- 
 ning account of the proceedings of the week. 
 
 Two committees cooperated in preparing for the cele- 
 bration. The one appointed on behalf of the Trustees con- 
 sisted of President Ezra Brainerd, '64; Dr. Henry H. Vail, 
 '60; Hon. James M. Slade, '67, (died Sept. 13, 1899); 
 Dr. James L. Barton, *8i ; Professor William W. Eaton. 
 That appointed on behalf of the Alumni consisted of 
 Hon. John W. Stewart, '46; Dr. Charles M. Mead, '56; 
 Professor Edwin H. Higley, '68 ; Professor Walter E. 
 Howard, '71 ; Charles M. Wilds, Esq., '75 ; William H. 
 Button, Esq., '90. From these committees. President 
 Brainerd, Professor Eaton, and Professor Howard were 
 chosen to serve as an executive committee. The following 
 additional committees were appointed from the Faculty: 
 on Transportation and Entertainment, Ernest C. Bryant, 
 '91 ; on Decoration, Edward A. Burt ; on Music, Theodore 
 Henckels ; on Luncheon, William W. McGilton ; on the 
 Roman Drama, Myron R. Sanford ; on Printing, Charles B. 
 Wright. 
 
2 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 The official programme for the five days of the anniver- 
 sary was as follows ; — 
 
 Sunday, July ist. Baccalaureate Sunday. 
 
 10.45 A. M. Baccalaureate Services in the Congregational Church. 
 Sermon by President Ezra Brainerd, LL.D., '64. Subject : 
 " Our Indebtedness to the Past." 
 8.00 p. M. Anniversary Services of the Christian Associations of 
 the College in the Congregational Church. Mr. J. Earle 
 Parker, '01, President of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation, will preside. The Rev. Samuel W. Boardman, 
 D. D., LL.D., '51, President of Maryville College, will de- 
 liver the address. Subject : " The Contribution of the First 
 Century of Middlebury College to Christian Progress." 
 
 Monday, July 2d. Undergraduate Day. 
 
 10.30 A.M. Class Day Exercises of the Class of 1900 on the 
 College Campus. 
 
 3.00 p. M. Preliminary Meeting of the Associated Alumni in the 
 College Chapel. The chief object of this meeting will be 
 the appointment of committees to report at the Annual 
 Meeting of Tuesday. 
 
 4.00 p. M. Game of base ball on the Athletic Field between the 
 Alumni and the Students of the College. 
 
 8.00 p. M. Merrill and Parker Prize Speaking in the Congrega- 
 tional Church. 
 
 Tuesday, July 3d. Commencement Day. 
 
 8.30 a m. Annual Meeting of the Associated Alumni in the Col- 
 lege Chapel. 
 10.00 a. m. The Trustees, Faculty, Alumni, and Students will form 
 on the Campus and go in procession to the Congregational 
 Church. Seats will be reserved in the Church for all in the 
 procession. 
 
A SKETCH OF THE CENTENNIAL 3 
 
 10.30 A.M. Commencement Exercises in the Congregational 
 Church. No one will be admitted without ticket until the 
 procession has been seated. 
 
 The Annual Meeting of Vermont Beta, Phi Beta Kappa, 
 will be held in the Lecture Room of the Church at the close 
 of the exercises. 
 3.00 p. M. Dedication of the Egbert Starr Library. The address 
 will be delivered by Professor Brainerd Kellogg, LL.D., '58, ■ 
 Dean of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. 
 
 The period following the dedication is suggested as avail- 
 able for Class Reunions. 
 8.00 p. M. Commencement Concert in the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 Wednesday, July 4th. Educational Day. 
 
 10.30 A. M. Educational Conference in the Congregational 
 Church. The Rev. Jeremiah E. Rankin, D.D., LL.D., '48, 
 President of Howard University, will preside. Addresses 
 will be delivered by President William J. Tucker, D.D., 
 LL.D., Dartmouth College ; President Matthew H. Buck- 
 ham, D.D., University of Vermont; President Franklin 
 Carter, Ph.D., LL.D., Williams College ; President Charles 
 S. Murkland, Ph.D., '81, New Hampshire College of Agri- 
 culture and the Mechanic Arts. 
 
 4.00-6.00 p. M. President's Reception at his residence, to which 
 all the Alumni and Guests of the College are cordially 
 invited. 
 8.00 p. M. A Roman Drama in the Centennial Building, under 
 the direction of Professor Myron R. Sanford. 
 
 Thursday, July 5tb. Centennial Day. 
 
 10.30 a. m. Procession from the College to the Congregational 
 Church. The Trustees, Faculty, Alumni, and Students will 
 assemble at the Chapel, and the Invited Guests in the 
 Egbert Starr Library. 
 
4 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 ii.ooA. M. Centennial Services in the Congregational Church. 
 Hon. John W. Stewart, LL.D., '46, will preside. The Ora- 
 tion will be delivered by Professor Walter E. Howard, LL.D., 
 '71, of Middlebury College; the Poem by Professor Edwin 
 H. Higley, A.M., '68, of Groton, Mass. Tickets as on 
 Tuesday. 
 
 Conferring of Degrees. 
 
 There will be a luncheon in the Centennial Building at 
 the close of the exercises. Brief addresses by Invited Guests 
 and Alumni. 
 
 8.00 p. M. Promenade Concert in the Town Hall, under the 
 management of the Class of 1900. 
 
 The programme as planned was carried through without 
 variation ; the detailed account here given includes but a 
 portion of its features. 
 
 At the baccalaureate services of Sunday morning, the 
 sermon by President Brainerd was on John iv. 38 : " Other 
 men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours ; " at its 
 close the congregation joined in the hymn, " For all thy 
 saints who from their labors rest." The prayer was offered 
 by President Cyrus Hamlin (1880-1885), who, vigorous in 
 his ninetieth year, and the most honored guest, was re- 
 ceived everywhere throughout the week with the enthu- 
 siasm and affection due his distinguished record and 
 delightful personality. The sermon, with the other ad- 
 dresses of the anniversary, will be found in full on later 
 pages. 
 
 At the evening services of the Christian Associations of 
 the College, Scripture was read and prayer offered by the 
 Rev. James L. Barton, D.D., '81, Secretary of the Ameri- 
 can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The 
 address by the Rev. Samuel W. Boardman, D.D., LL.D., '5 1, 
 
A SKETCH OF THE CENTENNIAL 5 
 
 outlined the contribution to Christian progress made by 
 the College during its century of existence. A choir of 
 fifty, composed largely of college students, sang the Hal- 
 lelujah Chorus from " The Messiah." 
 
 An unscheduled feature of Monday morning was an 8.45 
 chapel service, crowded beyond the doors and conducted 
 by the Rev. Sylvester B. Partridge, '61, of Swatow, China. 
 
 At the close of the annual meeting of the Associated 
 Alumni, on Tuesday morning, the Trustees, Faculty, 
 Alumni, and Students, headed by a band of music and 
 marshaled by Col. Thad. M. Chapman and his aides, 
 marched from the campus to the church, the procession 
 being the largest in the history of the College, unless, 
 indeed, it was outnumbered by that of the Centennial Day 
 following. At the close of the Commencement speaking, 
 degrees were conferred upon a graduating class of thirty, 
 the largest senior class in sixty years. The master's degree 
 was conferred in course upon two graduates who had ful- 
 filled the College requirements as to study and examina- 
 tion ; and the honorary degree of A. M. was bestowed on 
 Mrs. Sarah Stoddard Williston, of Northampton, Mass., 
 and on Mr. Julian Ralph, the journalist. 
 
 At three o'clock the newly completed Egbert Starr 
 Library was dedicated, more than five hundred people over- 
 flowing the reading-room to listen to the dedicatory exer- 
 cises. President Brainerd presided, and gave the history of 
 the gift that had made a library building possible. The Rev. 
 G. R. W. Scott, D.D., '64, conducted the devotional ser- 
 vices. The address of Professor Brainerd Kellogg, '58, on 
 ** Books, their Contents and Uses," was a presentation of 
 the paramount claims of literature in education. At its 
 close the audience joined with the student choir in singing 
 
6 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 to the air of Duke Street the following hymn, written for 
 the dedication by Professor Charles B. Wright : — 
 
 The sacred aisles of praise and prayer 
 
 Are not alone Thy temples, Lord ; 
 Within this portal springing fair 
 
 The treasures of the times are stored — 
 
 The garnered wisdom of the years, 
 A wisdom. Lord, not ours but Thine, 
 
 And where Thy wondrous thought appears 
 O may we recognize a shrine — 
 
 A hallowed shrine where eager youth. 
 
 For generations yet to be, 
 Shall enter, ardent for the truth, 
 
 And seeking truth shall learn of Thee. 
 
 The exercises of Wednesday began in the church at 
 10.30 A. M., with an educational conference. All taking 
 part in this conference were college presidents. President 
 Jeremiah E. Rankin, '48, of Howard University, presided, 
 and President Rufus C. Flagg, '69, of Ripon College, read 
 the Scripture and offered prayer. Five papers were pre- 
 sented : the introductory address of President Rankin on 
 " Home Life and the Country College," and addresses by 
 President Charles S. Murkland, '81, of the New Hamp- 
 shire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, on 
 '* The College and the Industries ; " President Franklin 
 Carter, of Williams College, on " Text-book versus Lec- 
 ture; " President Matthew H. Buckham, of the University 
 of Vermont, on " The Moral Life of the College ; " and 
 President William J. Tucker, of Dartmouth College, on 
 " The College Curriculum." At the close of the addresses. 
 President Rankin expressed to the speakers of the con- 
 
A SKETCH OF THE CENTENNIAL 7 
 
 ference the thanks of the College for their weighty and 
 suggestive contributions. 
 
 From four to six o'clock in the afternoon, a reception 
 was tendered at their home, by President and Mrs. Brain- 
 erd, to the guests of the College, the Alumni, and the 
 entertaining townsfolk. 
 
 At eight o'clock, the Roman drama, " Temporibus 
 Hominis Arpinatis," the student contribution to the 
 centennial festivities, was given in the Centennial Build- 
 ing before an audience of more than a thousand. For 
 the splendid success of this presentation, credit is due to 
 many. The faithfulness of the students in labors whose 
 extent the uninitiated can hardly appreciate, should be 
 given a generous recognition ; and the work of others 
 was also most valuable. The guiding spirit of it all, 
 though, from the inception to the close, was the head of 
 the department of Latin, Professor Myron R. Sanford. 
 The play itself, a most artistic piece of work, was of his 
 own devising, while every detail of preparation was given 
 his personal oversight; and since the drama, unlike the 
 various addresses, cannot be preserved in the present vol- 
 ume, it is felt to be fitting that this recognition should be 
 accorded to the rare taste, scholarship, and unwearied 
 enthusiasm that for one memorable night made a dead 
 past live again. 
 
 The illumination of the campus at the close of the 
 drama, while simple, was of rare beauty, long lines of 
 lanterns bordering the walks and stretching out across 
 the lawns from the chapel as a centre. The decorations 
 throughout were dignified and impressive, and contributed 
 much, during the anniversary, to the gala appearance of 
 the college hill. 
 
8 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 At 10.30 A. M., Thursday, the Trustees, Faculty, Alumni, 
 and Students again gathered on the campus, and with the 
 invited guests went in procession to the centennial ser- 
 vices at the church. At these services Hon. John W. 
 Stewart, '46, the senior member of the Board of Trustees 
 and President of the Alumni Association, presided. With 
 him upon the platform were the orator and the poet, 
 the invited guests, those who were to receive degrees, 
 the Trustees, and the Faculty. Prayer was offered, with 
 Scripture reading, by the Rev. Richard S. Holmes, D.D., 
 '62, after which came the singing of Luther's hymn, " A 
 mighty fortress is our God," by the centennial chorus, 
 and then the oration by Professor Walter E. Howard, '71. 
 The poem was delivered by Professor Edwin H. Higley, 
 '68. The following centennial hymn, its words by Presi- 
 dent Jeremiah E. Rankin, '48, and its music by Professor 
 Theodore Henckels, was then rendered impressively, under 
 the direction of Professor Henckels, by the united chorus, 
 orchestra, and organ : 
 
 Where thy familiar spire appears. 
 
 Dear Alma Mater, we, to-day, 
 Rise up to crown thine hundred years 
 
 Of patient, wise, maternal sway. 
 Each pulse the wonted landscape thrills; 
 
 The same the valley's graceful sweep, 
 The same the strength of God's green hills, 
 
 The fields of gold the farmers reap. 
 
 Thy founders were a stalwart race, 
 
 Who had the faith to do and dare ; 
 They laid thy corner-stone with grace, 
 
 And built thy walls with humble prayer ; 
 From thrifty domicile and land, 
 
 To fill thy halls, their offspring sent ; 
 The heirs of yeoman heart and hand ; 
 
 Home-ties, their joy and sacrament. 
 
A SKETCH OF THE CENTENNIAL 9 
 
 In all earth's climes thy work is known, 
 
 Dear Alma Mater, sacred shrine ! 
 Thy sons thy teachings still enthrone. 
 
 Thy daughters call their laurels thine. 
 Or East or West, or South or North, 
 
 What though no foot the path have trod, 
 One standard marks their goings forth, 
 
 " For freedom, virtue, and for God ! " 
 
 So -long as greets the earth the sun, 
 
 As Otter's liquid waters glide. 
 Still be thy noble office done. 
 
 Be truth and grace in thee allied. 
 Thy sons among the good and great. 
 
 Thy daughters, excellent and fair, 
 In home, in school, or church or state. 
 
 The world give welcome everywhere. 
 
 At the conclusion of the hymn, President Brainerd 
 said : — 
 
 By virtue of authority committed to me by the President 
 and Fellows of Middlebury College, on this memorable 
 day that completes one hundred years of the history of 
 our Alma Mater, in the presence of these distinguished 
 guests and of this large assembly of Alumni, I am about 
 to confer the highest honor which the College can bestow 
 upon men eminent for learning, culture, and service to 
 mankind. 
 
 George Thomas Smart, scholar and theologian. 
 
 Henry Woodward Hulbert, preacher, and scholar in ecclesi- 
 astical history. 
 
 Charles Sumner Murkland, educator. President of the New 
 Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. 
 
 Francis Hiram Seeley, pastor, exponent of devotion in the 
 Christian ministry. 
 
lO MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 All these I create Doctors of Divinity, and bid them 
 enjoy all the rights, privileges, and honors which are 
 recognized among Christian nations as belonging to that 
 degree ; and I direct that their names be enrolled as 
 Honorary Graduates of Middlebury College. 
 
 Henry Sanger Snow, jurist, patron of letters, President of the 
 Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. 
 
 Richard Sill Holmes, scholar, leader in ecclesiastical work. 
 
 Samuel Billings Capen, leader in municipal reforms, Presi- 
 dent of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions. 
 
 John Griffith McCullough, jurist and orator. 
 
 William Rollin Shipman, scholar, educator, for thirty-six years 
 Professor of English in Tufts College. 
 
 Matthew Henry Buckham, teacher, administrator, President of 
 the University of Vermont. 
 
 Byron Sunderland, veteran preacher, beloved pastor, promoter 
 of Christian philanthropies. 
 
 All these I create Doctors of Law, and bid them enjoy 
 all the rights, privileges, and honors which among civi- 
 lized nations are recognized as pertaining to this degree ; 
 and I direct that their names be enrolled as Honorary 
 Graduates of Middlebury College. 
 
 The anthem by Dudley Buck, " In Thankful Hymns 
 Ascending," was followed by the benediction. 
 
 The luncheon in the Centennial Building followed at 
 2.30 p. M., and over five hundred repaired thither at the 
 close of the services in the church. The sloping floor of 
 the playhouse had been leveled since the evening pre- 
 vious, and seven tables stretched the length of the hall. 
 The invited guests, the speakers, the President, and the 
 
A SKETCH OF THE CENTENNIAL II 
 
 Trustees were seated at tables arranged upon the stage, 
 and the after-dinner speaking was from the platform. 
 The gallery in the opposite end of the building was occu- 
 pied by the students of the College and the musicians. 
 The decoration of the interior of the hall was elaborate 
 and effective, the flags of the various institutions repre- 
 sented at the celebration mingling with the Middlebury 
 colors. Rev. Charles M. Mead, D.D., '56, officiated as chap- 
 lain. The duties of chairman of the after-dinner exer- 
 cises were performed by Governor Stewart; the responses 
 were interesting and varied, ranging from the lightest of 
 pleasantries to the vivid portrayal, by Doctor Capen, of 
 Middlebury's work in missions, and the eloquent eulogy 
 on Mr. Phelps, by General McCullough. Governor Smith 
 was the first speaker, followed by Professor John H. 
 Wright, representing Harvard, Rev. Cornelius L. Kitchel, 
 representing Yale, President Matthew H. Buckham, Presi- 
 dent PVanklin Carter, Rev. William C. Winslow, who 
 brought the greetings of Hamilton, President Henry S. 
 Snow, Rev. Byron Sunderland, Rev. George N. Boardman, 
 Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, Hon. Samuel B. Capen, General John 
 G. McCullough, Rev. John C. Labaree, Rev. Richard S. 
 Holmes, Colonel Aldace F. Walker, and James M. Gifford, 
 Esq. The interspersed music and the well-timed cheer- 
 ing of the college students as the various representative 
 speakers were introduced added much to the enjoyment 
 of an afternoon that had passed bej^ond the hour of six 
 when the hall was finally cleared. 
 
 The centennial ball, a brilliant affair at the town hall 
 under the direction of the Class of 1900, was the closing 
 feature of the crowded week. A majority of those in 
 attendance during the week left for their homes on Friday, 
 
12 
 
 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 though it was not until well after Sunday that the village 
 resumed its normal summer look. 
 
 The following were the invited guests who were present : 
 
 President Oscar Atwood . . . 
 President Matthew H. Buckham 
 Hon. Samuel B. Capen 
 President Franklin Carter . 
 Rev. Cyrus Hamlin . . . 
 Rev. Cornelius L. Kitchel 
 Gen. John G. McCullough 
 D. McGregor Means, Esq. 
 Rev. George W. Phillips . 
 
 Hon. Redfield Proctor . 
 Rev. Charles R. Seymour 
 Gov. Edward C. Smith 
 President Henry S. Snow 
 
 President William J. Tucker 
 Rev. George N. Webber . . 
 Rev. William C. Winslow . . 
 Prof. John H. Wright . . . 
 
 Straight University. 
 University of Vermont. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Williams College. 
 Lexington, Mass. 
 Yale University. 
 North Bennington, Vt. 
 New York, N.Y. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Washington, D.C. 
 Bennington, Vt. 
 St. Albans, Vt. 
 Polytechnic Institute 
 
 of Brooklyn. 
 Dartmouth College. 
 Northampton, Mass. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Harvard University. 
 
 There were many interesting letters of felicitation, 
 among them this cabled message from the University of 
 Upsala, Sweden : — 
 
 "Collegio Medioburiensi saeculum feiiciter peractum ex animi 
 sententia gratulor eidemque in posterum omnia laeta ac fausta 
 precor. 
 
 " Rector Universitatis Upsaliensis." 
 
 Many gifts of value were received by the College during 
 the centennial week. The Class of '71 presented a por- 
 trait of President Harvey D. Kitchel, '35, (1866-1873) ; a 
 portrait of Dr. Miron Winslow, '15, was the gift of his 
 nephew, Dr. William C. Winslow of Boston ; and one of 
 
A SKETCH OF THE CENTENNIAL 1 3 
 
 President Cyrus Hamlin was received from President 
 Rankin. The following letter from the Rev. Wilson A. 
 Farnsworth, D.D., '48, received by President Rankin and 
 transmitted to the College, has reference to one of the most 
 interesting of the contributions inspired by the occasion : — 
 
 C^SAREA, Turkey, May 7, 1900. 
 
 My dear old Classmate : — I have put up my present for 
 my Alma Mater, — one hundred ancient coins. My intention was 
 just one hundred, to indicate the age of Jthe dear old lady. They 
 have been marked, dates given, etc., by my missionary associate. Dr. 
 Dodd. There may be one or two more or less, but one hundred 
 is in my heart and what I mean. 
 
 I take great pleasure in sending these with my compliments, 
 best wishes, and prayers. There are forty-one different packages 
 to make out the one hundred. There are a good many duplicates, 
 though strictly they are not duplicates at all. For example, there 
 are several of Septimius Severus, but with different reverses. I 
 think the Roman emperors are nearly, if not all, complete ; but 
 this I have not verified. 
 
 No one of these coins is quite so old as the gentleman I had 
 the honor to send many years ago from Nineveh, but some are 
 about as well preserved as he, and doubtless have had an experi- 
 ence quite as varied. I am sorry I cannot be with you at Middle- 
 bury on the joyful occasion. 
 
 Returning to coins, I want to say that the dates of the Cappa- 
 docian coins are given according to an old book I have ; but I 
 find that Head, a later authority on Greek coins, differs somewhat 
 from this book. I have some anxiety whether these packages will 
 reach you in season, but I will get them off at the first opportunity. 
 As ever yours, 
 
 W. A. Farnsworth, 
 
 One of the most attractive features of the anniversary 
 was the collection of Alumni portraits. While this collec- 
 tion was, of course, incomplete, the response from the 
 
14 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 living graduates and from the families and descendants of 
 the dead was most gratifying to those having the matter in 
 charge. The reading-room of the Painter Hall Library 
 was used for the exhibit, and was filled throughout the 
 week with interested students of the collection. 
 
 The Centennial Building, erected for the Roman Drama 
 and for the luncheon of Thursday, stood directly west of 
 the Egbert Starr Library and southwest of Starr Hall. It 
 was a wooden structure one hundred and forty-five feet 
 long and sixty feet wide, with an auditorium sixty by 
 eighty feet ; the stage was at the western end, and a gal- 
 lery extended across the eastern end, above the entrances. 
 The building was taken down when the celebration was 
 over. 
 
 It is natural that those to whom the interests of Middle- 
 bury are dear should have looked forward to the centen- 
 nial anniversary with eager anticipation and high hope. To 
 say that the hope was realized is to speak well within the 
 fact. From first to last, everything conspired to make the 
 days ideal. The weather was perfect; it may well be 
 doubted whether the century to come will furnish another 
 set of days from July first to fifth so absolutely fitted for 
 such a celebration. The manifold details of preparation, 
 too, had been thoughtfully arranged. To carry to a suc- 
 cessful close a crowded five-days' programme, an intricate 
 machine was necessary, but so well was every bearing oiled 
 that jar and friction were done away, and the ease of move- 
 ment added much to the pleasure of the week. Occasional 
 slight delays were for the most part chargeable to the 
 Alumni themselves and to the unlimited sociability of the 
 occasion, with class reunions and informal receptions, here 
 and there between scheduled events, wherever opportunity 
 
A SKETCH OF THE CENTENNIAL 1 5 
 
 offered. To the marked social character of the whole re- 
 union, the open-hearted hospitality of the people of the 
 village and vicinity contributed much. The cordial co- 
 operation of the New England colleges was also most grati- 
 fying. Their words of congratulation, the representatives 
 they sent, and the papers offered by their presidents at the 
 educational conference were notable features of the occa- 
 sion. Best of all, however, was the response of the Alumni. 
 Of the five hundred and seventy-four who were living, fifty- 
 one per cent, were present, among them the oldest living 
 graduate. Dr. William M. Bass, '32, of Neponset, Mass. 
 When it is remembered that the list extends over sixty- 
 eight years in time and over the world in place, this show- 
 ing is remarkable. As an index of graduate loyalty and an 
 earnest of good things to come, it was perhaps the most 
 significant fact of the celebration. 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 
 
 By president EZRA BRAINERD 
 
 Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 
 
 — John iv. 38. 
 
 THE more we know of human life, the more 
 intimate appears the dependence of man 
 upon his fellows. Man is by nature the 
 most gregarious of all animals. The adult may iso- 
 late himself from his kind ; but the hermit is an ab- 
 normal creature, often a relapse to the plane of the 
 beast. The shipwrecked sailor may survive for years 
 upon some lone island; but it requires a genius like 
 that of the hero of Defoe to keep mind and heart 
 from starving in such solitude. Man can attain to 
 the realization of his proper selfhood only when he 
 comes into intimate connection with his fellow-men. 
 Great achievement in art or science or business is 
 possible only when men work together with a com- 
 mon purpose. 
 
 So absolute is this interdependence of men that 
 many thinkers have held that human society is an 
 organic unit like a tree. The branches, leaves, and 
 flowers can none of them live apart from the tree ; 
 nor can the tree thrive when deprived of these 
 members. Its normal life results only from the 
 union and cooperation of all the parts. St. Paul, 
 16 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 1 7 
 
 with an insight which only our modern science is 
 beginning to appreciate, has represented the society 
 of Christian believers as constituting one body, — an 
 organism with feet and hands and head, with eyes 
 and ears, — each member having its special work, 
 indispensably needful to the rest, but dead and use- 
 less when dissevered. " Whether one member suf- 
 fereth, all the members suffer with it ; or one mem- 
 ber is honoured, all the members rejoice with it." 
 
 This union of human beings in one common lot, 
 for better for worse — this fellowship in weal or woe, 
 in victory or defeat — is strikingly seen in the life 
 of the family, or of the local community. But the 
 mutual interests of a people in their national life are 
 quite as profound, though less obtrusive. It is not 
 without significance that our fathers spoke of the 
 State as the Commonwealth, — the guardianship of 
 the common weal. And as civilization advances, the 
 solidarity of the whole human race is coming to be 
 more and more pronounced. Our modern railroads, 
 steamships, and telegraphs have brought the nations 
 of the whole earth into a closer intercourse with each 
 other than existed between the original States of the 
 Union a century ago. With even more propriety 
 than the sage of old we may say to-day that, as men, 
 we are concerned with whatever affects the interests 
 of men the round world over. Self-protection re- 
 quires this : the horrors of the plague are felt in 
 the distant cities of India ; but in another season, 
 
1 8 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 through the myriad ships that cross the ocean, the 
 disease is at our own doors. But more than self- 
 interest, more even than the needs of trade, a grow- 
 ing human sympathy is bringing all members of the 
 human race together. We hear the cries of the 
 hungry and the oppressed even in the remotest 
 parts of the globe ; we burn with indignation at the 
 cruelty of the oppressor ; we are eager to establish 
 the institutions of science and education among less 
 enlightened nations; we are zealous to send the 
 gospel of Christian peace and salvation into every 
 land. Thus the essential unity of the race is com- 
 ing into fuller recognition. Every man is learning 
 to feel the needs of his fellow-man ; and we are ad- 
 vancing to a fuller realization of a universal brother- 
 hood. 
 
 But this dependence of man upon man may be 
 viewed historically as well as geographically. Not 
 only the aggregate of human beings now living on 
 the earth are bound together by the closest bond of 
 mutual interest, but we are also bound with equally 
 close bonds to the generations of men who have 
 preceded us. This is the special thought of the 
 text. Christ recognized the fact that the opportu- 
 nity of the hour was due to the labors of prophets 
 and saints who had preceded them. These had 
 sown the seed ; the apostles were privileged to reap 
 the ripened harvest of that sowing. Other men have 
 labored, and ye are entered into their labor. 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 1 9 
 
 It IS eminently fitting on this occasion that we 
 should consider Our Indebtedness to the Past. 
 The educated youth of to-day go forth into the world, 
 enjoying a higher degree of privilege than ever fell 
 to the lot of their predecessors. Born of worthy 
 ancestry, in as fair a land as the sun shines upon, 
 surely they can say with the psalmist, " The lines 
 are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a 
 goodly heritage." Let us pause to-day to contem- 
 plate the greatness of this heritage, and to learn 
 some of the lessons that it teaches. 
 
 I would speak first of the blessings that have 
 come to us from the past through the channels of 
 natural heredity. Theologians have had much to 
 say of our inheritance of native depravity. Every 
 man is indeed born with animal traits, and attains 
 to proper manhood only after a struggle with selfish 
 and sensual instincts, acquired not only by Adam's 
 fall, but by the misdeeds of centuries of savage an- 
 cestry. But if the modern inductions of heredity 
 prove anything, they prove that good traits of mind 
 or heart are transmitted to offspring as truly as bad 
 traits. The Lord visits the iniquities of the fathers 
 upon the children, upon the third and upon the 
 fourth generation ; but he also shows mercy unto a 
 thousand generations of them that love him and 
 keep his commandments. 
 
 The more carefully we study the various races of 
 men on earth, the more pronounced and persistent 
 
20 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 appear their racial peculiarities. Education and 
 custom have much to do in bringing this about ; 
 but inborn tendencies play a most important part 
 in shaping character. In spite of the training of 
 the school, in spite of social and religious culture, 
 every man shows in his make-up certain tricks of 
 manner, certain ways of thinking and of acting, 
 that he owes to the parents or grandparents from 
 whom he sprang. If they were men and women 
 with brave hearts and steady brains and honest 
 lives, it should be easier for him to attain to all 
 manly grace and stature. 
 
 There is, indeed, a pride of race or of family that 
 is vain and despicable. Rank and reputation are 
 the extraneous things of a man, and cannot pass 
 from father to son by any law of natural heredity. 
 But it is a proper occasion for gratitude if one be- 
 longs to a race of men who for centuries in the 
 past have stood for what was noblest in thought 
 and literature, who have fought bravely for civil 
 and religious liberty, who have sought to main- 
 tain justice in human society, and to guard the 
 purity of the home. We have good reason to 
 glory in the staunch character of the forefathers 
 of New England. We may speak with just pride 
 of the godly lives and the wise foresight of those 
 pioneers of Vermont who founded here a Christian 
 College a hundred years ago. If the blood of 
 these men, or of other men such as these, flows 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 21 
 
 in our veins, it is a priceless inheritance from the 
 past. 
 
 I ask you to notice, secondly, our indebtedness 
 to the past for our present treasures of wisdom and 
 knowledge. The important truths of science, which 
 are now so plain that the schoolboy cannot fail to 
 understand them, were at first but slowly and pain- 
 fully apprehended. It took the world two thou- 
 sand years to find out with certainty whether the 
 sun moved daily around the earth, or the earth 
 revolved daily about its axis. When the present 
 century opened, almost nothing was known of the 
 laws and possible uses of electricity. When, how- 
 ever, through some happy accident, or by some 
 insight of genius, the problem is solved and the 
 secret of nature is discovered, all men share in the 
 knowledge and transmit it to future generations. 
 Some of the greatest inventions of the race, like the 
 printing-press or the steam-engine, were strangely 
 slow in coming ; but once made, they were made 
 for all future time. The lessons of past experience 
 have often been dearly bought. History is replete 
 with the wrecks of foolish enterprises, with the fail- 
 ures of unsound methods of government, with futile 
 schemes of selfish ambition. But the men who 
 come after may, if they will, learn wisdom from the 
 mistakes of the past. 
 
 In this way the human race, through all the 
 centuries of its history, has been building up and 
 
22 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 equipping a vast treasure-house of knowledge and 
 wisdom, — grander than any cathedral, more endur- 
 ing than the pyramids. The glory of the finished 
 structure, when our knowledge and mastery of na- 
 ture shall be complete, it has not entered into the 
 heart of man to conceive. For the plan is not of 
 man's devising, but the creation of a divine Archi- 
 tect. The earnest thinkers of the past have been 
 often unconscious of the value and significance of 
 their work ; their labors have rather been prompted 
 and guided by a God-given instinct. 
 
 Now the extended knowledge of nature and of 
 man already accumulated in modern science and 
 literature is all at the disposal of the new gen- 
 eration, who are soon to be the active members of 
 the human race. It is as though all the great and 
 good and wise of the past had been laboring for 
 them. We of to-day are the heirs of all former 
 generations, and are enjoying the rich inheritance 
 which they have left to us. Hardly more could 
 have been done for us if the worthies of old had 
 had for their sole aim our happiness and well-being. 
 The wonderful creations of Shakespeare, the elo- 
 quence of Burke, the beauty of Tennyson, the in- 
 spiration of Browning, are all for our benefit and 
 delectation. The sublime thoughts of Milton and 
 of Dante we may think over after them. We may 
 walk in the intellectual footsteps of Newton and 
 of Locke. All the poets and sages and inventors 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 23 
 
 of the past are to-day our servants and benefactors. 
 If we live in intellectual luxury, it is because they 
 lived before us. If we achieve great things, it is 
 because they have paved the way. 
 
 But we are furthermore indebted to the past be- 
 cause of the social and civil institutions that have 
 been established. What we call modern civilization 
 is a most complex and recondite affair. . We are 
 surrounded constantly by its benign influences, as 
 by the fresh air and sunshine of heaven. Its bless- 
 ings are so universal and so continuous that we 
 commonly fail to appreciate them, and forget at 
 what enormous cost they were purchased. We live 
 under a wise and just government which aims 
 to protect the rights of its millions of citizens. 
 Peace, order, and personal freedom prevail as a 
 rule over this great republic. But only those who 
 have studied the history of constitutional law know 
 of the bloody battles, the fierce controversies, the 
 prolonged struggles through which our fathers 
 had to pass to establish the principles of law and 
 just government under which we live to-day. The 
 right of free speech, freedom of worship, the privi- 
 lege of trial by jury, the abolition of slavery have 
 been secured to us only by the sacrifice of unnum- 
 bered lives and countless treasures. 
 
 There are also other institutions than those of 
 government which the past has bequeathed to us, 
 no less valuable, though established by methods 
 
24 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 less violent. Take, for example, our modern sys- 
 tem of education. The establishment of free schools 
 for the thorough mental training of all children, the 
 founding and generous endowment of colleges and 
 universities have done more to elevate the aver- 
 age intelligence and character of our people than 
 any other secular institutions that can be men- 
 tioned. The modern age is noted for its chari- 
 table and philanthropic institutions — its hospitals 
 and asylums, public libraries and galleries of art, 
 founded by generous men for the good of pos- 
 terity — institutions that contribute vastly to the 
 comfort and dignity and refinement of our present 
 civilization. In these matters, surely, other men 
 have labored, and we are entered into their labors. 
 
 But there are still other influences more subtile 
 and yet as potent that descend upon us from the 
 lives and labors of past generations. There are 
 unwritten customs, time-honored usages, rites of 
 courtesy, that give character to our social life. Our 
 forms of speech, language itself, is an inheritance 
 from the past. Our love of the beautiful, our sen- 
 timents of honor, our code of morals, our religious 
 hopes and beliefs, have all been instilled into us by 
 the lives and teachings of noble spirits who came 
 before us. Thus our lives are inextricably involved 
 in the lives of our predecessors. In body and soul 
 we are largely the resultant of forces that acted in 
 former generations. For a few short years we are 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 25 
 
 permitted to enter into the perennial life of the 
 race, and to inherit the wealth and power and at- 
 tainment of the past. 
 
 Consider now two of the practical lessons of our 
 theme. One is that to the great a^id good who of 
 old labored in our behalf we should ever cherish the 
 deepest sense of gratitude. It is not so easy a thing 
 for us to be thankful to the dead as to be thankful 
 to the living. The ears of the dead, we think, are 
 deaf to all our praises. They have ceased from their 
 labors; they can do no more for us. They dwell 
 afar in the silent land, busied with higher concerns 
 than those of earth ; and we doubt at times if their 
 thoughts and love go back to those who have taken 
 up the weapons that they let fall when summoned 
 from the conflict of life. 
 
 In the living presence of a personal benefactor 
 our gratitude is spontaneous and finds ready ex- 
 pression. Perhaps there is a selfish element in it, 
 and we think to insure a continuance or repetition 
 of the benefit. Gratitude for the absent or the de- 
 parted, gratitude to a giver who never knew us as 
 individuals, is a virtue that pertains to the higher 
 planes of character, and flourishes only when prop- 
 erly fostered. In the sphere of animal life but little 
 account is made of filial affection. The love of par- 
 ents for offspring is strong ; the vigorous perpetua- 
 tion of the species has required this. But in the 
 
26 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 state of nature there is no reward offered to elicit 
 love of offspring for parents. The young take from 
 the old what they can get, as a matter of right; ren- 
 dering a certain measure of respect and obedience, 
 but never gratitude. We sometimes see in human 
 beings these traits of the animal; but it finds no 
 place in any proper conception of manhood. The 
 human soul is susceptible to the noble sentiments 
 of grateful reverence. Man alone of earthly crea- 
 tures has learned to kneel and to adore. He alone 
 lifts up the voice of prayer and praise to the unseen 
 Father; he alone bares his head in the conscious 
 presence of the infinite mysteries of life and death ; 
 he alone can appreciate and venerate the heroes of 
 his race, and pay the homage of gratitude to unseen 
 benefactors. 
 
 We cannot overestimate the uplift of character 
 that comes to us from the cultivation of a grateful 
 reverence for the past. We learn to value the bless- 
 ings of our birthright when we realize what they 
 cost in toil and sacrifice. A grateful reverence for 
 the past begets in us a proper spirit of conserva- 
 tism, — not that we think the men of former days 
 were perfect, or their work complete, or their beliefs 
 infallible, but that they laid well the foundations 
 which we should maintain. We are come " not to 
 destroy, but to fulfil." In the contemplation of their 
 virtues, in the study of their thoughts and purposes, 
 and by the grateful recognition of their brave deeds 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 2^ 
 
 and glorious achievements, we catch something of 
 the same spirit; we are changed into the same 
 image, and become less unworthy of our noble 
 heritage. 
 
 Nor is it any vain homage that we render to the 
 dead. Think not that their ears are altogether deaf 
 to the utterances of our thankful hearts. Even in 
 the silent land whither the immortal spirits of just 
 men have departed, there may come memories of 
 earthly scenes, and affection may turn back with ten- 
 der interest to the workers upon whom their mantle 
 has fallen. The martyr who laid down his life in 
 the defence of a great cause cannot but rejoice in its 
 final triumph, even while he stands before the great 
 white throne. We honor not the dead who lie cold 
 and silent in their graves ; we honor rather the 
 living saints of the Most High God who have gone 
 on to glory. Our gratitude for the good that has 
 come to us from the labors of our forefathers floats 
 not away like vain incense into the vacant air; its 
 fragrance is borne on, as by angels' wings, through 
 the gates of the heavenly city into the very presence 
 of the mighty dead, who still live and love and care 
 for men. 
 
 Our subject has for us a further practical lesson. 
 If we are deeply indebted to those who have gone 
 before us, we are under corresponding obligations to 
 those who shall come after us. In God's providence 
 we are not here in this world as the idle and passive 
 
28 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 recipients of his bounty. The divine command is : 
 " Freely ye have received, freely give." 
 
 We are indeed heirs to all the riches of our pred- 
 ecessors. All their science and literature are ours ; 
 we own all their wonderful devices by which the 
 various forces of nature are subdued into service ; 
 we possess all the civil and social institutions which 
 they established at such great cost. But we are not 
 the last generation of men on the earth ; only the 
 latest. We are but a link in the chain of countless 
 generations that extends through the centuries of 
 human history. It is our duty to transmit to pos- 
 terity the great legacy of the race, not simply un- 
 impaired, but adorned and enriched and enlarged. 
 
 True greatness of soul is never found in living 
 for self as the supreme end, in caring most of all for 
 one's own ease or happiness, or fame or self-culture. 
 The Master has said, " He that loveth his life shall 
 lose it." The great soul is he who more and 
 more, as the years of life pass by, learns to for- 
 get the things of self. For the Master has fur- 
 ther said, " He that loseth his life for my sake 
 shall find it." 
 
 The inheritance of the past comes to individuals 
 in various forms. It comes often as material wealth. 
 In these latter days there is an increasing number 
 of men who have large fortunes, the fruit of indus- 
 try and enterprise, — the earned or unearned incre- 
 ment of a prosperous age. It is one of the most 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 29 
 
 hopeful signs of the times that so many who have 
 great possessions are recognizing the moral obliga- 
 tions that wealth imposes; that instead of wasting 
 their substance in luxury and ostentatious display, 
 they are using it to establish permanent benefac- 
 tions to bless the coming generations. Here is to 
 be found the true solution of the problems of social- 
 ism, — in the voluntary recognition of the Christian 
 doctrine that all men are but the stewards of the 
 Lord's bounty ; that in God's kingdom " none of us 
 liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself." 
 
 But the legacy of the past may come to men in 
 other forms than wealth. It may come as intellec- 
 tual talent, or as opportunity for education and cul- 
 ture. But here, too, the divine law holds: " Freely 
 ye have received, freely give." They of old who 
 hoarded the heavenly manna found it in the 
 morning but a mass of pollution. Knowledge and 
 culture are vain, unless they can be used in the ser- 
 vice of others. It is fixed in the eternal nature of 
 things that self-worship is hollow and ghastly, but 
 self-sacrifice glorious and godlike. 
 
 Dear Pupils of the Senior Class : Your college 
 life draws to a close at a most interesting epoch, — 
 as the nineteenth century is about to end, and as 
 your Alma Mater completes her first hundred years 
 of service. It is a time when we naturally contrast 
 the past with the present. And as we do so, we are 
 amazed at the increase of privilege and opportunity 
 
30 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 that has come to young men and women during the 
 century. The strides that have been made in the 
 sciences, the clearer light with which history is read, 
 the broader culture, — new books, new methods, 
 new appliances, make college life far other now than 
 it was in former days. 
 
 Nor has the wide world into which we send you 
 ever before offered to earnest youth more golden 
 opportunities. The human race is awake to great 
 enterprises as never before. The fight is on, all 
 along the line, between the hosts of darkness and 
 of light. Men of character and ability are sought 
 after everywhere to fill posts of importance and re- 
 sponsibility. For the earnest soul, strong in princi- 
 ples and faithful to high ideals, the world has never 
 before offered a more glorious field for endeavor. 
 Thank God that you live as near as you do to the 
 latter days, when so much of the evil and imperfec- 
 tions of the past is behind you, and so much of the 
 glory of the future seems to be opening before you. 
 
 As we bid you God-speed on leaving us to enter 
 upon the life-work to which Providence may assign 
 you in the grander era of the new century, I would 
 impress upon you the saying of the Divine Teacher, 
 that he who would become great should be the min- 
 ister and servant of all. A noble life is a life of self- 
 forgetfulness. As the years pass by, become more 
 and more identified with the grand life of the race. 
 Enter heart and soul into the great interests of our 
 
BACCALAUREATE SERMON 3 1 
 
 common humanity. Work for your fellow-men ; 
 live for your fellow-men ; and, if need be, die for 
 your fellow-men. So shall you follow in the foot- 
 steps of the blessed Master, and enter into his 
 reward. 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 
 
 BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS 
 
 By president SAMUEL W. BOARDMAN 
 
 CHRISTIANITY is inclusive of all true relig- 
 ion ; Christ is the way, the truth, and the 
 life. It is exclusive of all other religions : 
 " Thou shalt have no other gods before me ; " 
 " No man cometh unto the Father but by me." 
 Christianity is, however, like all things human, pro- 
 gressive. Of the increase of His kingdom there 
 shall be no end. Every Christian college con- 
 tributes to build up that kingdom, as the zo- 
 ophyte to build up the coral island in the sea. 
 The occasion suggests "The Contribution of the 
 First Century of Middlebury College to Christian 
 Progress." 
 
 As Abraham Lincoln ceased to breathe. Secre- 
 tary Stanton, standing near, said, " He now be- 
 longs to the ages." The first century of Middlebury 
 College now belongs to history. There is, of neces- 
 sity, a deep pathos in such an occasion. No one 
 human life covers the whole of its history. Life 
 and death, mortality and immortality, time and 
 32 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 33 
 
 eternity are mingled in the review. To one stand- 
 ing on the summit of Mount Marcy, the landscape 
 extends in one view from the St. Lawrence to the 
 Hudson, and from Lake Ontario to the White 
 Mountains. Boston and Montreal are at once 
 under the eye. So we at this summit of time 
 survey the whole field of our College history, from 
 Aaron Petty, the solitary graduate of 1802, to the 
 large Class of 1900. If this discourse shall be long, 
 it must be charged to the alumni who have achieved 
 so much that demands commemoration; and par- 
 don may be asked on the ground that the audi- 
 ence will not be tasked again in the same way 
 for a century. 
 
 Environment moulds institutions as well as indi- 
 viduals. Few places in America are more affluent 
 in elements of romance, in history, or in natural 
 beauty than the Champlain Valley, in the midst 
 of which stands Middlebury College. It is full 
 of stirring associations from the struggles and 
 conflicts of French and English colonization in 
 America. The names Champlain, Vergennes, Ver- 
 mont are all French. The French built forts on 
 the Lake, and held possession of this territory till 
 the French and Indian War ; nor was this region 
 open to English and Protestant settlements till 
 after the conquest of Quebec by Wolfe, in 1759. 
 On July 5, 1758, just one hundred and forty-two 
 years ago, and eighteen years before the Declara- 
 3 
 
34 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 tion of Independence, the British were badly de« 
 feated by the French near Lake George. The 
 able French general, Montcalm, with thirty-six 
 hundred active French and Indians, defeated the 
 incapable British general, Abercrombie, with fifteen 
 thousand brave British and American soldiers, ac- 
 companied by a fleet of one thousand and thirty- 
 five boats and by abundance of artillery mounted on 
 rafts. The battle was almost in sight from Chip- 
 man Hill, being fought a little north of Fort Ticon- 
 deroga. It resulted in the death of Lord Howe and 
 the loss of one thousand nine hundred and forty- 
 four soldiers, mostly British regulars. This valley, 
 between the Green and the Adirondack Mountains, 
 was thus charged with the spirit of one of the most 
 strenuous conflicts in the history of civilization. 
 At Crown Point and Ticonderoga, almost in sight 
 from our College belfry, the French bestowed 
 great sums of money in fortifications, and afterward 
 the British expended ten millions of dollars on 
 the same defenses. Parliament, in 1759, voted 
 sixty million dollars for the conquest of French 
 America. The spirit of the elder Pitt, the Earl 
 of Chatham, reigned throughout this valley, and 
 left his name on one of the fords of Otter Creek, 
 Pittsford. This was only forty-one years before 
 the founding of Middlebury College, and these 
 events had much to do in forming the character 
 of the population out of which soon afterward Mid- 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 35 
 
 dlebury College rose. The subsequent struggle 
 for American independence, and the peculiar posi- 
 tion of the inhabitants, between the rival claims of 
 New Hampshire and New York, gave in addition 
 a unique flavor of character to Vermont. The 
 first seal of Vermont was the "beech seal." Ethan 
 Allen impressed much of his strong, though unpol- 
 ished, character upon the State. From Quebec, 
 where Wolfe triumphed, to Saratoga, where Bur- 
 goyne surrendered, this valley was alive with heroic 
 memories. Nor has it been less distinguished in 
 later days, when McDonough triumphed on the 
 Lake, or when the body of John Brown, " whose 
 soul went marching on," was brought back from 
 Virginia, through Middlebury, to be buried in a 
 nook among the Adirondacks. The first students 
 of Middlebury College were the sons and grandsons 
 of the heroes of Quebec, Ticonderoga, and Ben- 
 nington. Dr. Beman told us at the semicentennial 
 that his own father participated in the capture of 
 Fort Ticonderoga under Allen and Arnold. 
 
 Our fathers found ozone on the mountains and 
 iron in the hills, and both entered into their blood. 
 By a marked Providence, the College was located 
 at Middlebury, a settlement made by notable and 
 superior men. Daniel Foot, Gamaliel Painter, Seth 
 Storrs, Daniel Chipman, Samuel Miller, Darius 
 Matthews, and kindred spirits, were an uncommon 
 assemblage. The tide of immigration from the older 
 
36 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 New England colonies had been recently turned 
 toward Vermont, and many of the ablest young 
 men came hither. President Dwight three times 
 visited Middlebury, and directed to this place sev- 
 eral of the most promising graduates of Yale of 
 that day. He encouraged the establishment of the 
 Academy and College, and afforded valuable coun- 
 sel and assistance. Presidents Atwater and Davis, 
 Professor Hough, Seth Storrs, Senators Seymour 
 and Samuel S. Phelps were prominent students 
 from New Haven ; Chipman, Swift, Merrill, and 
 Hall, from Dartmouth ; Starr, from Williams. Dr. 
 Merrill took the valedictory from Daniel Webster 
 at Dartmouth, and President Bates from Chief 
 Justice Shaw at Harvard. President Davis was 
 the first choice for President of Yale to succeed 
 President Dwight. Such a collection of valedic- 
 torians, college officers, and other superior men in 
 any country village is very rare. There were early 
 settlers at Middlebury who, though not college 
 graduates, were scarcely inferior. Such a body of 
 early inhabitants imparted an elevating influence 
 of great value to the College, which has continued 
 from the first. For one-quarter of the century past 
 Middlebury has been represented in the United 
 States Senate, and for the same length of time 
 by members in the House of Representatives. 
 It has been the home of three governors, and 
 always of many influential citizens. The time 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 37 
 
 when the College was founded is worthy of notice. 
 Washington had just died. The Federal Constitu- 
 tion had been in operation only eleven years. The 
 heroes and statesmen of the Revolutionary period 
 survived, but were rapidly passing away. Napo- 
 leon was beginning his marvellous career. Burns 
 and Cowper had recently died. Wordsworth, Col- 
 eridge, and Southey were beginning to write. 
 Byron, Shelley, and Scott had not yet risen to 
 notice. The population of the United States was 
 5,300,000. Its financial resources were probably 
 not one-seventieth part of what they now are. 
 The Christian Church was much smaller in pro- 
 portion to the whole population than it now is. 
 
 The village of Middlebury had emerged from the 
 primeval wilderness only ten or fifteen years before 
 the founding of the College. An academy had been 
 established three years before, in 1797. A college 
 charter had been sought for two years, but delayed. 
 Gamaliel Painter, Seth Storrs, and Samuel Miller, 
 however, were enterprising and level-headed men, 
 and at length prevailed. The Legislature met here 
 in 1800 and granted the college charter on Nov. i. 
 Immediately a choice selection of youth were gath- 
 ered together for study. They were like the people 
 of Middlebury, of a superior class. Dr. Beman re- 
 lated in 1850 that, leaving Williams in order to find 
 a college nearer home, and passing through Burling- 
 ton, where, stimulated by Middlebury, the University 
 
38 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 had been commenced, he was so impressed with the 
 ability, diligence, and earnestness of the teachers 
 and students here that he was constrained to cast 
 in his lot among them. 
 
 The century which we now review as at a single 
 glance, yet measures an important part of the history 
 of the world. It is one-nineteenth of the Christian 
 era. It is one-fourth of the time since the discovery 
 of America, the revival of learning, the development 
 of the arts, and the Protestant Reformation. It is 
 more than one-third of the period since the settle- 
 ments at Jamestown and Plymouth. It covers near- 
 ly the whole of our independent national life as an 
 American Union. Yet the memory of two genera- 
 tions easily covers the whole. Henry Chipman of 
 the Class of 1803, the first class that really appeared 
 at Commencement, was a brisk, alert, efficient youth 
 in 1800, yet several persons who are now present 
 heard him, at the Commencement dinner in 1865, 
 relate familiarly incidents of the very first years of 
 the College, and especially the formation of the 
 Philomathesian Society, of which he was the chief 
 founder, and the account of his puzzled studies in 
 constructing the name " Philomathesian." I saw 
 Daniel Chipman, one of the charter members of the 
 Board of Trustees, borne to the grave in 1850. I 
 called upon President Atwater in New Haven in 
 1856 ; I took college notes, used in the preparation 
 of this address, from Daniel Hopkins (1804); ^ con- 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 39 
 
 versed with Salem Town (1805) respecting the early 
 days of the College ; and many of us were familiar 
 with the presence of Governor Slade and Doctor 
 Beman of the Class of 1807. 
 
 In this place the intellectual life of fifteen hun- 
 dred graduates has been formed. Upon this College 
 the eminent achieveipients of many of them have re- 
 flected charm and lustre. They were once here. 
 They went out to large and earnest service in all the 
 world. Most of them are not, and yet they live and 
 will ever live, here and in the many fields of their 
 active life-work. There are peculiar emotions at- 
 tending a college brotherhood. We are one family. 
 We have but one Alma Mater. She may be less 
 richly endowed in finances than some other colleges, 
 but she is ours, and we love her with an undying 
 affection. She is ^^r dear mother; our Alma. Mater. 
 
 We are not here to boast of superiority over other 
 similar institutions. It is enough for us that we 
 have an honorable place in the noble fraternity of 
 American colleges. We, however, confidently chal- 
 lenge a place with the best. Though no one of our 
 number has occupied the presidency of the United 
 States, yet one, an illustrious senator, who went from 
 a farm almost under the eaves of the College, refused 
 the vice-presidency ; declined a place in the cabinet, 
 and a seat in the Supreme Court of the United 
 States; and was regarded, had he lived, to be as 
 sure of the presidency as any one can be before nom- 
 
40 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 ination and election. Another of our number often 
 presided over the Senate, and the dignity of his 
 presence, as Charles Sumner expressed it, seemed 
 to fill the whole chamber, as of one every inch a 
 senator. A third brother was long an honored Judge 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States. A 
 fourth was an exceptionally distinguished ambassa- 
 dor to the Court of St. James ; at whose illness and 
 recent death expressions of tenderness and condo- 
 lence were sent to the private citizen's home in New 
 Haven, Conn., by the sovereign lady, the Queen of 
 the British Empire. The universities by the sea 
 have sometimes spoken of the institutions of the 
 interior as fresh-water colleges. But when wcv re- 
 call the names of Webster, Choate, and Chase; of 
 Wright (1815), Nelson (1813), and Phelps (1840), 
 it may well be questioned whether the mountain air 
 is less favorable for the development of able men 
 than the breezes of the ocean. It is our delight on 
 this occasion to congratulate all American colleges, 
 and especially those that are nearest to us, on their 
 grand achievements. Middlebury was necessarily 
 modeled after Yale, Harvard, and Dartmouth, from 
 which it received its first instructors. Dartmouth 
 almost belongs, according to original intention, to 
 Vermont; separated from it only by the silver 
 thread of the Connecticut River. It holds lands in 
 Vermont, donated to it by our legislature when it 
 was perhaps expected that one college would suffice 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 4 1 
 
 both for New Hampshire and for the New Hamp- 
 shire grants. Dartmouth has received from Vermont 
 Asa Burton, Ebenezer Porter, Daniel Chipman, 
 Thaddeus Stevens, James and George P. Marsh, 
 Asa D. Smith, Walbridge A. Field, and many oth- 
 ers of her most illustrious sons. It has furnished 
 two presidents to the college, one of them a native 
 of Vermont. The two present worthy senators from 
 Vermont, both natives of the State, were graduated 
 in the same Class of 185 1 at Dartmouth. 
 
 Especially are the other colleges of Vermont to 
 be congratulated on this centennial occasion : Nor- 
 wich University, on such students as Generals Par- 
 tridge, Ransom, and Jackman, Admiral Dewey, and 
 many others. Captain Alden Partridge, the founder 
 of Norwich University, was the first Commandant of 
 West Point, and also the founder of what is now 
 the Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Nor- 
 wich University is deserving of high honor for 
 having furnished a long list of brave, skilful, and 
 patriotic officers and men for the defense of the 
 Union. 
 
 The University of Vermont, though chartered 
 earlier than Middlebury College, was not set in 
 operation till a beginning had been made in this 
 place. If its establishment had immediately fol- 
 lowed its charter, it is not likely that Middlebury 
 College would have been chartered. The Univer- 
 sity has accomplished a noble work in philosophy, 
 
42 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 in science, and in literature, and has sent forth effi- 
 cient representatives into every part of the world. 
 Its genial relation to our Alma Mater is seen in 
 the fact that it at one time invited one of our own 
 number to its presidency. For a century of Chris- 
 tian education, these two towers of learning, some- 
 what unlike but not unequal, have stood side by 
 side, like the pillars of Hercules, opening the way 
 out into the broader realms of human knowledge. 
 Education in Vermont has had more amplitude, 
 variety, and completeness than it could probably 
 have had with either alone. Presidents Marsh and 
 Torrey, from Dartmouth, were not precisely the 
 same as Presidents Davis and Bates and Professors 
 Hough and Stoddard, from Harvard and Yale, yet 
 the teaching of each institution to some extent 
 affected and supplemented that of the other. 
 
 In a review of the history of Middlebury College 
 for the past century, to form some estimate of its 
 contribution to the Christian progress of the world, 
 it is unnecessary to repeat what was so well said at 
 the jubilee fifty years ago by Professor Hough and 
 others concerning such of the earlier graduates as 
 had then deceased, and yet in any aggregate esti- 
 mate of the College they cannot be wholly omitted. 
 At that time eight hundred and seventy-seven men 
 had been graduated, and about seven hundred were 
 supposed to be living. Many of the most eminent 
 were present at the jubilee, and any very specific 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 43 
 
 account of their talents and work was then, from 
 considerations of delicacy, impossible. The number 
 of the deceased is now so large that lack of time 
 forbids such minute details of individual lives as 
 were then given. The English catalogues since 
 published by Mr. Pearson and others, and especially 
 the one about to be issued, render this entirely 
 unnecessary. 
 
 Some specific account, however, of the work done 
 by our alumni as a body is essential. In this it is 
 not desired to exaggerate anything, but in plain and 
 simple statements to recount briefly what has been 
 accomplished, and leave the record to speak for it- 
 self. Good scholars have entered here. It was said 
 that Dr. Richards, of Meriden, N. H., who fitted 
 Solon Albee (185 1), remarked that he had never 
 trained a better student. Of his brother, Hon. Sum- 
 ner Albee (1848), of Boston, Professor Andrew P. 
 Peabody, of Harvard University, said at his funeral 
 that he never knew a better man. These were 
 representatives of many Middlebury students. No 
 average estimate can, of course, wholly exclude the 
 living from our review, though they must, for ob- 
 vious reasons, be spoken of much less freely than 
 we speak of the dead. The work of more recent 
 alumni cannot be brought very largely into the 
 account, since their life-work is as yet in great part 
 unachieved, and even what is done is less known 
 than is that of the older graduates. 
 
44 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 Although Christian ministers, and especially for- 
 eign missionaries, are most conspicuous in the pro- 
 motion of Christian progress, yet the work is by no 
 means restricted to their agency. When there was 
 no preaching at Canton, N. Y., Silas Wright was 
 accustomed to read a sermon to the congregation. 
 Such elders as Calvin T. Hulburd (1829) and John 
 C. Churchill (1843) are scarcely less efficient in the 
 church than clergymen. When I asked the pastor 
 of one of them if he was not a valuable worker, 
 he replied, " Invaluable ! " Wherever in any profes- 
 sion, or in any sphere of life, our alumni have made 
 the world better, they have contributed to Christian 
 progress. Only Omniscience can estimate the exact 
 value of their lives. Beneficent influence is too 
 subtle, too elusive, for perfect measurement by man. 
 It is pleasant to consider ourselves, for the time at 
 least, at this Centennial, as one brotherhood, without 
 distinction of time or space, of profession, or de- 
 nomination, or politics, — each sharing the honors 
 of all, and every one valuing every other as an hon- 
 ored member of the same body. The breadth and 
 catholicity of our work afford us especial satisfac- 
 tion. All the great religious bodies have been 
 represented. In the Roman Catholic communion, 
 the Right Reverend Bishop Edgar P. Wadhams 
 (1838) was known as a resourceful and indefati- 
 gable prelate. In the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 Bishops John P. K. Henshaw (1808) and Ozi W. 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 45 
 
 Whitaker (1856), of Rhode Island and of Penn- 
 sylvania, have been distinguished for fidelity and 
 usefulness. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 President Stephen Olin (1820) and many others 
 have been eminent. In the Baptist Church were 
 George B. Ide (1830), Ira Chase (1814), and Profes- 
 sor Thomas J. Conant (1823), a great scholar and 
 member of the Bible Revision Committee. Of Pres- 
 byterians, there have been three Moderators of the 
 General Assembly, and many prominent pastors 
 and teachers. Of Congregationalists, a still larger 
 number have held positions of prominence. Among 
 Universalists, few have stood higher for scholarship 
 and literary ability than Thomas J. Sawyer (1829). 
 Dr. Sawyer but recently passed away, seventy years 
 after graduation, having been long ago honored 
 with a doctorate from Harvard, and having held 
 the highest appointments of his denomination. He 
 was one of the first two or three men in his denomi- 
 nation, according to a competent judge. Nearly the 
 same would be said, on similar authority, in their 
 respective denominations, of Beman, Olin, Howe, 
 Conant, Post, Whitaker, and Wadhams. Our breth- 
 ren, in almost all the various walks of life, have 
 received most of the tokens of public respect which 
 are possible to American citizens. For one of our 
 number, Senator Silas Wright, the merchants of 
 New York City contributed a service of plate valued 
 at eighteen thousand dollars. In honor of another, 
 
46 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 a professorship of law has been endowed in Yale 
 University; and the same Ambassador Phelps, al- 
 though a Democrat, was appointed by a Republican 
 President on a most important case of international 
 arbitration. 
 
 The desire for a college in Vermont before its 
 establishment was quickened among the aspiring 
 and enterprising pioneers of Middlebury by the 
 visit to Colonel Storrs, in 1797, of a farmer, Mr. 
 James Evarts, the first representative in the legis- 
 lature from his town of Georgia, Vt., who was 
 taking his son Jeremiah, then sixteen years of age, 
 to Yale, because, although the University of Ver- 
 mont had already been chartered, no college had 
 been as yet established in the State. It illustrates 
 what may be involved in the education of one 
 Vermont boy, that there are now over a hundred 
 living descendants of that lad, more than twenty 
 of them in professional life. That youth had a 
 genius for hard work, and made "Ad astra, per 
 aspera " his life motto. He became a Christian 
 lawyer, of whom Dr. Gardiner Spring, his college 
 associate at Yale, himself at first a lawyer, said 
 that he was abundantly competent to have been 
 Chief Justice of the United States. He achieved 
 perhaps a higher usefulness as Treasurer and Sec- 
 retary of the American Board, in which service his 
 genius contributed essentially to the establish- 
 ment of the methods and the policy of American 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 47 
 
 missions in the foreign field. His son, William M. 
 Evarts, as reported by Schuyler Colfax, was de- 
 clared by Abraham Lincoln to be, in his judgment, 
 best adapted of all the Americans of his day to be 
 Chief Justice of the United States ; and besides 
 being a Senator, Attorney-General, and Secretary 
 of State of the United States, was declared by Mr. 
 Blaine to have been employed on more illustrious 
 arguments at law than any other American law- 
 yer. Other such lads did enter at Middlebury Col- 
 lege almost as soon as it was opened. What a 
 magnificent output was that of the first fifteen 
 years, while the College, with as yet only three or 
 four professors and tutors, was still confined to the 
 old Academy building, which stood from 1797 to 
 1868, and which many of us remember. In those 
 few classes it sent forth four Governors, six mem- 
 bers of Congress, an illustrious United States Sen- 
 ator, an able Judge of the United States Supreme 
 Court, a Chief Justice and several Judges of the 
 highest State Courts ; an Episcopal Bishop, a Mod- 
 erator of the Presbyterian General Assembly ; dis- 
 tinguished preachers and missionaries; with many 
 others, lawyers and ministers, scarcely less eminent. 
 President Timothy Dwight, writing at that time, 
 said : " The local situation of Middlebury, the 
 sober and religious character of the inhabitants, 
 render it a very desirable seat for such a semi- 
 nary. . . . All its funds have been derived from 
 
48 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 private donations, chiefly from the inhabitants of 
 the town." In i8i i he wrote : " The number of the 
 students is now one hundred and ten (as many as 
 Yale had in 1796, when Dr. D wight became presi- 
 dent), probably as virtuous a collection of youth 
 as can be found in any seminary in the world." 
 " Twenty-five years ago," he added, " this spot was 
 a wilderness." 
 
 As a result of this work of the College, and of 
 the University of Vermont, which was also now 
 exerting extensive influence, and of the schools 
 and academies, Vermont early obtained an envi- 
 able reputation for intelligence; so that Daniel 
 Webster, a little later, is recorded to have declared 
 that there was not on the earth a more intelligent 
 average population than that of Western Vermont. 
 It may be doubted whether any of the older col- 
 leges in the country can show, from 1800 to 181 5, 
 while the work was still confined to the one old Acad- 
 emy building, a larger proportion of students who 
 attained eminence than can Middlebury College. 
 
 Vermonters have always been characterized by a 
 certain sturdy independence. When Ethan Allen 
 was promised the governorship of Vermont if he 
 would submit to British rule, he referred the dele- 
 gation to another tempter, who promised all the 
 kingdoms of the world on a similar condition, — 
 *' while the poor tempter knew, all the time," said 
 Allen, " that he did n't own a foot of it." In gen- 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 49 
 
 eral, Vermont has been characterized as in favor 
 of sound principles, sound morals, sound philoso- 
 phy, sound theology, sound politics, and sound 
 money. There is at least a slight distinctive char- 
 acteristic differentiating the graduates of every col- 
 lege from those of another. It is a difference 
 determined by their origin, history, environment, 
 students, traditions, resources, and teachers. One 
 college is superior in one respect, and one in 
 another. The whole body of educated men is 
 enriched by these varieties. There has been a 
 peculiar flavor of college character in Middlebury, 
 as in Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth. There has 
 been an independence and downrightness, remind- 
 ing one of Bennington and Seth Warner. In their 
 sermons, their speeches in Congress, their books, 
 their wit, their politics, and their theology, they 
 have done their own thinking and stood for a pos- 
 itive quantity, a little distinguished from that of 
 any others. The speeches of Silas Wright are 
 easy reading — plain, simple, and forcible. He 
 says a thing, and then goes on to something else. 
 So of Beman, Olin, and Hall ; of Nelson, Roberts, 
 and Phelps. A keen critic said he thought the 
 sermons of President Theodore D. Woolsey the 
 most terse and condensed he ever heard, till he 
 listened to one of our alumni. 
 
 Early in the century there sprang up numerous 
 societies for evangelization, philanthropy, and re- 
 4 
 
so MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 form. Of these, many of our alumni have served 
 as secretaries and agents. Walter Chapin (1803) 
 was Secretary of the Vermont Domestic Missionary 
 Society; William Slade (1807), of the Board of 
 Popular National Education; Miles P. Squier 
 (181 1), of the Geneva Agency of the American 
 Home Missionary Society; Otto S. Hoyt (181 3), 
 of the American Education Society ; Benjamin 
 Chase (1814), of the American Bible Society; Or- 
 son Douglass (18 14), of the Colonization Society 
 and of the Seaman's Society; William Patton 
 (1818), of the Presbyterian Education Society ; Ira 
 M. Allen (1820), of the Baptist Tract Society; 
 Henry B. Hooker (182 1), for many years, of the 
 Massachusetts Home Missionary Society; Ova P. 
 Hoyt (1821), District Secretary of the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; 
 George C. Beckwith (1822), for thirty-five years 
 Secretary of the American Peace Society ; Walter 
 Follett (1825), of the American Tract Society; 
 John Spaulding (1825), for sixteen years Secretary 
 of the American Seaman's Friend Society; Benja- 
 min P. Stone (1828), for twenty-two years Secretary 
 of the New Hampshire Home Missionary Society ; 
 Sheridan Guitteau (1829), of the Maryland Tract 
 Society, and of the Sunday School Union, for twen- 
 ty-eight years. Edwin F. Hatfield (1829) was 
 Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly 
 for thirty-seven years, and also a Moderator of the 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 5 1 
 
 General Assembly. John W. Chickering (1826) 
 was Secretary of the Massachusetts and also of the 
 Congressional Temperance Societies. Enoch C. 
 Wines (1827) founded and was Secretary of the 
 National Prison Association ; Washington Roose- 
 velt (1829), of the American Protestant Society. 
 James L. Barton (1881) is now a Secretary of the 
 American Board. This is by no means an exhaust- 
 ive list, but it is sufficient to show how widely and 
 actively our alumni have been employed in the pro- 
 gressive work of the Church, and in the service of 
 society in all directions. 
 
 Of the twenty-four members of the Class of 1824, 
 eighteen became clergymen : four Presbyterian, six 
 Episcopal, seven Congregational, and one Baptist, 
 illustrating the variety of fields in which our gradu- 
 ates have always been employed. Time forbids 
 even a brief specification of the services which have 
 been rendered by our brethren in the various depart- 
 ments of philanthropy and reform. A volume, rather 
 than a brief address, would be required. 
 
 The removal of slavery has been one of the great 
 events of American history during the past century. 
 John Dickson (1808) is said to have made the first 
 important antislavery speech in Congress. William 
 Slade was a coadjutor of John Quincy Adams in the 
 same movement. David Root, valedictorian of 
 the Class of 1816, was prominently identified with 
 the same cause. David T. Kimball (1829) was one 
 
52 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 of the sixty-two original members of the National 
 Antislavery Society. Beriah Green (1819), Jona- 
 than Blanchard (1832), and Jesse Caswell (1832), 
 espoused that stirring and divisive cause. Charles 
 Cleveland (1824) devoted himself to the elevation 
 of the African race. Later, Luke Borland (1841) 
 labored long and successfully among the freedmen. 
 William A. Howard (1839), as chairman of the Con- 
 gressional committee investigating, on the ground, 
 the border irregularities of the Kansas-Nebraska 
 troubles, before the war, promoted effectively the 
 same issues. These, of course, are but representa- 
 tives of many others equally devoted to the securing 
 of emancipation. 
 
 Many unique and striking services to Christian 
 progress have been rendered by our brethren, of 
 which only a very few can be noticed. Hall J. Kelly 
 (181 3) endeavored to colonize Oregon. Daniel 
 Smith (18 10) made an early missionary exploration 
 of the Southwest, with Samuel J. Mills. Edwin 
 James (18 16) was attached for three years to Major 
 Long's exploring expedition to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, and published the journal of that expedition. 
 He also published nine different works, five of them 
 in the Ojibwa language, among which is a transla- 
 tion of the whole Bible. Henry Stowell (181 6), and 
 William D. Cook (1832), especially promoted the 
 interests of the deaf and dumb. Moses Ordway 
 (1820) organized the first Presbyterian church in 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 53 
 
 Michigan, at Green Bay, in 1836. Edwin F. Hat- 
 field was the first Presbyterian home missionary 
 beyond the Mississippi. Hiram Chamberlain (1822) 
 was the first Protestant minister settled in the valley 
 of the Rio Grande. Jonathan A. Shepherd (1838), 
 as chaplain, opened the first Confederate Congress 
 with prayer. John Thompson (1826) suffered im- 
 prisonment as a missionary to the Cherokees. 
 Enoch C. Wines was almost the father of prison 
 reform in America. Jonathan Blanchard was the 
 great enemy of secret societies. If any of these our 
 ardent brethren were called cranks, yet cranks have 
 their use ; they bring up water to refresh and invig- 
 orate others of less active temperament. 
 
 As preachers and pastors, our alumni have oc- 
 cupied pulpits in almost all the principal cities as 
 well as country districts of the United States, from 
 Bangor to New Orleans, and to the Pacific coast. 
 In many of these they have been eminent. We 
 need only name Nathan S. S. Beman (1807), Carlos 
 Wilcox (1813), Sylvester Earned (1813), Stephen 
 Olin (1820), William Patton (1818), Reuben Post 
 (1814), Thomas Charlton Henry (18 14), Truman M. 
 Post (1829), Samuel C. Aiken (18 14), Harvey D. 
 Kitchel (1835), Henry Smith (1827), Joel H. Linsley 
 (1811), George B. Ide (1830), Thomas J. Sawyer 
 (1829), among the deceased, not to notice living 
 preachers equally distinguished. Some of our breth- 
 ren have rendered very long professional service. 
 
54 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 Luther Sheldon (1808) was pastor at Easton, Mass., 
 for fifty-two years; Calvin Hitchcock (181 1), in Ran- 
 dolph, Mass., thirty years; Samuel C. Aiken (1814)^ 
 in the First Presbyterian Church of Utica, N. Y., 
 and the First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland, 
 Ohio, forty years; Reuben Post, in Washington, 
 D. C, and in Charleston, S. C, about forty years. 
 William Patton was pastor in New York City about 
 thirty years; John B. Steele (1818), fifty-two years; 
 Isaac N. Sprague (1822), sixty-five years; John W. 
 Chickering, in Portland, Me., thirty years ; Martin 
 M. Post (1826), in Logansport, Ind., thirty-five years; 
 Erdix Tenny (1826), in Lyme, N. H., thirty-seven 
 years; Cyrus B. Drake (1834), in Royalton, Vt, 
 forty years ; Truman M. Post, in St. Louis, thirty- 
 one years; Charles Goodrich (1834), in New Or- 
 leans, thirty-three years. Byron Sunderland (1838) 
 has been a pastor in Washington, D. C, forty-five 
 years. George Howe (1822), having taken the 
 valedictory here and at Andover, and having been 
 appointed Phillips Professor of Theology in Dart- 
 mouth College, at the age of twenty-five was com- 
 pelled, for the sake of health, to remove to South 
 Carolina. He was there for over fifty-one years, 
 Professor and President of Columbia Theological 
 Seminary. The semicentennial of his inauguration 
 as Professor of Biblical Exegesis was celebrated, 
 with great interest, in November, 1881. His pupils 
 came together from all parts of the South. " With 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 55 
 
 grand and massive head," said the journals of the 
 day, "saintly and venerable was his appearance." 
 He continued to be a severe student and careful 
 author to the end. 
 
 Some of these men have wielded surprising power 
 in the pulpit. Professor Fitch, of Yale, used to cite 
 Carlos Wilcox as a model sermonizer. Sylvester 
 Larned probably stands alone among American 
 preachers for the impression he made and the fame 
 he achieved at so early an age, dying at the post of 
 duty the day he was twenty-four. Thomas Charlton 
 Henry became so conspicuous that Yale conferred 
 upon him a doctorate when he had been only ten 
 years out of college. " Doctor Beman, when aroused," 
 said a graduate of the University of Vermont, " was 
 equal to any three men you ever heard." Stephen 
 Olin would at times hold vast audiences entranced 
 and breathless with his burning logic and the irre- 
 sistible power of his earnestness. Few American 
 preachers have mingled more of logic and of poetry 
 than Truman M. Post. Assuredly we have had our 
 place among the sacred orators of the American 
 pulpit. Several of our number have been chaplains 
 in Congress, in both House and Senate, and also in 
 the State legislatures and in the Army and Navy. A 
 still higher place is due, perhaps, to those who have 
 gone forth to the work of home and foreign mis- 
 sions. It shows how widely diffused the influence 
 of this College has been, to notice how many of our 
 
56 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 alumni have done an important part, or the whole, 
 of their life-work in the South, — Beman, Larned, 
 Olin, Thomas Charlton Henry, Keith (1814), Hen- 
 shaw, Rhodes (181 5), Chamberlain, Chase, Gilder- 
 sleeve (18 14), Reuben and Truman M. Post. Eleven 
 of the twenty-eight members of the distinguished 
 Class of 18 14 made their homes in the South. 
 Howe, Sunderland, Rankin (1848), and many others 
 in more recent years, have labored south of Mason 
 and Dixon's line. Some of our number have long 
 had a fixed place, as stars of the first magnitude, in 
 the history of the evangelization of the world. Pliny 
 Fisk (18 14), though he died at the age of thirty- 
 three, preached in five languages. There is some- 
 thing akin to genius, though higher, in the mingled 
 natural and spiritual endowments with which God 
 seems pleased, in every generation, to enrich some 
 favored individuals. They become ensamples and 
 especial witnesses to the ever-living power of Chris- 
 tianity. Such were Fisk and Parsons. Their names 
 will ever be associated, like double stars, in the 
 galaxy of our heavens. Both died young. Though 
 superior, they were not very much distinguished for 
 scholarship while here in College. They sought 
 things above. They were often found with Wins- 
 low, Morton (1812), Messer (1816), and others en- 
 gaged in revival meetings, in the school-houses 
 about Middlebury. Perhaps they did not enough 
 set their hearts upon things on the earth, especially 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 57 
 
 in the recitation-room. It is certain that they did 
 mount up with wings as eagles. They became dif- 
 ferent and superior beings. Men took knowledge 
 of them that they had been with Jesus, and had 
 learned of Him. Professor Park says that for ten 
 years after he had left, the personal influence of 
 Pliny Fisk was felt as a spiritual power in Andover 
 Theological Seminary. Secretary Rufus Anderson 
 said that Mr. Fisk's niece. Miss Fidelia Fisk, seemed 
 to him more like our Saviour than any person he 
 had ever known, so perfectly unobtrusive and so 
 perfectly appropriate seemed her every word and 
 act ; and in this, he said, she reproduced the singular 
 personality of her uncle. Levi Parsons (1814) died 
 at Alexandria, Egypt, in 1822, at the age of twenty- 
 nine. Mr. Fisk was with him to the end, and their 
 conversation was of the things of the kingdom. 
 Even after Mr. Parsons had fallen asleep for the 
 last time, as if his heart wakened, his lips still mur- 
 mured, in beatific tones, words of Holy Writ. Sud- 
 denly there came a startling change, — the silver 
 cord was loosed, the golden bowl was broken, — and 
 our brother who had been familiar with these college 
 scenes passed into a world where he was more at 
 home than on this earth. The foreign consuls and 
 other Europeans in Alexandria followed his remains, 
 with tokens of the highest honor, to the grave. The 
 exact place of his burial was afterward lost, and no 
 man knoweth the place of his sepulchre to this day. 
 
58 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 Professor Hough well said of him, fifty years ago, 
 that some of Mr. Parsons' last written words would 
 do honor to any intellect. They evinced powers 
 which, if employed in other channels, might have 
 made him not less conspicuous in public life than 
 his nephew and namesake, the donor to Middlebury 
 College, — diplomatist, governor, and Vice-President 
 of the United States, Hon. Levi Parsons Morton. 
 The death of Mr. Fisk, at Beirut, a few years later, 
 made a still deeper impression. He seemed indis- 
 pensable to the mission. The whole population, 
 native and foreign, diplomatic as well as missionary, 
 deplored his death. His triumphant end was a fresh 
 demonstration of Christianity. The Arabs won- 
 dered, and could not conceive it possible that a 
 human being could be so ready to die. Of such 
 sons, and of others seeking the same aims, in every 
 department of life,, doubtless our Alma Mater says 
 with Cornelia, " These are my jewels." 
 
 Middlebury College has sent forth five hundred 
 and seventy ministers, of whom thirty-nine were 
 foreign missionaries, all with substantially the same 
 spirit as Fisk and Parsons. They have been useful 
 and honored in every part of the world, and their 
 graves are scattered among all people. When the 
 sea shall give up its dead, Warren (1808), Wins- 
 low, and Keith, and perhaps others, will come forth 
 from its depths to glory. Their names will hold 
 places of honor on the final roll of the church 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 59 
 
 triumphant. When George C. Knapp (1852) died 
 at Bitlis, Turkey, where he had labored for forty 
 years, the whole city mourned for him ; the Grego- 
 rian ecclesiastics tenderly desired to bury him in 
 their own consecrated ground, and, when this could 
 not be granted, they attended his obsequies, as a 
 token of respect, in their full canonicals. Miron 
 Winslow (181 5) rendered such eminent service to 
 Oriental linguistic studies by his Tamil Dictionary 
 that Harvard University conferred upon him the 
 degree of LL.D. Hiram Bingham (1816) wall ever 
 remain one of the most conspicuous figures in the 
 history of the Hawaiian Islands. He became the 
 pastor of one of the largest local churches of mod- 
 ern times, composed of natives converted by hun- 
 dreds from the lowest heathenism. Several of our 
 alumni have been employed in the translation of 
 the Bible into heathen languages. Lyman B. Peet 
 (1834) translated the whole New Testament and a 
 part of the Old Testament into Chinese. Sylvester 
 B. Partridge (1861) has also translated a part of the 
 Bible into one of the dialects of China. All this is 
 a record of peculiar honor. The foreign missionary 
 work seems to be in many respects the highest 
 allotted to man on earth. If God became incarnate 
 to save men, and if men are destined to eternal sin- 
 fulness and suffering if not so saved, what other 
 enterprise can compare wuth that of bringing this 
 salvation within their knowledge.? In Christian 
 
6o MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 lands all men have that knowledge, and can be 
 saved if they will. When the inmates of a burning 
 house have been awakened, and can escape, they 
 certainly have less further claim than those sleep- 
 ing in other burning houses, who are not as yet 
 aroused. The thousand millions of the race not yet 
 evangelized seem to make the greater demand upon 
 Christian effort. 
 
 Much of the best work of the College has been 
 done in furnishing the country with teachers. 
 Thirty-two of the alumni have been college presi- 
 dents, and ninety-eight professors in colleges and 
 theological seminaries. Others have been promi- 
 nent teachers of academies or founders, benefac- 
 tors, or directors of important schools. Salem 
 Town (1805) opened the first teachers' institute, 
 and was the author of numerous school-books. 
 Miles P. Squier (1811) effected much through the 
 Geneva Institute, which he founded and sustained. 
 Henry Howe (181 7) was a leading teacher at Cas- 
 tleton, Vt, and at Canandaigua, N. Y. At Castle- 
 ton Academy there were said to be at one time six 
 students who subsequently took the valedictory at 
 Yale and in the other colleges to which they went. 
 At Canandaigua, Mr. Howe instructed Senator 
 Stephen A. Douglas and other distinguished men. 
 Middlebury has furnished two presidents to Mari- 
 etta College, and two to Knox College. Chauncey 
 W. Fitch (1825) was the first President of the Uni- 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 6 1 
 
 versity of Michigan. Alonzo Church (1816) was 
 President of Franklin College, Ga., for thirty-three 
 years, and educated many prominent Southern 
 statesmen and clergymen. Carlisle P. Beman(i8i8) 
 was long President of Oglethorpe University in the 
 same State. Franceway R. Cossitt (181 3) was a 
 college president in Tennessee for twenty-five years. 
 Benjamin Chase (18 14) was the largest early donor 
 to Austin College, Texas, giving to it $25,000, un- 
 der the presidency of the Rev. Daniel Baker, D.D. 
 Norman F. and Truman K. Wright (1839) were 
 successful teachers in Central New York for about 
 fifty years. Albert Hurd (1850) has been connected 
 with Knox College, and Allen P. Northrop (185 1) 
 with Flushing Institute for nearly half a century. 
 The late Daniel D. Gorham (1847), of Northamp- 
 ton, Mass., was an efficient teacher nearly as long. 
 Edward J. Hallock (1833) was Principal of Castleton 
 Seminary for eighteen years, and fitted many stu- 
 dents for Middlebury. Nine members of the Class 
 of 1 85 1 had been under his instruction. 
 
 In other ways the alumni have promoted the 
 great work of education. Hon. Stephen A. Walker, 
 valedictorian of the Class of 1858, was for ten years 
 a Commissioner of the Board of Education of the 
 City of New York, and was esteemed one of the 
 ablest, most faithful, and most successful occu- 
 pants of that important office. Of vigorous intel- 
 lect, sound judgment, and thorough discipline, he 
 
62 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 was a man of continually increasing reputation, 
 which promised further advancement in public 
 life, if he had not been cut off in the full vigor 
 of manhood. Solomon Foot (1826) did some of 
 his best work as a tutor in the University of Ver- 
 mont and as the builder of the present spacious 
 edifice of Castleton Seminary. Howard Univer- 
 sity, established for the elevation of an emanci- 
 pated race, has for eleven years flourished under 
 the 'administration of Dr. Jeremiah E. Rankin. 
 Maryville College, founded by Southerners but 
 opened to all races, has been enlarged and 
 strengthened during the same period. 
 
 The work of the teacher is peculiar in this, 
 that his pupils remain of the same age. The waters 
 change, but the river is the same. The pupils 
 whom I have taught during the past year are 
 of the same age as were my classes here of i860 
 and 1 86 1. I can scarcely realize that the gradu- 
 ates of i860 now average sixty years of age, and 
 are here to-day with their children and grand- 
 children. I cannot forbear to recognize the manly 
 work done in life by the members of the five 
 classes who came under my instruction from i860 
 to 1864. They have in a good measure obeyed 
 the injunction of the text from which the Bac- 
 calaureate was preached by me forty years ago : 
 '* Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily." Forty-nine 
 members of those classes entered the Union army. 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 
 
 63 
 
 The first and tenderest tribute is due to those 
 who paid the last full measure of devotion to their 
 country, dying on the battle-field or in the hospital : 
 Bennett, Eaton (1862), Converse (1862), Crane, 
 and Williamson. To these I must add the names 
 of Miles P. S. Cadwell (1859), who was my pupil at 
 Castleton Seminary, and of John Q. Dickinson 
 (i860), who was later assassinated, scarcely less in 
 the service of his country. Fourteen of the forty- 
 nine who w^ere enlisted were captains or held 
 higher offices. Members of these five classes have 
 become distinguished as clergymen, lawyers, jurists, 
 physicians, journalists, financiers, and teachers. 
 Seven of them are on the present Board of Trus- 
 tees, and it is an especial gratification that one of 
 them has been for the last fourteen years Presi- 
 dent of the College, — one who had before that 
 rendered an honorable service as instructor from 
 the day of his graduation, with the exception of 
 two years at Andover, amounting to a longer term 
 of service than any other teacher but one has ren- 
 dered to Middlebury College. May he long continue 
 with growing usefulness and honor to adorn this 
 high and arduous office. It is also a matter of grati- 
 tude and pride that members of these classes have 
 contributed so liberally to the recent endowments 
 of the College and the erection of new buildings. 
 One can scarcely forbear to notice on this occa- 
 sion how many of our alumni of great promise have 
 
64 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 been cut off in early life. Charles G. Haines (1816) 
 was declared by Daniel Webster to be the most bril- 
 liant man in the country, though he was spared only 
 nine years after graduation, and died at the age of 
 thirty-two. Fisk, Parsons, Wilcox, Larned, Henry 
 (1814), and Allen, all died early ; in later years, Sam- 
 uel M. Conant (1844) ; Eber D. Munger (1842), who 
 was expected to become Professor of the Natural 
 Sciences; Thomas S. Pearson (1851), biographer 
 and historian; James E. Pierce (1861); William H. 
 Button (1861); and many others. The thoughts 
 of the Divine Disposer of human lives are above 
 ours, as the heavens are above the earth. 
 
 Christian progress has been promoted through 
 all the professions. In the nature of things, laws 
 must be chiefly enacted and executed by those 
 learned and skilful in the law. Law is a noble, a 
 beneficent, a sacred profession. While the minis- 
 ters more directly study the word of God, and strive 
 to bring individuals and communities to righteous- 
 ness, yet it must ever be the province of Christian 
 lawyers to guide public sentiment into right chan- 
 nels, to practicable measures ; and to consolidate it 
 into safe and useful legislation. The late Edward 
 J. Phelps was a great lawyer. He loved the study 
 of law for its own sake. He traced back its princi- 
 ples to their Divine origin in natural and revealed 
 religion. Judge Swift relates, in his history of Mid- 
 dlebury that Samuel Phelps, in his discourse on the 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 65 
 
 death of Daniel Webster, in 1852, dwelt much on 
 the conviction, by which he was deeply impressed, 
 that the perpetuity of our civil and political institu- 
 tions would depend wholly on the prevalence of 
 Christian principles among the people. His son, 
 the late eminent Ambassador to England, and Yale 
 Professor of Law, was yet more decidedly of the 
 same opinion. In the early history of Middlebury 
 College there was a professorship of law, filled by 
 Daniel Chipman, LL.D., and Nathaniel Chipman, 
 LL.D., who erected an ample building for a prospec- 
 tive law school, thus looking toward a university 
 scheme, which, however, was never realized. Pro- 
 fessor Hough also held for several years a professor- 
 ship of sacred theology, and a number of young 
 men studied divinity here. A large body of medical 
 students likewise, although they attended lectures 
 elsewhere, received their diplomas from Middlebury 
 College. Through its lawyers, the College has 
 achieved much of its best work; three hundred and 
 sixty-seven of our alumni have been lawyers, and 
 fifty-two judges. 
 
 The medical profession has been not less useful 
 and honored, ninety-three having become physi- 
 cians. The care of that body in which man bears 
 the image of God, is committed to the physician. 
 It is a body in which Christ became incarnate ; in 
 which the Holy Ghost dwells as His temple ; a body 
 which shall yet be changed, in the resurrection, 
 5 
 
66 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 and become incorruptible and immortal, like unto 
 Christ's glorious body. The care, with scientific 
 skill, of such a tenement of the immortal spirit is a 
 noble, a sacred calling. To relieve pain, to heal dis- 
 ease, to restore and preserve health, to promote 
 physical vigor, development, and enjoyment, is a 
 beneficent service. Among the alumni, how many 
 have been known, in thousands of grateful homes, 
 as beloved physicians. Gowdy (1819), Piatt (181 2), 
 Cutter (1814), Eaton (1825), C. C. P. Clark (1843), 
 the Aliens (1842 and 1845), Bass (1832), Ross (1852), 
 Walker (i860), Eddy (i860), Hemenway (1864), and 
 many others come to mind. When the body of Alfred 
 J. Long (1851), who had practised medicine for forty 
 years in Whitehall, N. Y., was borne through its 
 streets to burial, places of business were closed in 
 token of a public bereavement. For many of our 
 brethren who have died as village or city pastors, 
 the general mourning has been deep and sincere. 
 The casket which contained the body of Edwin F. 
 Hatfield (1829), who addressed the Philadelphian 
 Society in 1850, and who had been one of the most 
 successful winners of souls in New York City, was 
 left, after all the public ceremonies of burial were 
 over, on the border of the grave, for private inter- 
 ment ; several gray -haired men, who had been won 
 to Christ in their youth by the fervid ministry of 
 their then young pastor, were seen bending tenderly 
 over his casket, each to secure a memorial lock of 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 67 
 
 hair commemorative of one who had long before 
 led them to become reconciled to God. The same 
 affection has followed hundreds of our brethren to 
 their final rest. 
 
 In respect to literary work, our alumni have done 
 much as editors and authors. Salem Town, David 
 B. Tower (1828), Henry Smith, John J. Owen (1828), 
 R. D. C. Robbins (1835), Henry N. Hudson (1840), 
 Thomas J. Conant, Brainerd Kellogg (1858), Clar- 
 ence E. Blake (1873), and others have furnished 
 approved and widely used text-books for academies, 
 colleges, and professional schools. In romance, the 
 works of Daniel P. Thompson (1820) seem likely to 
 be read as long as the Otter Creek flows and the 
 Green Mountains stand. We have an assured place 
 in poetry; the poems of one of our number, John G. 
 Saxe (1839), have gone through more than forty 
 editions in this country and in England. In criti- 
 cism, also, we have a place through the works of 
 Henry N. Hudson ; in biography, through Daniel 
 O. Morton (1812), Joseph H. Barrett (1845), ^"d 
 others ; in reports and digests of law, through Dan- 
 iel Roberts and others ; in projects for civil reform, 
 through Dr. C. C. P. Clark ; in authorship and col- 
 lections of hymns, through the labors of Beman, 
 Burnap Hatfield, Rankin, and Hiram Mead (1850). 
 It is certainly something that wherever English- 
 speaking people meet and part, they sing, in the 
 words of one of our number, " God be with you till 
 
68 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 we meet again." Especially in classical and Biblical 
 criticism have Owen, Robbins, Smith, and Charles 
 M. Mead (1856), a member of the Bible Revision 
 Committee, rendered eminent service to American 
 scholarship. 
 
 Many of our graduates have been ambitious of 
 post-graduate and foreign study. In Germany they 
 have attended the lectures of Neander, Schelling, 
 Hengstenberg, Jacob Grimm, Carl Ritter, Gesenius, 
 Roediger, Ewald, and others of more recent times. 
 In later years, several of the younger alumni have 
 distinguished themselves as specialists in different 
 departments of science. 
 
 The higher education of American women was 
 inaugurated in Middlebury by Mrs. Emma Willard. 
 Its first school was conducted by her here from 
 1807 to 1 819, when it was removed to Troy, N. Y. 
 It there acquired a national reputation, and con- 
 tributed as much, perhaps, as any other insti- 
 tution to promote the higher female education 
 throughout the world. For seventeen years Mid- 
 dlebury College has contributed to Christian prog- 
 ress by the education of the daughters as well as 
 the sons of the people. 
 
 In respect to philosophy, theology, and practical 
 religion, Middlebury College has always held a high 
 position. Revivals were frequent from the begin- 
 ning. Here Beman, Larned, and many others first 
 heard the call of God to preach, and became flames 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 69 
 
 of fire. Here the lips of many ministers, evange- 
 lists, and foreign missionaries have been touched as 
 with a coal from off the altar. Few classes have 
 been graduated without passing through one or 
 more such seasons of especial spiritual blessing. 
 This place is favorable for such influences. There 
 is something in mountain scenery which constrains 
 the human heart to say, " I will lift up mine eyes 
 unto the hills, from whence cometh my help," and 
 to repose in the assurance that as the mountains 
 are round about, so the Lord is round about them 
 that trust in Him. The first settlers of Vermont, 
 whether professedly religious or not, felt these 
 influences, and spontaneously went back to first 
 principles and to God. It is historic that Ethan 
 Allen, when demanding the instant surrender of 
 Fort Ticonderoga, did it "in the name of Almighty 
 God ; " and that Judge Harrington, when refusing 
 to surrender a fugitive slave, based his decision on 
 the ground that no claim to a man could be valid 
 which did not include a bill of sale from his Creator. 
 There were bands of praying women, elect ladies, 
 in the early days of the College, in Middlebury and 
 elsewhere, who bore it on their hearts, aided needy 
 students, and were a source of influence in bringing 
 the College to permanence and power. Indeed, 
 Middlebury College was for many years, we hope it 
 still is, a part of the religion of the Congregational 
 churches in its vicinity. Especial answer to prayer 
 
70 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 was certainly manifest in the brilliant product of 
 the first fifteen years. 
 
 Our Alma Mater has not been identified with any 
 limited philosophic school. As Dr. Bates said in 
 1850, her system has been substantially natural real- 
 ism, or rather, theistic realism; holding all knowl- 
 edge, both subjective and objective, concerning both 
 mind and matter, to be real, and vouched for by the 
 benevolence and veracity of God. In theology, her 
 standard has always been truth ; her creed, the Bible ; 
 and her faith, that once delivered to the saints. 
 Not less than twenty of our number have been pro- 
 fessors in the theological seminaries of the different 
 denominations, and others have declined similar 
 appointments. Their influence has been at once 
 progressive and conservative. They have, in gen- 
 eral, accepted nothing and surrendered nothing, 
 except upon sufficient evidence. George Howe 
 was president and professor of a theological semi- 
 nary for fifty-five years; Marcus T. C. Wing (1820), 
 twelve years ; Thomas J. Conant (1823), twenty-two 
 years; Edwin Hall (1826), twenty-two years; Ira 
 Chase (1814), twenty years; Eli B. Smith (1823), 
 twenty-eight years; Henry Smith (1827), twenty 
 years; James A. B. Stone (1834), in seminary and 
 college, thirty-one years; Thomas J. Saw^yer (1829), 
 fifteen years; George N. Boardman (1847), tw^enty- 
 two years; Hiram Mead (1850), twelve years; 
 Charles M. Mead (1856), twenty years; Francis B. 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 7 1 
 
 Denio (1871), eighteen years. Besides these, 
 Burge (1806), Beman (1807), Henshaw (1808), 
 Hascall (1806), Winchester (1847), Squier (181 1), 
 Herman Hooker (1825), and many others have 
 published able works on theology and philosophy. 
 General Thomas was called the Rock of Chica- 
 mauga, because, as an impregnable tower, he with- 
 stood and turned back the assaults of the enemy. 
 Edwin Hall (1826) was the Rock of Orthodox 
 Theology. While ready and eager to welcome 
 light from whatever source, the influence of Middle- 
 bury graduates has been on the whole conservative ; 
 and it is so now, in respect to the present move- 
 ment of philosophical and theological thought. 
 When we were here fifty years ago, the idea of 
 development, derived from German speculations, 
 was familiar. We had here distinctly before us, ten 
 years before Darwin published his startling hypoth- 
 esis, the question whether the universe is a creation 
 or a mere development of impersonal and uncon- 
 scious forces. Yet notwithstanding the scepticism 
 that has to some extent prevailed in varying forms 
 during the past century, there can be no reasonable 
 question that the prevalence and power of evangeli- 
 cal religion have been steadily on the increase. 
 When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the 
 Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against 
 him. The proportion of those professedly religious, 
 in the whole population, is much larger in 19CX) 
 
72 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 than it was in 1800, especially in the colleges. In 
 Yale it is probably four times as large. Notwith- 
 standing much infidelity and much immorality, 
 revivals have been frequent and powerful through- 
 out the century. About the end of the first decade, 
 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions was formed, and during the second decade, 
 or soon afterward, the Bible, Tract, Temperance, 
 Home Missionary, and many other societies were 
 established. Later came the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association and the Young Women's Christian 
 Association, and women's societies in great num- 
 bers, and of large variety ; still more recently Socie- 
 ties of Christian Endeavor and innumerable leagues 
 for Christian work. The material dominion of 
 Christian nations over the world has probably been 
 doubled within the past century, and Christian mis- 
 sions have entered almost every unevangelized 
 land. In wealth and in mihtant power, Christianity 
 is already in undisputed ascendency. It cannot 
 but be matter for sincere congratulation with us 
 that our College has been permitted to have so 
 large part, and in so many ways, in this great 
 Christian progress. 
 
 The people of Middlebury have always given a 
 genial welcome to the College and its alumni, as 
 they did in 1850 and do at this Centennial. In- 
 deed, the College was founded, not by the Church 
 or State outside of Middlebury, primarily, but by 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 73 
 
 the intelligent, aspiring, benevolent, and religious 
 people of this place. No alumnus ever failed to 
 receive a cordial greeting on his return, so long as 
 Philip Battell lived, and he lived to cheer us with 
 his suavity and kindness till he was ninety years 
 of age. 
 
 The seven classes with whom we were associated 
 in student days, from 1847 to 1851, remember all 
 our instructors with pleasure and with high respect : 
 President Labaree, prompt, faithful, friendly, ortho- 
 dox; Professor Meacham, resolute, racy, aspiring, 
 capable, — a natural orator, whose versatility of tal- 
 ents gave him a prominent place both in the pulpit 
 and in the halls of Congress; Professor Robbins, 
 accomplished, accurate, conscientious, industrious; 
 Professor Parker, practical, candid, patient, persist- 
 ent; Professor Eaton, intelligent, urbane, diligent, 
 genial, genuine. They made a good Faculty. 
 
 Middlebury has always been a progressive college, 
 and never made so rapid expansion of its appliances, 
 methods, and agencies for the most recent and up- 
 to-date instruction as within the last one or two 
 decades. It is doubtless doing better work, in many 
 directions, now than ever before. But it has always 
 been an enterprising college. The Philological 
 Society, founded by Professor Patton, produced 
 Conant, Smith, Post, Owen, Robbins, and others, — 
 a remarkable list of linguists. Professor Conant 
 says that Middlebury was the first American college 
 
74 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 to introduce German into its curriculum, Harvard 
 following a year later. 
 
 These surrounding mountains and all this Ver- 
 mont and Middlebury scenery were our teachers. 
 They lifted up our thoughts to God. They ren- 
 dered literature more real and science more sig- 
 nificant. The beautiful environment in which we 
 were educated wrought itself into our souls, and 
 its influence shall, with them, endure forever. 
 President Edwards says that soon after his con- 
 version, watching the tremendous thunderstorms 
 that rolled along the Connecticut valley, with pour- 
 ing floods of rain and bhnding sheets of lightning, 
 he found them " exceedingly entertaining," as exhi- 
 bitions of God's power and glory. What student of 
 Middlebury, as he sat on the window-sill of his room 
 in Painter Hall or in Starr Hall, and saw the vast 
 masses of summer clouds fold themselves in and 
 out among the peaks of the Adirondacks or the 
 Green Mountains, has not richly shared that 
 entertainment.? Though not born poets, the 
 environment compelled us to write, up there in 
 Old Painter Hall, fifty years ago, or, rather, wrote 
 for us : — 
 
 *^ The teachings of these scenes shall live forever, 
 Engraven on the tablets of the soul. 
 Time hath no power their influence to sever 
 From memory. Its wheels shall cease to roll, 
 And heaven be wrapt together as a scroll j 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 75 
 
 The unsubstantial earth shall fade away, 
 
 Melting like mist from utmost pole to pole ; 
 But Nature, in the soul, shall live, a ray 
 From the unclouded Sun of Everlasting Day." 
 
 Some of us remember with perfect distinctness 
 the semicentennial, the jubilee of 1850. It is a 
 wide stream to be spanned by a single arch. We 
 heard President Labaree's admirable address of wel- 
 come. We heard Doctor Bates, in this very place, 
 take leave of mountains, river, and college scenes. 
 We heard Professor Hough's elegant and discrimi- 
 nating delineations of the lives and characters of 
 deceased alumni. We witnessed the felicitous dis- 
 charge, by Congressman Alexander W. Buel, of the 
 duty of presiding officer at the jubilee banquet. We 
 heard the addresses of many distinguished alumni. 
 We can still recall the tones of James D. Butler, as 
 he said that industry was not necessarily mdus/ry; 
 and the inimitable wit of Saxe's •*' Carmen Lsetum," 
 when we saw an old valedictorian double himself 
 up like a jackknife, as afterward General Sherman 
 used to do, when our poet compared the translation 
 of Enoch by faith to the translation of Horace by 
 Professor Hough. Some of us come back, after 
 nearly or quite half a century, almost as to a final 
 examination. Though college classes come and go 
 as waves upon the sea, the time at length arrives 
 when all must be at rest. Every tent must at last 
 be folded. We had hoped that Roberts and Phelps 
 
76 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 and Sawyer, and others who have but recently fallen 
 asleep, would have seen with us this Centennial ; but 
 they are gone. So it has been and so it will always 
 be ; and it is well. 
 
 It was pleasant at the jubilee, fifty years ago, to 
 hear Beman and Olin and other strong men express 
 their deep love for this College. How often did 
 Truman M. Post and Mark Skinner give utterance 
 to their strong affection for Vermont. Professor 
 Post continued to speak affectionately of the College 
 for more than fifty years of absence and return, and 
 to the last. His son relates that a few days before 
 he died, in 1886, he rose from his sickbed, had him- 
 self dressed, and walked across the hall to a window, 
 where he imagined he was looking upon the waters 
 of Lake Champlain and toward the Adirondacks. 
 He stood at the window for some time, and tried to 
 discover the lake and the hill country beyond, but 
 at length gave up the attempt, saying it was too dark 
 to see the peaks on the other side. The wealth and 
 the glory of the College is in the love of such children. 
 
 We have, however, no place for sad thoughts as 
 we look forward to the future, either for individuals 
 or for the College, but rather we have solid grounds 
 for hope, assurance, satisfaction. Men die, and for 
 Christians to die is gain ; but institutions live, and 
 so far as they are identified with the Kingdom 
 of Christ they will become larger and stronger. 
 America will yet have hundreds of millions of in- 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS ^^ 
 
 habitants, with corresponding growth in every 
 direction. Vermont and Middlebury will share 
 in that growth. William H. Lord used to say that 
 Vermont will yet be considered the most beautiful 
 State in the Union. We believe that the number 
 of graduates of Middlebury College in the next 
 century, notwithstanding the competition of other 
 institutions, will be double that of the past cen- 
 tury, and that the appliances of education will be 
 increased in yet larger proportion. It will work 
 in a better century and a better world. Intem- 
 perance, Sabbath-breaking, and other vices will, 
 we believe, be gradually diminished in this land 
 and in the world. As the sun melted away the 
 glaciers of the drift period, and clothed the earth 
 in its present verdure and beauty, so will Chris- 
 tianity, by the constant pressure of its holy forces, 
 melt away the obstacles to the prevalence of the 
 promised righteousness. And with the prevalence 
 of righteousness the earth will be filled with an 
 unimagined affluence of all kinds of good, material 
 and spiritual. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the 
 advantages to be developed under the more full and 
 intense operation of the forces of Christianity. 
 
 We gather here on this centennial week, as 
 ships meet in mid-ocean, to salute one another 
 again for a moment ; to wish one another, for the 
 remaining way, a prosperous voyage and a safe 
 arrival at' a happy final port. The American poet 
 
7S MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 who IS perhaps most widely read in Europe, and 
 whose bust adorns Westminster Abbey, felici- 
 tously commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of his 
 graduation at Bowdoin College, by the exquisite 
 poem, *' Morituri Salutamus." But all believers in 
 Christ are about to live rather than to die, while 
 the church on earth, though its members die, is 
 about to conquer. It is a suggestive fact that 
 the same Latin future participle victuri, from both 
 vivo and vinco, covers both life and conquest. The 
 church is perhaps double what it was in 1800; it 
 may be far more than doubled within the next cen- 
 tury. It is not for us to know the times and the 
 seasons, but we have ample reason to anticipate 
 the accelerated triumph of Christianity. The very 
 nature of the system, the agencies employed, the 
 obvious import of prophecy, the manifest tokens 
 of Providence, so greatly enlarging the sway of 
 Christianity in our own times, seem to indicate, if 
 not to demonstrate, its sure and hastening triumph. 
 We congratulate, therefore, the religious societies 
 of Middlebury College, whom we have been invited 
 especially to address on this occasion, and all who 
 shall hereafter be associated with them, on the 
 " high, exciting, and gratifying prospects " before 
 them. It was a classic proverb, " To die for one's 
 country is sweet." In a higher sense, to live, labor, 
 and die for Christ and for the church is sweet. 
 The motto of the first, oldest, and largest of Amer- 
 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 79 
 
 lean colleges is *' Christo et Ecclesiae." Christian 
 colleges are the vanguard of the hosts of Christ 
 as He rides prosperously, conquering and to con- 
 quer. We, especially, the older graduates of Mid- 
 dlebury College, for whom the day is far spent and 
 the night at hand, — who have borne to some ex- 
 tent the heat and burden of the day and who come, 
 we hope, with some sheaves, — salute you and bid 
 you welcome to the immeasurable privileges of the 
 Christian life and the future harvest field. Before 
 you is a work, in and for Christ, by the Spirit, and 
 unto the Father, of which no human being is in 
 himself worthy, and which angels may well covet. 
 It often seems questionable whether the condition 
 of saints in the millennium, when the world shall 
 have been converted, or of saints in heaven, where 
 there are no souls to be won, can be of equal bless- 
 edness with that of those who now and here en- 
 treat and beseech and persuade men to be recon- 
 ciled to God. We, alumni of Middlebury College, 
 who have been permitted to participate in that work, 
 are witnesses for God to these religious societies 
 of the College, to all that are here, to the century 
 that IS before us, and to all the centuries that shall 
 follow, that notwithstanding the high hopes w^hich 
 were held out before us when we were here in 
 youth as students, the half was not told us of the 
 ineffable privilege of the Christian life and work. 
 Not one good thing which the Lord had promised 
 
8o MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 has failed. We ask no higher privilege for what 
 remains to us of life on earth than to continue in 
 this service ; and we can conceive of nothing higher 
 in heaven than to be admitted to the more imme- 
 diate presence and enjoyment of the same triune 
 God, who has been, through life, in all its service, 
 our shield and our exceeding great reward. Many 
 of us have been tried as in the fire, but never has 
 one like the Son of God been so near to us as in 
 the furnace. Here we reaffirm that we know 
 whom we have believed, and we are as sure of the 
 great realities of religion — revelation, inspiration, 
 atonement, grace, God, Christ, sin, responsibility, 
 regeneration, sanctification, the future life, with 
 its awards of good and evil, the resurrection of 
 the body, and, above all, that God is love — as we 
 are of our own existence. It is true that in the 
 interpretation of both nature and revelation man 
 is limited and liable to error, alike in his science 
 and in his theology; but the sun is always behind 
 the transient cloud, and will in due time shine forth. 
 All science will become theistic, and all theology 
 scientific. The Holy Spirit will lead at length into 
 all truth, both in nature and in revelation. To this 
 higher and holier knowledge, we who are about to 
 die in the body, but to live forevermore in the soul, 
 welcome and salute you. The Church Universal, 
 also, which is about to conquer, and to live forever, 
 salutes you. Victuri salutamus ! 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 
 
 By dean BRAINERD KELLOGG 
 
 Fellow Alumni and Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 WE are here to commemorate a rich gift to 
 the College, and to dedicate to its great 
 service in the future this library building 
 into which the gift has been converted. Tell me, I 
 pray you, how your speaker may best do what he 
 has been asked, and has promised, to do in this com- 
 memoration. Shall it be in part by lauding the 
 generosity of our departed friend, to whom, though 
 not a graduate, this commodious structure, beautiful 
 in design, tasteful in its appointments, and so well 
 suited to its purpose, is due ? Shall it be by com- 
 paring or contrasting it with buildings of its kind 
 elsewhere ? Shall it be by dwelling upon this signif- 
 icant.fact, that of the ten regal edifices of the land, 
 two are libraries — that of Columbia College and the 
 National Library at Washington, and both of recent 
 erection ? Shall it be by glorifying the wisdom of 
 our esteemed donor and that of all such donors, of 
 whom the most flaming example of the day is 
 Andrew Carnegie? Shall it be by showing that 
 to such gifts a peculiar honor and value belong 
 in that they inspire so many men to the giving of 
 6 8i 
 
82 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 books that thus the building may be justified and 
 its purpose fulfilled? 
 
 Shall I, must I, spend my hour upon these and 
 kindred subjects ? I do not wish to do so, and I 
 think I read in your faces that I need not. I want 
 to speak of books instead of the buildings that house 
 them; books in which are deposited and impris- 
 oned in words the thoughts of the living and of the 
 dead; thoughts loosely related on the page and 
 thoughts traced there to their underlying principles, 
 and built up into stately sciences, into vast systems 
 of speculation and belief, and into the more attrac- 
 tive body of literature itself. Of my own volition, 
 then, and with your approval, I turn to my topic, — 
 Books, their Contents and their Uses. 
 
 Their contents are thoughts, created by detecting 
 and affirming the relations that exist between things 
 and hence between our ideas of things; relations 
 between things in the world without, between things 
 in the world within, between the things in the world 
 without and the things in the world within ; rela- 
 tions existing with little or no agency of ours. To 
 detect these relations and to affirm them in judg- 
 ments is to think, is to create thought. The thinker, 
 and he alone among men — but the term includes 
 us all — is a creator, and that in the high sense of 
 the word. 
 
 Man finds fibrous wool growing, and somehow 
 conceives that it can be spun and woven, and that 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 83 
 
 out of the cloth garments can be made to protect 
 and adorn his person. He sees ore lying all around 
 him, and there flash upon him successively, in 
 successive ages perhaps, the several processes by 
 which it may be smelted into iron, the iron wrought 
 into steel, and the steel converted into engines. 
 Wood and stone and metal abound, and in some 
 happy moment they suggest to him their utilization 
 to meet human needs, and lo! upon some convolu- 
 tion of his brain there appears his plan of a building. 
 Thus far all is thought, a pure creation; and he, the 
 thinker, is its creator. But. when he goes on to 
 change the wool into clothes, the ore into engines, 
 and the stone and wood and metal into a building 
 he is not creating; he is only transforming matter 
 into an outward embodiment of his inward thought, 
 which alone is his' real creation. In all these 
 transformations, matter, material, is consumed. 
 There is, in illustration, just so much less of 
 wood and metal and stone left for others to use 
 as the builder of this structure took for his own 
 use. 
 
 But the things out of whose relations the thinker 
 creates his thoughts are not even touched by the 
 operation. They remain for others to use in other 
 ways, for others to use in the same way ; for, out of 
 the same relation between the same things, thou- 
 sands have successively created the same thought, 
 each thinker ignorant that he was not its original 
 
84 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 creator. And, if wholly ignorant of what had been 
 done before him, each was the original creator. 
 
 My friends, it would not be irreverent in me to 
 suggest that the matter out of which the worlds were 
 wrought, nay, the very stuff, whatever it be, out of 
 which our minds were formed, may not have been 
 created by the Almighty, but that it was and is co- 
 eternal with him. Perhaps, who shall say ? perhaps 
 he only fashioned what he found ; made the outer 
 and the inner world out of substance coexistent 
 with himself from the beginning, if beginning there 
 was. But at least he fashioned it all after those 
 archetypal thoughts which he did create, and so 
 realized his thoughts in things. Yet, if he did 
 not create this primal matter out of nothing, he 
 differs from you and from me as creator only in 
 degree and not in kind. As his works are not 
 our works, so his thoughts are not our thoughts 
 but far above them ; and therein he is the supreme 
 Creator. But, unless he made the original some- 
 thing out of nothing, his creations are not more 
 genuine creations than are ours. 
 
 In this power to think, to create, are w^e made in 
 the image and likeness of God. With what dignity, 
 then, I had almost said divinity, does this power 
 clothe us ! What nobility belongs to our thoughts, 
 few and feeble though they be ! What sacredness 
 attaches to books that contain these thoughts I And 
 how like a temple should we regard such a building 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 85 
 
 as this devoted to their preservation ! Well might 
 Milton, in his indignant outcry against the censor- 
 ship of the press in his day, exclaim : " As good al- 
 most kill a man as kill a good book ; who kills a 
 man kills a reasonable creature, but he who destroys 
 a good book kills reason itself." 
 
 Our one inextinguishable grief respecting libra- 
 ries is, that they do not date back to the beginning 
 of human thought. Men did not write as soon as 
 they began to think and to talk. The characters 
 we call letters are not coeval with the sounds they 
 represent. The air, the lungs, and the organs of 
 the mouth and the throat — all things needful for 
 speech — were at hand ; but visible signs for audible 
 sounds and the instruments and materials for mak- 
 ing these had to be prepared. In no libraries, then, 
 have we any record of what our primeval ancestors 
 thought and said about things and about themselves. 
 Between us and so many aeons of our race there 
 hangs an interceptive and impenetrable veil. Of 
 all on the other side we are ignorant, save when a 
 Schliemann unearths thence a buried city, or an- 
 other archaeologist recovers something prehistoric 
 but of human workmanship. Upon everything else 
 we may speculate and speculate, but our specula- 
 tions are founded, not upon the rock, but upon the 
 sand. 
 
 Had words been written as soon as spoken, and 
 had this writing, preserved in libraries, reached, us, 
 
S6 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 perhaps we should know where the human race 
 started and when ; whether from one pair or from 
 many pairs; and whether this one or these many 
 by special fiat or from creatures infra-human. 
 Darwin then need never have vexed his brain with 
 the Origin of Species, nor Drummond his with the 
 Ascent of Man. Perhaps we should know whether 
 the old homestead of our Indo-European family was 
 in Europe or in Asia ; when and whither the suc- 
 cessive migrations from it set forth ; and whether 
 those across Europe and that one over the passes 
 and down into upper Hindostan encountered and 
 drove before them races already there. Perhaps 
 we should no longer conjecture concerning the 
 origin of language ; what the first words were and 
 how formed; how some have run down into deriva- 
 tive prefixes and suffixes, and others into grammat- 
 ical inflections, and what these all meant and mean. 
 Perhaps we might follow the other steps by which 
 man emerged from brutehood into the manhood 
 in which we find him when history gets its first 
 snap-shot at him. Then had our knowledge of our 
 kind been what Macbeth wished to be, — "Whole 
 as the marble, founded as the rock, as broad and 
 general as the casing air." 
 
 We are not greatly disturbed that error has crept 
 into books. We are not infallible ; and we are all 
 glad of it, because infallibility does not make an 
 agreeable writer or a pleasant companion. And what 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 87 
 
 a loss to us, if, without testing it to see if it be true, 
 we had to swallow everything books put into our in- 
 tellectual mouths! — a loss not of enjoyment alone 
 but of profit and of power as well ! For nothing is 
 more wholesome and disciplinary than scepticism ; 
 and once there was no nobler word in the language 
 than its name, since it meant seeing, looking into 
 things. Error in books is harmless; only error in 
 our premises, our reasoning, our conclusions, our 
 theories, our knowledge, is harmful. There it is as 
 the flaw in the boiler of an ocean steamship, as an 
 air-bubble in the shaft. Onl}^ we may comfort our- 
 selves with the thought that not everything called 
 error is error. Even heresy is but the belief of 
 one with whom we do not agree; and the heresy 
 anathematized in one age is so often the creed of 
 the next. The first weapon of the reader against 
 error is defensive, doubt, which, like a breakwater, 
 holds everything at bay and as long as we wish; 
 the second and last is offensive, thought — thought 
 profound, penetrative, protracted, and exhaustive. 
 The best books are those that stimulate the reader 
 to the most vigorous questioning, that drive the 
 ploughshare through our most cherished opinions 
 and beliefs and compel rigorous reexamination. 
 Not homeopathy but enantiopathy, some one says, 
 is the true medicine for the mind. 
 
 But, though books are not coeval with thought, 
 they are of incalculable worth to us. They 
 
8S MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 enable investigators in every field to begin their 
 labors where those just ahead of them left off. 
 Libraries, to appropriate Hamilton's figure, are 
 the fortresses by which we hold the territory we 
 have conquered; and they become in turn the 
 bases for new conquests. The multiplication of 
 books makes the progress of this and of every 
 century to stand in geometrical ratio to that of its 
 predecessor. 
 
 And to those of us who are not investigators, 
 books are beyond all price. Knowledge won by 
 observation and by reflection on what we observe — 
 first-hand knowledge — is better than any other of 
 course ; but, if restricted to this, what intellectual 
 starvelings should we be! We should get this 
 knowledge, get all we can of it; but let us re- 
 member that second-hand knowledge, knowledge 
 gleaned from thoughtful reading, is good; good 
 in that it stimulates to the other; and good, inex- 
 pressibly good, in itself. Let us get all we can of 
 this too. 
 
 Show me where libraries — large or small, college 
 or village libraries or, as in my childhood, school- 
 district libraries — abound, and I will show you men 
 keen of eye and ear and tongue and men of stalwart 
 views. They may follow the plough, shove the 
 plane, shoe your horses; but, unlike the dyer's 
 hand, their natures are not subdued to what they 
 work in and with. 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 
 
 89 
 
 But it is time for a distinction. There are 
 thoughts and thoughts, a lower range and a higher ; 
 thoughts systematized into sciences, and thoughts 
 forming the staple of literature. May I, without 
 offending any here, call those of the first order 
 facts rather than thoughts .^^ facts disclosing them- 
 selves to the unaided eye and to the eye aided by 
 the telescope and the microscope; facts in the 
 worlds above, in the earth beneath, in human con- 
 sciousness within ; facts easily seen, facts tortured 
 into sight by crucial experiments in our laboratories, 
 chemical, physical, biological, and even psycholog- 
 ical. Thoughts proper, the thoughts of literature, 
 are these same facts of nature, external and internal, 
 along with their suggestions, added to or taken 
 from, elaborated and applied, carried up in the scale, 
 tinged, if not charged, with emotion, appealing not 
 to our intellects alone but to our whole mental 
 nature, and entering themselves into our intel- 
 lectual, aesthetic, ethical, and spiritual lives. Facts 
 are as the air; thoughts, as the air flooded with 
 ether, pervaded with light, tingling with heat, and 
 tremulous with actinic waves. 
 
 Let me give you more than this glimpse of the 
 distinction. Water becomes ice at 32° F. Water 
 cleanses the body and the clothes it wears. Water 
 expands and rises in becoming vapor; and vapor, 
 cooling, condenses and concentrates and falls as 
 rain or snow. These are simple scientific facts, as 
 
90 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 cold and bloodless as the multiplication table or the 
 least common multiple. But now when actually or 
 by implication I carry these facts up and say that 
 the king of Siam, living under a vertical sun, would 
 not believe that water could harden so that one 
 might walk or skate upon it; that water, cleansing 
 material things, is a fit element for use in baptism, 
 which symbolizes purification from sin; and that 
 the water of earth and ocean, stealing upward in 
 invisible vapor, is gathered into the vast storehouses 
 of the clouds, and descends as rain to make the 
 meadows green, to ripen the harvests, and to refresh 
 the toiling and fainting multitudes of men, — when 
 I do this, I am putting life and blood into these 
 cold scientific facts, and am taking them up to 
 where they at least approximate, if they do not be- 
 come, the thoughts of literature. 
 
 So much for the distinction. I pause for a mo- 
 ment to preface what is to follow. Science doubt- 
 less will have a public celebration like this when 
 the new Science Hall rises on the other side of the 
 campus to match and to mate the Library on this ; 
 and another speaker stands there, as I do here, to 
 dedicate the building. Literature, it seems then, is 
 to have its innings to-day. I have taken a retainer 
 for it; yet I am not a lawyer, and I have no mo- 
 tive for pressing the evidence for more than it fully 
 warrants. But I should be a traitor to my deepest 
 beliefs and to my chair of instruction, once here but 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 9 1 
 
 long elsewhere, and should be false to this occasion, 
 did I not proclaim, as from the housetop, that such 
 buildings as this are meant primarily to house the 
 books of literature, in whatever language written 
 and read. Now do not misunderstand me, please. 
 Fill all the stacks of the library you need with 
 books of science — and may they rain down upon 
 you in daily showers, — and send your students 
 here constantly to consult them. But — I speak as 
 a fool doubtless, yet Paul once said he did and that 
 comforts me, I speak as a layman at any rate who 
 wishes he knew ten thousand times as much of 
 science as he does — but, I repeat, I cannot resist 
 the conviction and the expression of it here, that, in 
 spite of its age, science is yet infantile. So many 
 sciences by fissiparous generation, by gemmation 
 and segmentation, are dividing and subdividing 
 with a rapidity that startles one; and books on 
 these divisions and subdivisions are issuing, as 
 bees from the hive, — so many of them, as their 
 authors themselves concede, out of date before they 
 are out of the press! 
 
 They are invigorating reading, I grant you ; but 
 the misery of it is, that what in them is certain and 
 what is problematical is itself a problem, and that 
 so much must be taken, if taken at all, only ten- 
 tatively. " What, Mr. Gladstone, is the position of 
 science on this most vital question?" "I do not 
 know, sir," was the instant response, " I have not 
 
92 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 seen the morning paper." The pathway of no other 
 kind of research is so strewn with misfit theories, 
 exploded systems, and abandoned knowledge, not to 
 mention daring postulates, as is that" of science. 
 
 But even when beyond all question vital and true, 
 scientific facts, I have no hesitancy in saying, do not 
 compare with the thoughts of literature as pabulum 
 for the mind. In impatient moods, one is some- 
 times tempted to say that in nutritive function 
 science is to literature as the grass upon which the 
 ox grazes is to the sirloin into which he converts 
 it ; and it takes his four tough stomachs to do this ! 
 Make of the sciences more, if possible, than you 
 do — and may the library aid you vastly in the 
 work, — but remember that there are other and 
 weightier matters in education. Get your students, 
 as often as you may, out of the narrow, and if long 
 pursued the narrowing, grooves of chemistry, elec- 
 tricity, physics, mathematics, and biology, and set 
 their feet on the broad highway of literature, Eng- 
 lish, Latin, Greek, German, and French. I speak 
 that I do know, and testify that I have so often 
 seen, when I say that a disproportionate, nay, a 
 generous, study of any one of these sciences does 
 not make the best kind of mind ; does not make the 
 best kind of intellect even, for to the other depart- 
 ments of the mind it brings almost no sustenance at 
 all. Intellects so nourished lack toughness of fiber 
 and strength and breadth and depth and acumen 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 93 
 
 and delicacy and the culture we call humanism. It 
 is all but impossible for students to transmute the 
 scientific facts learned into intellect, so that there 
 shall be more of it because of the study, and it shall 
 be able to think more profoundly and discriminat- 
 ingly, and with keener apprehension of the relations 
 of fact to fact, of truth to truth, and of the unity of 
 all truth. This must be got, if got at all, from the 
 study of literature and kindred studies, I believe. 
 Make without encroachment, I repeat, as much as 
 possible of science, remembering, however, that it 
 would be a prostitution of the College as a college 
 to convert it into a school out of which students at 
 graduation may step into positions where they can 
 earn a living as chemists or electricians or biologists. 
 The business of the college proper, of a proper 
 college, is like that of the dam at Belden's Falls, 
 slowly to accumulate a power which, when the gate 
 is opened, will be able to turn any machinery on 
 the bank. But it is not its business technically to 
 qualify the neophyte alumnus to put up such 
 machinery, or to run it after it is put up by another. 
 The purely scientific school, Hke the law school 
 in its field, like the theological seminary in its, — 
 the purely scientific school is to supplement the 
 scientific training done in this or in any other 
 college. Now I most potently believe, and hence 
 most urgently insist, that this accumulation of 
 power — in mill phrase, this getting a head — is to 
 
94 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 be done by a preponderating study of literature 
 itself. 
 
 But of course there are facts to be learned in the 
 study of literature, English, Latin, Greek, German, 
 etc. Most of these it is the business of the prepara- 
 tory school to teach ; but many, I know, are left to 
 the college professor. He may, however, do too 
 much, far too much, of this work, especially if, 
 through bias or through his limitations, he detains 
 upon it students who are ready for the real study of 
 literature. It must be, I suppose, that such offences 
 come ; they do come at any rate. I know a pro- 
 fessor in one of the great universities of the land, 
 imported from a distant state, and placed at the 
 head of the English department, whose whole work 
 with the undergraduates is the tithing of this mint, 
 anise, and cummin of the text, and who leaves to 
 his subordinates all the instruction in literature 
 that is really vital. Such offences come ; but is it 
 not written, " Woe unto him by whom the offence 
 Cometh " ? 
 
 Now in English — and here I hope I stand on 
 ground less slippery — the way has largely been 
 cleared of these bald facts for the college student 
 before matriculation. The reading of good books 
 at home, attrition with cultivated people, English 
 grammar rightly taught, and the required read- 
 ing done in school have accomplished a good deal ; 
 and logic and rhetoric after matriculation have 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 
 
 95 
 
 powerfully aided in the work. Presuming, then, 
 that in these and other preliminary studies the 
 student has learned what to look for in the crit- 
 ical study of authors and how to estimate his find- 
 ings ; presuming, too, that he is not browsing at 
 will but is judiciously guided, and that he does the 
 work himself and hasn't it done for him by text- 
 book or teacher, — presuming, I say, upon all these 
 things, what ought the student to show at grad- 
 uation for his work in English ? What sheaves 
 should he have brought home from his long years 
 of gleaning? 
 
 He should be able, I think, to tell whether the 
 thought he encounters on the page is true or not, 
 and whether valuable if true ; whether original or 
 trite ; germane to the sub-topic of the paragraph or 
 alien to it ; upon what, in Locke's phrase, the 
 thought is bottomed, and whether well or ill-neigh- 
 bored by the context; what inferences flow from it; 
 and whether its author dominates it or is dominated 
 by it. 
 
 He should know what kind of sentence the au- 
 thor affects, — simple, compound, complex, climac- 
 teric, balanced, periodic, or loose, — or whether he 
 mingles all these gracefully on the page ; whether 
 or not he is felicitous in the choice and marshaling 
 of his words, in the use of imagery that turns a 
 search-light upon the thought, and in a variety of 
 phrasing that keeps the reader ever fresh and alert ; 
 
96 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 in a word, whether he is master or not of a style al- 
 ways adapted to his thought and level to his purpose. 
 He should be able to read in and between the lines 
 the author's attainments, limitations, biases, tastes, 
 disposition, temperament, traits of character — the 
 man himself. He should know the peculiarities, the 
 differentia, of the great authors at least, and be keen 
 in detecting the taste of each and in giving the 
 parentage of quotations and of passages gone astray. 
 He should have made his own, large measures of 
 the thought he has studied, and be able to enrich 
 his discourse by levying tribute at will upon what 
 he has read. 
 
 But this is not all. To stop short with mere pos- 
 sessions, even such as I have named, would be to 
 bring the tree to full leafage and blossom, but not 
 to fruitage. His acquisitions, while remaining ac- 
 quisitions, should at the same time, paradoxical as 
 it may seem, have been transmuted into ability to 
 do and into actual doing what he has learned that 
 it is good to do; and the charming Portia is 
 authority for saying that the one task is not always 
 as easy as the other. At graduation he should be, 
 in a generous sense of the word, a vigorous and dis- 
 criminating thinker ; and he should be able to 
 express his thoughts forcibly if need be but lumi- 
 nously and appropriately always and with an afflu- 
 ence of vocabulary, a fulness of diction, that forever 
 forestalls his riding a few pet, spent, and spavined 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 97 
 
 verbal steeds to death, when relays of fresh steeds, 
 saddled and bridled and impatient for service, await 
 him all along the line, if only in his wide excur- 
 sions among authors he has corralled and lassoed 
 these and tamed them to his bidding. 
 
 But pardon me, my friends, pardon me ! Murder 
 will out, and so will the pedagogue ! What I have 
 left myself to say shall be for all and not for the 
 undergraduate and the teacher only. 
 
 That man is made for work, and not that work is 
 made for man ; that business is lord and he the vas- 
 sal ; that we are not ourselves ends but only means 
 to ends — a livelihood, a fortune, position, — this 
 is not the gospel preached nowadays, but is it not 
 the gospel practiced.'^ And so we light our little 
 candle at both ends, and presently burn out in ner- 
 vous exhaustion ; or, later, drop suddenly dead of 
 heart failure. Vocations, vocations, on every side ! 
 But what and where are the avocations ? Physical 
 relaxations abound — walking, the wheel, tennis, 
 golf, etc., — but what intellectual and aesthetic rec- 
 reations have we, aside from the diversions of home 
 life, life in the church, and life in the club.'* I know 
 of but one worthy of the name, open and accessible 
 to all, and that is — reading. 
 
 What rest and recuperation and rejuvenescence 
 
 in a good book ! What perennial delight to the 
 
 reader in the thoughts, fresh and subtile, serious or 
 
 playful, massive or elusive, seen through words 
 
 7 
 
98 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 transparent as crystal and as inevitable as fate, 
 through phrases felicitous in combination, and 
 imagery exquisite in function and teeming with 
 suggestion — all the utilities and all the graces of 
 style lavished, if need be, upon the thought that it 
 may have apt incarnation, that there may be "fit 
 body to fit head"! How it charms the reader to 
 see that not alone do sheer weight and strength of 
 thought avail, but care in wording and in placing it 
 as well ; that not always does the burly Roderick 
 Dhu prevail, but ofttimes the lighter yet more 
 dexterous Fitz James! 
 
 Oh ! the luxury of a good book with its " apples 
 of gold in pictures of silver," hanging these pictures 
 all over the walls of memory, and they streaming 
 their gracious influences down upon us in our dark 
 hours and in all our hours to gladden and inspire ! 
 For a Troyon or a Church or a Corot you spend 
 your thousands, if able, and you do well ; but for an 
 equal sum you may gather together a modest library, 
 on hundreds and hundreds of whose pages are 
 verbal pictures in prose and in verse, any one of 
 which may yield you a keener and more lasting 
 enjoyment than does the great masterpiece on the 
 wall. 
 
 Oh ! the luxury of a good book suited to some 
 one of our ever-varying moods and needs! It comes 
 at our call, tarries as long as we wish, and goes 
 back to the shelf at our bidding. If, as Plato com- 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS 99 
 
 plains, the author keeps silence when we would fain 
 catechise him respecting something he has said, so 
 too he never opens his mouth to bicker with us and 
 to insist. He takes no offence, if, weary of his pres- 
 ence, we turn our backs upon him, but waits calm 
 and serene till we summon him again, well know- 
 ing that we shall. We bitterly regret that we have 
 not been face to face with some of the great ones of 
 our time ; but here in these volumes are the great 
 ones of all time, and at their best estate, mutely 
 pleading with us for an introduction, eager for an 
 intimate acquaintanceship ; for what, as Martineau 
 asks, is literature "but the appeal of thought to 
 thought through silent ages; an appeal that is 
 forever forming new friendships, quickening young 
 genius, and drawing forth fresh tears ? " 
 
 You go to your merchant, and you pay at least 
 its full value for what you buy of him, all it cost 
 the men and the women that had anything to do in 
 its production and its handling. But behold! I 
 show you a marvel, a mystery, a miracle. You 
 move in your social circles, and you shed, each of 
 you, a single influence, the same wholesome influ- 
 ence, upon your hundreds of friends ; but in ex- 
 change there streams in upon you an ennobling 
 influence from every individual of the hundreds. 
 One influence exerted by each of you, hundreds 
 received ! For the hire of a day's labor in harvest 
 time, you purchase the Plays of Shakespeare, the 
 
lOO MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 work of a score of years, bartering your ten hours 
 of manual toil for the mental toil of a lifetime, — 
 the lifetime, too, of the greatest of the immortals I 
 What Rothschilds should we all suddenly become 
 could we buy the material things we need on such 
 terms ! We could not derive such advantage from 
 things immaterial, were it not that we live in so- 
 ciety, where each may move at the same time upon 
 many ; were it not that thought and feeling can be 
 put into words and this wording be infinitely mul- 
 tiplied by the press ; were it not, above all else, 
 that thought is of such a nature and is so con- 
 nected with its verbal expression that, though any 
 one of us should extract from an essay or a poem, 
 and appropriate as his own, all the thought and 
 the passion it contains, yet there would be as 
 much left in it as before for another and another, 
 and so on to the last though millions should 
 read it. Let your undergraduates come to this 
 building and feed, we will say, upon the thoughts 
 of " Hamlet," and from the same copy of the play ; 
 yet the thought and the emotion and the inspira- 
 tion in it will not in a thousand years have been 
 diminished by a single iota. " You cannot feed 
 capons so." 
 
 All the principles of political economy are set at 
 naught when we deal with the contents of books and 
 with the influence of mind upon mind and character 
 upon character. It was this fascinating phase of 
 
DEDICATION ADDRESS lOI 
 
 the subject that moved me at last to accept the 
 invitation of the committee, that I might stand 
 here to-day to present and to press it. He who, 
 like Egbert Starr, puts of his substance into a 
 library or who, like his brother Charles — Charles 
 and Egbert ! fratres nobilissimi et generosissimi — 
 or who, like his brother Charles, by endowing 
 the College, keeps the living professor in his 
 chair to do even better than books what books 
 do, has invested in something that will not de- 
 cline in quotation, that can never waste, never 
 lessen; and the revenue from which cannot be 
 computed even in kind, much less be estimated 
 in gold and silver, our vulgar equivalent for things 
 material. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, I had hoped that Dr. 
 Starr, the distinguished son of our generous do- 
 nor, would be here to-day. In his absence, I wish 
 we might think that Egbert, the father, had not, 
 in learning his celestial tongue, forgotten his ter- 
 restrial, and that he would be willing to absent him- 
 self from felicity awhile, and mingle with us to see 
 and to hear what we are doing to his honor to-day. 
 For in some way I want him to know that not to 
 the value of a single penny of his great gift are we 
 Middlebury alumni, present and future, we Mid- 
 dlebury people, present and future, insensible ; that 
 we have done with his gift just what we think he 
 would have counseled us to do had he been with us 
 
I02 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 all along ; and that now, conscious of his approval 
 and clothed with his authority, we set apart and 
 dedicate to its mission through coming ages this 
 his building, bearing forever over its portal his 
 honored name. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 By president JEREMIAH E. RANKIN 
 
 HOME LIFE AND THE COUNTRY COLLEGE 
 
 THE country college is an institution by it- 
 self; a product of the country. If a few of 
 our New England colleges have outgrown 
 themselves, have become metropolitan as the nation 
 has grown westward, yet the original product is still 
 repeated, to the shores of the Pacific. It is the 
 country college that will always educate the average 
 American. It is an institution planted by feeble 
 folk in the open fields, with God and Nature as its 
 environment; near to Nature's heart, near to Nature's 
 voices ; whose strength is in Nature's God. 
 
 I well remember the ejaculation of that great 
 theologian. Professor Edwards A. Park of Andover, 
 when for the first time looking around upon this 
 magnificent circumvallation where our Alma Mater 
 has been for one century intrenched : " This is the 
 place for a college ! ^' This was the intuition of that 
 brilliant and yet reverent nature, so lately introduced 
 to another environment of hills, to other green, to 
 
 other harvest fields which are eternal ; aye, to a seat 
 103 
 
I04 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 at the feet of Him whom having not seen he loved, 
 as only a great teacher is loved by his pupils. 
 
 The highest function of the country is ethical ; to 
 raise men, not beets and turnips ; to raise men, not 
 even plowmen and blacksmiths. We scarcely leave 
 the echoes of the dusty town, striking out upon 
 roads that lead through earth's streets of gold, where 
 the bobolinks are busy with their cataracts of song, 
 before we feel this. We see that the ethical school- 
 master is abroad. We look up to the hills from 
 whence cometh our help. There are heights to be 
 scaled. They challenge us, they inspire us. This 
 is the way youth climbs, in order to hitch his chariot 
 to a star. At the foot of these ladders he has vis- 
 ions of ascending and descending angels, and each 
 day awakes to say, " Surely, the Lord was in this 
 place, and I knew it not." 
 
 But the country college is largely peopled by 
 country boys and girls. They nestle here as the 
 birds nestle in the tree tops. In George Eliot's 
 Middlemarcky that cold-blooded study in human 
 pathology, she makes the miser Featherstone say : 
 " When I used to go to church, there is one thing I 
 made out pretty clear, — God A'mighty sticks to the 
 land. He promises land, and He gives land, and He 
 makes chaps rich with corn and cattle ; " alluding to 
 the nomadic character of the patriarchs, — chaps the 
 most likely to impress his nature. And so when 
 Satan undertakes the overthrow of Job, he begins 
 
PRESIDENT RANKIN'S ADDRESS 1 05 
 
 with the land, with Job's sheep and oxen and cattle 
 and asses; leaving his sons and daughters to the 
 last. 
 
 The country college gathers into its humble walls 
 the country's sacredest and best, the sons and daugh- 
 ters of a hundred households. In them is simplicity 
 as to moral duty ; no splitting of hairs, no dodging 
 of issues ; God walking in the garden and youth 
 meeting Him there, in the cool of the morning. 
 These young people have been started with their 
 faces heavenward. They come from farms where 
 has been everywhere written, as by the finger of 
 Him who stooped and wrote on the ground, in the 
 Gospel narrative, "The laborer is worthy of his 
 hire;" "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
 also reap." They come from unpretending homes 
 where, as the morning smoke ascends from the 
 chimney, the occupants, man, woman, child, eat 
 their bread in the sweat of their brow, — their bread, 
 for they earn it ; not like the " man with the hoe^ " 
 over whose spirit has descended a heritage of deso- 
 lation, but creatures holding communion with God 
 in all of Nature's processes, workers together with 
 God in all the round year. 
 
 All agricultural life is ethical Our modern insti- 
 tutions have agricultural annexes. Nature is God*s 
 school of ethics and agriculture in one. From this 
 ethical environment, our young people spring as 
 reeds by the watercourses. Into this economy the 
 
I06 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 God of Nature comes, His reward with Him, His 
 work before Him, putting man to similar direction 
 and stress as Nature herself. He seeks to impart 
 industrial education before the boy leaves the place 
 of his first matriculation. He takes Nature's best 
 from a heredity rich with the slow growth of the 
 spoils of industry, to a high destiny as morally cer- 
 tain as that insured by the four grand movements 
 of Nature which we call seasons, because they are 
 so kindly related, so kindly: " First the blade, then 
 the ear, then the full corn in the ear. " 
 
 The fathers were wise. They made the college 
 come to them and their children, into the country, 
 so that the boys, and now the girls, might retain 
 the wholesome influence of home life: mother's 
 benediction, sister's love; so that, clothing their 
 sons from the wool off the sheep's backs, bringing 
 their provisions of a week from the home pantry 
 and the home kneading-trough and the home oven, 
 they could afford to educate them, while they spared 
 them from the farm. Every week Jesse sent the 
 boy David down with provisions, to see how the 
 battle of life went on with the other sons. Thus 
 they kept home ideals always before the absent 
 ones, and always remembered them as belonging to 
 the home circle. And precisely after this manner, 
 in Middlebury College, have sprung such men of 
 genius in the Christian pulpit as Truman M. Post; 
 such senators as Silas Wright ; such accomplished 
 
PRESIDENT RANKIN'S ADDRESS 107 
 
 diplomats as Edward J. Phelps, who was born into 
 our alumnal economy, and whose oratory was des- 
 tined to help us in this glad hour, but death's angel 
 came and sealed his lips; such groups of men as 
 have made so many Vermont towns glorious ; such 
 heroes and heroines in the wilds of the West ; such 
 pioneers as, having heard the voice of our Elder 
 Brother from all quarters of the earth, " Go ye into 
 all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea- 
 ture," have laid their witnessing dust in the Orient ; 
 men and women, made great, first, by confronting 
 God in Nature, by taking tuition from the God of 
 Nature on these farms, by serving an apprenticeship 
 in these Vermont homes to Him who said, " As my 
 Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Break- 
 ing cattle to the yoke and colts to the harness, 
 plowing out snow-furrows in the winter, and earth- 
 furrows in the autumn and springtime, getting 
 sweetness out of the maples, lifting up axes against 
 the great trees, washing and baking and scrubbing 
 in the home kitchen, taking the brunt of life every- 
 where ; and then rising to the dignity and reward 
 of the work before them. 
 
 Since the country is ethical, and since agriculture 
 is ethical, it is not strange that the country college 
 has always been largely a nursing mother to Chris- 
 tian ministers and teachers. This is why the first 
 settlers of New England wanted a college at all. 
 It was not knowledge, but duty, which they sought. 
 
I08 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 The dust of John Harvard sleeps in a humble 
 cemetery in Charlestown. I have sometimes rever- 
 ently stood there. The Cambridge undergraduate, 
 with Boston's best blood in his veins, owes more 
 than one-half of the first endowment of Harvard 
 University, with her motto, "To Christ and his 
 Church," to that Christian minister. The first 
 library of Yale University was largely made up of 
 books which Congregational ministers brought 
 from their own study-shelves as a donation and laid 
 upon that altar of sacrifice. 
 
 The country college was not primarily to study 
 science, — that which is so largely the legitimate 
 charm of the modern college curriculum. Science, 
 as related to the world's material progress — to help 
 this on and make money out of it, this was not why 
 our fathers planted colleges. Probably we think 
 they thought too little of such things. It was to 
 study God as man's Creator, and man as God's 
 creature. When our first missionaries sailed to 
 foreign lands, as to material resources of locomotion 
 they were a feeble folk ; scarcely mightier than the 
 original disciples, as they fished the sea of Tiberias. 
 Dr. Farnsworth was some thirty days crossing the 
 ocean. Now God's messengers, those ministers of 
 His that do His pleasure, even to the laying down of 
 their lives, if it may be to save some, are conveyed by 
 vessels that combine in themselves all the majestic 
 forces of nature; the creation and management of 
 
PRESIDENT RANKIN'S ADDRESS IO9 
 
 which require the mastery of science in all her 
 majestic steps. It is by nature's great forces that 
 the soil is opened to the sower, that the seed is 
 sown, that the earth is disemboweled of her hid 
 treasures. Now, when the inventor looks around, 
 in his well-stocked laboratory, inquiring, "Whom 
 shall I send ? " all the forces of nature rise up, say- 
 ing as in concert, " Here am I, send me ! " The 
 scientific is a movement under God's guidance and 
 sure to add to His glory. It is man coming to find 
 out what God knows. In kindred directions, that 
 man of olden times called the wisest was great be- 
 cause familiar with the trees and plants and beasts 
 and fowls and creeping things of the earth ; but 
 who yet said, " To fear God and keep His com- 
 mandments, is the whole of man." 
 
 The country college must hold fast what she has, 
 that no man take her crown. Her work is especially 
 ethical, — the making of character; the fitting of 
 herself into that holy league and covenant into 
 which the fathers entered when such a college as 
 this was founded, and dedicated to truth and virtue. 
 To dominate material forces, whether in earth or 
 sea or air, whether in Occident or Orient, is magnifi- 
 cent ; but to dominate self, the godlike in us, amid 
 those great modern novelties and possibilities, to 
 say, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " to go 
 under the cloud as did our fathers ; to pass through 
 the sea, and to be baptized in the cloud and in the 
 
no MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 sea ; to drink of that Spiritual Rock which followed 
 them, which Rock was Christ, — is better than to 
 know all mystery and all knowledge. 
 
 The recipe which John Adams gave a certain 
 Virginian for making a New England of Virginia 
 was this: "Equal parts of meeting-house, school- 
 house, and training- field." Of himself he said that 
 for seventy-six years he had been "a churchgoing 
 animal." A churchgoing animal ! A man, made 
 in the image of God, one day in seven inquiring 
 of the oracles of God! This man must still head 
 the procession. The meeting-house must still have 
 something definite to say, — the schoolhouse, the 
 training-field. New England has but to repeat her- 
 self in her sons and daughters, after the old method, 
 according to the old type. Unless we lose the key 
 to their language, these hills will never lift their 
 fronts and men*s hearts to the skies in vain. 
 
 Gentlemen, Presidents of New England Colleges: 
 At the request of my Alma Mater, voiced by one 
 who in his youth I received into the Church of 
 God, and upon whom the trustees of Howard Uni- 
 versity have just authorized me to confer the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity, — a man of modesty only 
 equaled by his scholarship and wisdom, — Presi- 
 dent Ezra Brainerd, D.D., LL.D., it is my pleasant 
 duty, having thus briefly and imperfectly opened this 
 Conference, to welcome you to its deliberations. 
 
PRESIDENT RANKIN'S ADDRESS III 
 
 You, President Tucker, come from the banks 
 of the Connecticut, where the greatest of all 
 American statesmen, Daniel Webster — the echo 
 of whose pleading voice for her and for all 
 American colleges still lingers — was educated; 
 you, President Carter, from the hills of Berkshire, 
 where Mark Hopkins, the greatest of all Ameri- 
 can teachers, once studied and taught; and you, 
 President Buckham, from the beautiful heights 
 above Lake Champlain, with their memories of one 
 alike distinguished in Burlington, at Andover, and 
 in New York, Professor William G. T. Shedd, critic, 
 preacher, historian, theologian, teacher, all in one, 
 always simple-minded, always great; all sons of 
 country colleges, and all illustrating the heights 
 which may be attained by all country boys, — one 
 and all, as well as those from other and later insti- 
 tutions, I welcome you. 
 
 We shall gratefully listen to your words of wis- 
 dom and congratulation as we sit in the sunlight 
 glory of the old century, and watch for the encrim- 
 soning sunburst of the new, — a sunset and sunrise 
 in one. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 By president CHARLES S. MURKLAND 
 
 THE COLLEGE AND THE INDUSTRIES 
 
 IT is the function of the college to set men free ; 
 to remove the accidental restrictions which 
 impede the free exercise of our native powers 
 and arrest or distort our normal development. The 
 freedom thus gained is as many-sided as human 
 nature, and the task of securing it is no less varied 
 and complex. There is, for example, an intellectual 
 aspect of it, in view of the bondage of ignorance. 
 It is ethical also, and social and political. But the 
 phase of it which I am permitted to suggest is less 
 obvious than these, namely, the industrial; that is, 
 the freedom of efficiency in use. Inefficiency is al- 
 ways servile. It is veritable bondage, the denial of 
 a right which should be inalienable, the right to 
 serve. The persistent craving which we all feel, 
 the native desire for a share in the world's work, and 
 for place and recognition among the world's workers, 
 this is so universal and so insatiable that it estab- 
 lishes a natural right not subordinate to any in the 
 familiar triad, " life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
 
PRESIDENT MURKLAND'S ADDRESS 1 13 
 
 piness." Indeed, the idea of liberty is not complete 
 until it includes the conception of freedom in ser- 
 vice. Any emancipation of thought, of emotion, of 
 action, is in danger of leading to a new and more 
 vicious servitude if it be not determined and guarded 
 by the freedom of service. Thought is never free 
 till it finds its freedom in its use. Then first it is 
 strong and unhampered. And this freedom of ser- 
 vice gives point to the college work. The lack of 
 it makes that work perfunctory and vague, — as it 
 so often is. I doubt if there is any educational 
 need more pressing than that of reinstating the 
 freedom of service as the one educational ideal. 
 
 In these latter days, the conception of service 
 itself has gained a new breadth of meaning. Time 
 was, not so long ago, when there seemed to be for 
 the scholar no freedom of use save in the three so- 
 called "learned professions." These vocations are 
 not less learned now than they were a half-century 
 ago, but they can no longer claim exclusive right to 
 the title, save by priority of occupation. Learning 
 has permeated the industries and glorified them. 
 It has made them what Law, Medicine, and the 
 Ministry had so long been, — opportunities for such 
 freedom of use as appeals to the ambition of the 
 scholar. It is no mere accident, perhaps, that when 
 the number of college men so greatly exceeds the 
 number of available chances in the older professions, 
 so many new opportunities elsewhere should be 
 
114 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 thrown open. At any rate, such is the fact. For 
 the man in the first vigor of his youth, at the age 
 when one leaves college, for him there are openings 
 almost numberless. If the college graduate does 
 not find them, and I confess that there is some 
 slight prejudice against him, it is partly for lack of 
 satisfactory adjustment of the college to the indus- 
 tries. For these latter have appropriated to them- 
 selves the best products of the modern civilization. 
 Is there an important discovery in any science.'^ 
 Straightway it becomes the basis, or the auxiliary, 
 of a new industry. An experimenter in Chemical 
 Physics puts some marble and coal dust into a re- 
 tort, and fuses them with the electric arc. The 
 porous stone which he takes out he throws care- 
 lessly into a pail of water, and observes that bubbles 
 rise to the surface. A few days afterward somebody 
 is manufacturing acetylene lanterns for bicycles. 
 Our every-day facilities, telegraph, telephone, and 
 the rest, are so many illustrations of the industrial 
 appropriation of learning; and they are specific 
 cases, also, of the new varieties of freedom offered 
 to the scholar. 
 
 The fact is that all invention, all discovery, all 
 research, have this in common : they enlarge the 
 freedom of the individual in the industries and by 
 means of the industries. We were limited to the 
 pace of a horse or the run and reach of a sailing 
 vessel, when a puff of expanding vapor suggested 
 
PRESIDENT MURKLAND'S ADDRESS 1 15 
 
 the way of a broader liberty. Our intercourse was 
 restricted to the range of a voice, when suddenly we 
 could catch the ear of our friend a thousand miles 
 away. It was like expanding the compass of a prison 
 cell. And every increment of freedom thus gained 
 for men has been at the same time the opening of 
 opportunity for the scholar's free service in the in- 
 dustries. The tradesman of a generation ago, the 
 journeyman who learned his trade by an apprentice- 
 ship of three years, or five or seven, is not extinct. 
 He may still find employment. But the industries 
 demand men of a different stamp ; men who have 
 attained not only the freedom of the hand, but that 
 of the mind; not only facility in shaping material, 
 but facility in ordering forces. And facility of this 
 sort is the divinely ordained privilege of the scholar. 
 In order that I may not seem to do less than full 
 justice to the college, let me say that in all this the 
 college, however innocent of any such design, has 
 been the one constant factor. It has given to re- 
 search a new life; it has been foremost in hailing 
 discovery with welcome and applause. It has not 
 been partial to invention, perhaps, simply because 
 until yesterday invention was so haphazard, so un- 
 scholastic, that it had not deserved the collegiate 
 seal. There is no measuring the debt the industries 
 owe to the college. But this very effectiveness of 
 the college recoils upon it with a new definiteness 
 of demand. The college must do more because it 
 
Il6 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 has done so much. Having touched life with learn- 
 ing here and there, it must continue until the two 
 are coextensive. Indeed the two — hfe and learn- 
 ing — are growing more symmetrical every day. 
 There is no point in either where the other may 
 not touch. Surely every lover of learning will say 
 that there is no point where they should not touch. 
 In getting nearer the ultimate association of the 
 two, we are both enlarging life with learning and 
 quickening learning with life. The burden of it 
 must be borne, as it has been borne, by the college. 
 Never w^as a time when the college was so abso- 
 lutely necessary as it is to-day. It is indispensable 
 to the industries. They all look to the college for 
 their development, and for the enlargement of free- 
 dom in their domain. And they will not look in 
 vain. 
 
 Perhaps even this rather formal relation between 
 learning and the industries is enough for our pur- 
 pose. But there is a more real association in the 
 reciprocal influence which has given to learning 
 broader scope, and to industry freer range. And I 
 speak of learning in all its inclusiveness, literary and 
 scientific. The multiplication and development of 
 educational facilities, the increasing ratio of edu- 
 cated men and women, these are industrial prod- 
 ucts, — I had almost said industrial by-products. 
 One university has its genesis in an oil well ; an- 
 other in a thread mill ; and another in something 
 
• PRESIDENT MURKLAND'S ADDRESS 117 
 
 else equally matter-of-fact. And the financial re- 
 sources of students are the incomes from the farms, 
 factories, shops, ships, and railroads. The industries 
 foster learning and send it abroad. 
 
 But learning incurs no obligation it does not re- 
 quite. It puts about the industries a purer, sweeter 
 atmosphere ; and, in view of the continuity of do- 
 mestic life, it supplies a practicable motive, as the 
 father toils not only patiently but gladly because 
 the fruits of his toil will be seen in the learning of 
 his son and daughter. By the inspiration of learn- 
 ing, the father apprehends that larger, truer man- 
 hood, and appraises it the more highly because of 
 his own limitations. To separate learning and the 
 industries would be fatal to both of them. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is still somewhat grudgingly that 
 the college comes to recognize that after all there 
 are industries, and industries without which our 
 common freedom would be curtailed. It is not yet 
 easy for the college to concede that the freedom of 
 the scholar in the industries should assume as large 
 proportions in the college outlook as that of the 
 scholar unemployed, or of the scholar in a learned 
 profession. It is true, but not important, as has 
 been said from this platform, that " industry is not 
 necessarily in-dust-ry." It is also true, and vital, 
 that a liberal and learned profession may be liberal 
 and learned in nothing but profession. The college 
 will not achieve its full use until it educates men for 
 
Il8 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 the industries. Educated in some fashion they will 
 be ; and, thus equipped, they are likely to demand 
 the readjustment of some of our common estimates. 
 It is curious how provincial some of these estimates 
 are. We do not easily understand the regard in 
 which the British mind holds the shopkeeper. But, 
 then, the British mind does not easily understand 
 our inability to get at what Emerson meant when 
 he said that the highest genius was the genius of 
 the garden. It is conceivable that a man may be 
 learned and a shoemaker, or a blacksmith, or a lens- 
 polisher, because such cases have been. But it is 
 still hard to conceive of one getting a college 
 education and then becoming a shoemaker, or a 
 lens-grinder, or even a tent-maker, whatever may 
 have been true of the Apostle Paul in his day 
 and of Spinoza in his, so provincial is our common 
 feeling. 
 
 It seems to me, after some observation, that the 
 specialized education of the day, in which the de- 
 mands of the industries have found expression, 
 excellent as that education is, has this limitation : 
 it results in a specialized freedom, and it is always 
 in danger of forgetting that this is not its final aim. 
 It produces better engineers, of one kind and an- 
 other; better chemists, better manufacturers, better 
 farmers, — men who, by virtue of this education, 
 have wider range and freer play within the limits 
 of their specialties. It supplies the men the indus- 
 
PRESIDENT MURKLAND^S ADDRESS II9 
 
 tries want, and at the same time gives the industries 
 a certain intellectual standing. But it does not 
 confer the comprehensive freedom which is the 
 scholar's right ; and it is always face to face with 
 the temptation of financial expediency, as if the sole 
 aim of the specialized education were to guarantee 
 to its beneficiaries an increased income. 
 
 The financial moment, of course, is not to be 
 disregarded utterly. There is no estimating how 
 much the college owes to it. The college con- 
 stituency would not increase so rapidly if the col- 
 lege education did not pay so well. The college 
 graduate does have a better chance at the prizes, 
 even when the prizes are estimated at their value 
 in coin. On the other hand, nothing could be 
 more fatal to the freedom of the scholar than the 
 overemphasis upon a fact so subsidiary. The 
 inducement to such overemphasis is peculiarly 
 great as it appeals to the specialized education. 
 And it is no easy matter to resist the appeal and 
 turn a deaf ear to the considerations of immediate 
 profit. Certainly the specialized education has 
 difHculties of its own. 
 
 Nevertheless it is gaining a vast constituency. 
 Men are aiming at the industries and ignoring 
 the college. I speak, of course, of the college 
 which is not at the same time a technical school. 
 The attempt to combine the two bristles with diffi- 
 culties, and not least among them is that of meet- 
 
I20 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 ing the extraordinary demands of the industries 
 without too great a sacrifice. Only by the sheerest 
 force can the technical training itself be crowded 
 into the space of four years. To cover the ground 
 demands a pace which cannot be kept without un- 
 sparing use of whip and spur. The weak drop 
 out ; it is sad, but it cannot be helped. The ground 
 must be covered, at whatever cost. There is little 
 place for the humanities, — none at all unless some- 
 body fights for them. And all the while there is 
 the drag of inadequate preparation and of immatu- 
 rity. Apart from the financial considerations, the 
 specialized education, as applied to the industries 
 is deficient in precisely those items which the col- 
 lege might supply. 
 
 I take it that the very stress of technical education 
 gives it much of its attractive force, and makes the 
 industries themselves seem more worthy of respect. 
 It is not the financial aspect of any given industry 
 w^hich repels, or fails to attract, the scholar. It is 
 rather that in the associations, in the conditions to 
 which he must in some measure submit, he fears 
 that he will find no scope for his personal freedom. 
 The handicraft threatens to become a handicap. 
 How shall the college man be made to see, how 
 shall he gain culture enough to see, that even in a 
 commonplace trade he may be less restricted in the 
 exercise of the human freedom, of thought and ex- 
 pression, of feeling and action, than he would be 
 
PRESIDENT MURKLAND'S ADDRESS 121 
 
 in a calling with less routine and greater leisure ? 
 Here is a point at which the college may come into 
 closer relation with the industries. It is much that 
 the curriculum be wisely adjusted in view of scien- 
 tific research, social conditions, and psychological 
 requirements; much that the methods of teaching 
 be adequate ; much more that the common ethics be 
 made to stand the fierce test of four years' irrespon- 
 sible receptiveness. But the supreme thing is the 
 fitness to develop a man, or a woman, clear-eyed 
 enough to see the truth, strong-hearted enough to 
 cleave to it and trust in it ; large-minded enough 
 to understand that a man is not dignified by the 
 material in which he works, but the material by the 
 man and his works; and all this even in the face of 
 a common sentiment. For the common sentiment 
 still refuses to recognize the industries as oppor- 
 tunities for the freedom of the college graduate. 
 
 One thing the college persistently ignores, — 
 that physical activity is a condition of freedom. 
 And physical activity is at its best in the stress of 
 work. The college has no cognizance of such ac- 
 tivity, save as it gives a quasi-recognition to college 
 sports, or requires certain gymnastic exercises. In 
 consequence, it is urged on behalf of the industries 
 that the college student becomes incapacitated for 
 the application of his bodily powers in service ; 
 that in his devotion to thought, and to thought 
 expressed in words, he has lost or failed to acquire 
 
122 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 the faculty of expressing thought in action and 
 embodying it in other than verbal material. The 
 complaint is not wholly without reason, but it is . 
 becoming less reasonable every day. 
 
 There are other materials in which the scholar 
 may embody his vision, finding his freedom in the 
 process. But I suppose the conception of a uni- 
 verse plastic and malleable to his touch comes to 
 no man save as a reflex from his actual manipula- 
 tion. Moreover, since the gates of Eden were 
 guarded with a flaming sword there has been a 
 certain necessity of bodily work as a condition of 
 perfect sanity. Physical inertness is not far from 
 decay. And four years of it, in college, may be 
 fatal. So, at least, reads the indictment the indus- 
 tries bring against the college ; it is for the college 
 to answer. 
 
 After all, it is mainly an individual matter. Wat- 
 son, of the Plymouth Nurseries, the intimate friend 
 of Emerson, the welcome correspondent of choice 
 spirits at home and abroad, the most distinguished 
 member of a college class that included such men 
 as Samuel Longfellow and Edward Everett Hale, 
 is the typical case. His industry is commonplace 
 enough among commonplace men. But he made 
 of it an art, and found in it the full freedom to which 
 his college life gave him the introduction. His 
 case is not unique, but the class is not a large one. 
 One can easily imagine a different state of affairs, 
 
PRESIDENT MURKLAND'S ADDRESS 123 
 
 — one in which the first scholars in every college 
 would inevitably gravitate towards the association, 
 say, of the smiths, because only the first scholars 
 would be worthy of such a goodly fellowship. But 
 we have first to imagine the transformation of the 
 guild of the smiths ; yet there have been smiths at 
 whose touch the hammer yielded a graphic power 
 as true as that of the brush or the pencil. Such men 
 have been rare in any calling, but it is not wholly 
 outside the province of the college to make them 
 common. 
 
 In all this I have concerned myself more with 
 stating the conditions than with offering solutions. 
 Solutions of such problems as that of the relation 
 of the college to the industries do not come ready 
 made, nor before their time. But we are not with- 
 out indications as to the line of movement towards 
 a better adjustment. The college on the one hand, 
 and the industries on the other, are moving, if not 
 towards a common ground, at least towards posi- 
 tions within measurable reach of each other. On 
 the part of the college the chief indication is in the 
 development of the curriculum. I must not tres- 
 pass upon this ground save only by saying that in 
 the midst of great uncertainty, and as the result of 
 various experiments, there is a strong tendency to 
 offer the student a variety of intensive courses from 
 which to choose. And it is the idea of intensive 
 study that has determined this tendency, not simply 
 
124 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 the idea of variety. This means greater thorough- 
 ness, and an added maturity of thought ; and these 
 are direct or indirect responses to the demands of 
 the industries. Of similar import is the fact that 
 the two courses which have felt only the change of 
 added emphasis are the courses in mathematics and 
 English ; and these are the tools of the industries. 
 The dictum of the famous German chemist, that 
 nine-tenths of chemistry is manipulation, locates 
 the sciences definitely enough. 
 
 From the other side, the industries will not be 
 deprived of the service and the fellowship of the 
 scholar. The hit-or-miss inventor is discounte- 
 nanced. Inventions and discoveries may still be the 
 results of happy accidents, but of accidents which 
 happen in the course of the most accurate research. 
 The very term " mechanic " has risen to new dig- 
 nity of meaning. It no longer signifies a man whose 
 hands alone are free, but one who moves freely in 
 the whole region where energy is available for use. 
 The name has become a badge of honor, worthily 
 w^orn only by him who has come into the freedom 
 of efficiency which is the scholar's birthright. So 
 far, at least, the movement has gone, from both 
 sides, toward a better adjustment between the col- 
 lege and the industries. 
 
 During the century of honor we celebrate, Mid- 
 dlebury has given to the industries relatively few of 
 her sons. But she has, by her very conservatism 
 
PRESIDENT MURKLAND'S ADDRESS 1 25 
 
 perhaps, steadily stood for the freedom of the scholar 
 in any calling. But Middlebury has felt the pres- 
 sure of the new conditions. Her development during 
 the twenty-odd years of my recollection has been 
 greater, I suppose, than during the eighty years be- 
 fore. She cannot hope to remain even in the pres- 
 ent condition. But this she can do : rejecting every 
 overture from a base industrialism, welcoming every 
 opportunity to broaden the liberty of the man 
 in the industries, she can send forth an unfailing 
 succession of men and women prepared to do with 
 their might whatsoever their hands find to do. 
 This College, which to-day celebrates its majority, 
 which with another century will still be young — 
 may it never grow old save in the richness of hal- 
 lowed memories and fond traditions, and in the 
 sacredness of ties binding successive generations 
 together in a sodality of interest and use. But with 
 few years or many, this College will always be, to us 
 who have been of its fellowship, the source of per- 
 sonal influences persistent and uplifting, the nucleus 
 of experience that sweetens all of life, the home of 
 freedom and of truth, the same " dear old Midd." 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 By president FRANKLIN CARTER 
 TEXT-BOOK versus LECTURE 
 
 IT has been impossible to note the rapid growth 
 of our New England colleges without raising 
 the question whether in their enlargement and 
 expansion they are losing features of value. That 
 they are gaining in certain ways much more than 
 they are losing is the general belief. Considering 
 the end for which they exist to be partly the training 
 of the intellect, but also largely the establishment of 
 the life in the rules and habits of right living, he 
 should be a wise man who would pretend accurately 
 to measure the comparative value of the influences 
 for the undergraduate now and the undergraduate 
 of fifty years hence. I shall not undertake a com- 
 parison involving any such pretension. I wish to 
 make certain observations in regard to methods of 
 instruction. 
 
 The greatest advance in the modern college is in 
 the laboratory methods. Whereas science was for- 
 merly taught largely by lectures, and in some of our 
 colleges by a very brief course, and the students 
 were left at the close of the course with the vaguest 
 126 
 
PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS 1 27 
 
 general notions, at present nearly every college in- 
 sists on actual work in the laboratory. Even in 
 those colleges where half-year or year courses in 
 certain sciences are required of all students, the 
 facts and principles stated by the professor have to 
 be corroborated by the attainment of actual results 
 in the laboratory. A college with classes of less 
 than one hundred will be more apt to insist that 
 some knowledge of chemistry, biology, or physics 
 shall be secured by every student than a college 
 where the classes run up into the hundreds. If the 
 statement be true that the greatest gain in instruc- 
 tion has been made in the introduction of laboratory 
 work, by which the student is compelled to find his 
 own way to certain facts and laws, and arrives, so 
 to speak, by his own movement at the certainty of 
 relations, we may ask why this is not an argument 
 in favor of requiring some knowledge of science, 
 some actual mastery of the laws and processes of 
 nature, of every candidate for the bachelor's degree. 
 Does not the unrestricted choice in studies allow 
 many young men to be graduated from our colleges 
 without any knowledge of the facts and laws of 
 matter and life, and without any acquaintance with 
 the methods by which scientific facts and methods 
 are determined } Is it not desirable that every edu- 
 cated man should have at least one avenue in the 
 world of nature along which he may walk with 
 knowledge of the objects around him, and with an 
 
128 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 ever-increasing knowledge and enjoyment? The 
 extension and application of laboratory methods to 
 studies relating to letters, to the history of man's 
 thought and experiments in society, have added 
 value to the pursuit of these studies in the colleges 
 of to-day. Through the rejection of the narrow 
 text-book, the abandonment of the simple recitation, 
 and the enlargement of the student's vision by per- 
 sonal investigation in the fields relating to man's 
 attainments and achievements and duties, a great 
 advance is claimed in the methods of instruction. 
 Nor can there be any doubt that where these meth- 
 ods are carefully applied, where the student is re- 
 quired by the collection of facts to substantiate 
 principles, or by an analysis of authors to exhibit 
 excellences or defects, or by a comparison of author- 
 ities to detect a bias or strike a judicial balance, a 
 larger discipline is secured by him. The difficulty 
 is, that with a large class the professor is unable to 
 superintend such work, and to see that in its minute- 
 ness and extent it is honest and thorough. In the 
 scientific laboratory each man is furnished with ma- 
 terials, and during the two or three hours of work 
 the professor or his assistant walks about, notes the 
 progress or the coming failure, discourages or sets 
 right the youthful scientist. But in these other 
 fields the apparatus must be more extensive; the 
 books and authorities are costly and permanent and 
 cannot be indefinitely duplicated; the problems are 
 
PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS 1 29 
 
 more numerous and call for different methods ; the 
 professor cannot be constantly with the student in 
 his application of the methods. These difficulties 
 with the larger number of students make labo- 
 rious supervision often impossible, and too often 
 result in the acceptance of certain general signs that 
 the work has been done. In any large class the 
 temptation is always present for the teacher to con- 
 tent himself with the hour's lecture and an exami- 
 nation on the lectures, often at widely separated 
 intervals, combined possibly with the requirement 
 of one thesis each half-year. If the professor is 
 giving several courses, this amount of work in each 
 course will probably be all that his strength enables 
 him to do. He can remain in actual ignorance of 
 the progress that a great part of his class is making, 
 or perhaps I should say of the neglect in which a 
 great part of his class is indulging. He may be 
 greatly dissatisfied that he cannot know better the 
 attitude and degree of earnestness of his students. 
 
 In other cases the careful attention of a part of 
 the class during the lecture will give the flattering 
 impression that work on the subject is prosecuted 
 with diligence. The agreeable satisfaction of im- 
 parting knowledge and the occasional question from 
 one of the best-trained students will inspire the 
 feeling that all is going well, a feeling often rudely 
 dispelled by the revelation of the papers returned on 
 the final examination. 
 
 
 
I30 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 I believe that this method of lecture instruction 
 may have very great value for certain mature under- 
 graduates. It is assumed that references to good 
 authorities are repeatedly made ; that a requirement 
 is enforced for study of these authorities and the 
 analysis of their opinions and the mastery of the 
 facts involved. The best students will work intel- 
 ligently and diligently on the subject as a whole, 
 and certain papers at the examination will show 
 results as thorough and encouraging as a teacher 
 could desire. But is it not true that in the compe- 
 tition for numbers existing in all the colleges nearly 
 every class contains many students who will not 
 accomplish more than the actual standard for the 
 degree required ? Are there not now in every 
 college men who crowd into the more popular 
 courses because conditions in these courses permit 
 the minimum of work } Something of the popular- 
 ity of the course depends on the excellence of the 
 instruction, on brilliant presentation of principles, 
 on bold denunciation of systems or even of men as 
 representing systems, on the exhibition of rude icon- 
 oclasm, on a stern dogmatism that affects liberality, 
 on the display of large learning or fine taste in lit- 
 erature, on a genuine mastery of the subject. Nor 
 can it be denied that the value, even to those who 
 get the least from such instruction, is something. 
 But students may attend such lectures, lectures 
 presenting real excellences, and derive from them 
 
PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS 131 
 
 scarcely anything beyond the occupation of the hour 
 and the influence of dwelling for that hour in an 
 intellectual atmosphere. Possibly there are students 
 whom that atmosphere does not elevate, and courses 
 there are which are not attended for the intellectual 
 stimulus but for the soporific calm which pervades 
 the atmosphere. These, too, help toward the haven 
 marked " B. A." 
 
 The activities not laid down in the official curric- 
 ulum that interest student-life in these days have 
 something to do with the choices of courses by cer- 
 tain students. The convenience of the hours with 
 reference to hours of practice for games; the cer- 
 tainty that a course will not be very strenuous ; that 
 the requirements can be mastered in a few hours of 
 study at the end of the course ; the belief that a pro- 
 fessor gives every student a passing mark, — these 
 are sometimes the determining factors in a young 
 man's choices. Determination on such grounds is 
 contagious, and lectures having such a reputation 
 will be popular. I suspect that it is true that in 
 many of our colleges there are such popular lectures, 
 where the hour is passed by some students in a state 
 of easy-going indifference. A student once com- 
 plained to me of a professor in a large elective in 
 one of our universities who spoke to one of the 
 members of his class engaged in reading some in- 
 teresting book and requested him to give attention 
 to the lecture. " It was a beastly act," the young 
 
132 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 man said, adding, "as though he had the right to 
 require anything of the student but to pass the 
 examination at the end of the course." It is to be 
 feared that there are professors who do not do even 
 so much as this eminent man did to remind their 
 pupils that they are in an institution of learning. 
 
 The remedy for such evils is not always easy to 
 find. The professor claims, and perhaps the corpo- 
 ration admits, that he has a permanent tenure of 
 office. He has not teaching power : I see it is ac- 
 knowledged in certain circles that teaching power is 
 not to be looked for accompanying high specializa- 
 tion. It is probably true that the power to impart 
 knowledge and to inspire intellectual zeal in a large 
 class has not been in direct ratio to the power to 
 acquire and discover truth. Nevertheless, the ques- 
 tion is, How shall our classes, large and small, be best 
 instructed ? When in the days of the old teacher a 
 text-book was employed and daily examinations on 
 an assigned lesson were exacted, the use of the text- 
 book was often slavish and formal. No exercise 
 can be more lifeless than one may become, confined 
 to a repetition of the printed page of the required 
 lesson. Nevertheless, the value of the knowledge 
 of the subject taught secured by the pupil under the 
 old method may be regarded in many cases as 
 superior to that secured by the simple method of 
 lectures. In all cases in which the actual study of 
 the subject is deferred until the end of the course, 
 
PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS 133 
 
 when an examination must be passed, the value of 
 the knowledge to some students will be very small. 
 A few hours, or at the most two days, of cramming 
 enable the student to pass the examination ; and the 
 details of the subject are at once dismissed and for- 
 gotten. In order to secure daily attention a few 
 minutes may be given to inquiries on the previous 
 lesson. If these are oral and the replies are oral, 
 the class gets at least the benefit of a review of cer- 
 tain brief points. If the answers are written and 
 cover any considerable amount of matter, there is a 
 probability that a large part of them will not be 
 examined. For true improvement each day the 
 corrected work should be handed back to each stu- 
 dent and sometimes discussed with him. That this 
 may be effectively done, every lecturer to a large 
 class might well have at least one assistant whose 
 whole time should be devoted to examination of 
 papers and to interviews with a few men every day 
 at a fixed hour. Such a method would add greatly 
 to the expense of instruction, and would require at 
 least two hours for each ordinary hour of the course. 
 One hour would be for the lecturer and the whole 
 class ; one hour for the assistant and part of the 
 class. Such a plan would augment the difficulty of 
 arranging the schedule, but would add greatly, if 
 the assistant were successful (if he were not, the 
 failure would be dismal), to the mastery by each 
 student of the subject. 
 
134 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 It seems to me that when the facilities permit it 
 some such method might be adopted, particularly in 
 those courses where the numbers rise to one hun- 
 dred or more. It would be probably a wise restric- 
 tion if the number in any course were limited. A 
 professor lecturing to three divisions of fifty each 
 might surely still employ an assistant to know how 
 the work of each student was done. The labor of 
 such assistants would be irksome and exhausting, 
 and the difference between the life of the professor 
 and the life of such an assistant would be extreme. 
 But the attainment of the best educational results 
 in our large colleges calls, wherever the lecture sys- 
 tem prevails, for supplementary supervision of the 
 most rigid character. Where the college is smaller 
 and the resources do not permit of this distribution 
 of work, there should be a careful avoidance of the 
 lecture system as the sole method of instruction. If 
 the university can command the highest specializing 
 power, the smaller college ought to aim to secure 
 and develop teachers of the best quality. The im- 
 partation, not the discovery, of truth must be the 
 supreme idea of the college as distinguished from 
 the university. Under this view much may be said 
 for the despised text-book, — rightly to be despised 
 if it cover all the truth presented ; greatly to be 
 honored if it be only the basis of wider discussion, 
 of careful analysis, of searching inquiry into related 
 questions and cognate difficulties. It may well serve 
 
PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS 1 35 
 
 to determine how much previous thought the stu- 
 dent has given to the subject, and how far he can 
 acquire the control of the facts, principles, or logical 
 statements of a master in any direction. It may 
 well serve as a minimum of knowledge to be re- 
 quired for a training of that faculty — often con- 
 temptuously regarded in these days by a bumptious 
 leader of college thought — of accurate verbal mem- 
 ory, without which, in certain lines of life, a man 
 will never have even the appearance of being edu- 
 cated. This contempt of a verbal memory has been 
 increased by the introduction of the lecture system 
 and the slighter use of text-books in the preparatory 
 schools. 
 
 The verbal memory may indeed be cultivated at 
 the expense of all intelligence. The children who 
 were ready to state that the centre of the earth is 
 " in a state of igneous fusion," but did not know, if 
 this be the case, that the interior of the earth grows 
 warmer as one approaches that centre, may stand as 
 an illustration of the extreme folly of the use of a 
 text-book unaccompanied by intelligent explanation. 
 They might also stand for the absurd confusion in 
 which a phrase caught here and there from a lecture 
 often leaves a college class. The student who wrote, 
 in reply to an inquiry as to the constituents of the 
 body, " The body is mostly composed of water, and 
 about one-half is avaricious tissue," had probably 
 been attending a course of lectures in his junior 
 
136 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 year on physiology. By the insistence on exact 
 statements in every line of study in the college 
 class-room, accompanied by searching inquiry as to 
 whether the student understands the statements he 
 is giving, and by the impartation of some new in- 
 formation, the bringing of fresh illustrations into 
 the field to arouse new interest, — in a word, by 
 the combination of the text-book, the lecture, the 
 Socratic dialogue, the examination, and the require- 
 ment of research into specified authors, — the old 
 ideal of teaching may be revived. It is for this kind 
 of training that the college ought to stand ; for 
 faithful work on the subject outside of the class- 
 room ; for the fixed and undivided attention of 
 every student in the room ; for the enlarged vision by 
 the introduction of new matter and illustrations, — 
 always with the understanding that at any moment 
 the pupil may be called upon to give the points of 
 any process or movement already presented. It is 
 along these lines of work that the smaller college 
 has hitherto maintained its dignity ; and this kind 
 of work, in these days of larger resources and deeper 
 interest in pedagogy and more careful differentia- 
 tion, still has its place. It matters not how much 
 information is poured into a student's mind if it is 
 not vivified by interest and clearly understood and 
 well assimilated. A very little knowledge imparted 
 under right conditions may produce excellent re- 
 sults in the inspiration to larger attainments. Any 
 
PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS 1 37 
 
 amount of information, unless the interest is keen, 
 the attention fixed, and the student sent out with 
 larger comprehension of the relations of the subject, 
 and quickened to a new sense that strenuous effort 
 on his part alone will issue in training and knowl- 
 edge, is worthless. 
 
 While the exciting of interest and attention may 
 be diligently studied by the lecturer in his presenta- 
 tion, it cannot be denied that in a large class the 
 remoteness of the relation between the lecturer and 
 the average student is such that the best efforts are 
 with some unsuccessful. It is beyond contradiction 
 that the personal contact of mind with mind, by 
 direct question, will evoke a sense of responsibility 
 on the part of the student, and usually that sense of 
 responsibility will result in work. Furthermore, the 
 student's answers and inquiries may lead, under the 
 guidance of a skilful teacher, to an illumination of 
 the greatest value for the entire class. The text- 
 book may be antiquated and yet the exercise wholly 
 invigorating and stimulating. It is equally true that 
 the text-book may be wholly modern and masterly, 
 and its use without profit in the hands of a slow or 
 careless teacher. But the assumption that he who 
 uses a text-book is necessarily a poor teacher and 
 behind the times may be the assumption that the 
 deepest interest in the progress of every pupil, and 
 the most conscientious effort to secure that progress, 
 and the insistence on a high standard of attainment 
 
138 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 for each, are worth less than an exhaustive but pos- 
 sibly uninspiring display of the knowledge of the 
 latest literature, or an eagerness to advance theories 
 subversive of the most precious inheritances in philo- 
 sophic truth. 
 
 It is certainly true that for the right kind of 
 teaching with a text-book a class of more than fifty 
 becomes burdensome; but with the use of a text- 
 book under the true method, a class of fifty may 
 surely derive as much benefit as a class of fifty 
 under the lecture system, even where the lecturer 
 has an assistant to examine papers and secure the 
 outside work. This use of the text-book as a basis 
 has the great advantage that it brings each member 
 of a class into closer personal relation with the 
 master instead of relegating him to the assistant. 
 For a class of a hundred this method is less likely 
 to succeed because it is less easy, indeed very diffi- 
 cult, for the teacher to be sure that genuine work is 
 done by each student outside of class. If in this 
 day of material splendor large numbers are gradu- 
 ated to whom many courses have meant little except 
 the requirement of attendance and a few hours' study 
 at the end of the course, will it not be well to turn 
 some of the money which easily goes into costly 
 architecture to such a provision for instruction as 
 will everywhere reduce the size of divisions and 
 make the personal power of each good teacher more 
 effective.? The great increase in the number of 
 
PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS 1 39 
 
 those who now pursue graduate studies and get a 
 large fire of inspiration from direct contact with our 
 best masters should make it possible, by multiplying 
 teachers, to give larger significance to the bachelor's 
 degree. 
 
 Ought not a closer supervision to be exercised 
 over younger teachers ? Is it not possible that the 
 importance of personal liberty in the method of our 
 teachers is exaggerated ? Is not the careful training 
 of the undergraduates the supreme end, and should 
 not everything be subordinated to that end ? I 
 would also ask whether the title "university," rightly 
 held by certain institutions where the students at- 
 tending the undergraduate courses still constitute 
 at least one-half of the entire body, may not some- 
 times give an instructor the feeling that university 
 methods are applicable to all his classes? Are not 
 some of our younger teachers likely to be affected 
 by the conceit that to teach in a university, or even 
 in a college, to a class of fifty absolves from all re- 
 sponsibility for individuals and calls for an elegant 
 or eloquent lecture ? Are there not in all our col- 
 leges and universities students whose minds are not 
 trained to the mastery of a lecture ; to the grasping 
 and retaining, in the brief time of its delivery, the 
 fine definitions and distinctions conveyed by the 
 lecture? And if notes are written for the student 
 by a hearer and printed in a syllabus, to be mastered 
 at the end of the course, we have the old text-book 
 
I40 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 method in its worst form ; for whatever its accu- 
 racy, the text-book is probably one-twentieth, or at 
 best one-tenth, of the proper size, and attention in 
 the class-room is made unnecessary. Are there not 
 immature and indolent students, or even well-trained 
 but erratic students, in the classes of our institutions 
 who need much more attention? Many of them 
 fall out, as things are now ; but is not the individual, 
 personal student worth more attention than he gets 
 anywhere? Surely we ought not to forget that a 
 careful stimulation rightly applied, supervision in 
 the largest sense of the progress of each student, is 
 the problem, perhaps the greatest problem, demand- 
 ing now the attention of all responsible for the 
 training of those crowding our class-rooms, and, 
 nominally at least, studying for the bachelor's de- 
 gree. The only ground of release from such super- 
 vision would seem to be that it is impossible. 
 
 The recognition of authority has everywhere 
 diminished, and the colleges have much more to 
 contend with than once in this age of increasing 
 luxury, elective courses, and obedient parents. Their 
 greatness, however, will never cease to depend on 
 the efficiency with which the powers of their stu- 
 dents are trained and coordinated to the highest 
 service. If supervision becomes impossible, young 
 men will still be graduated who will attain great 
 eminence. Many who do little work in college will 
 get a lifelong advantage from residence and attri- 
 
PRESIDENT CARTER'S ADDRESS 141 
 
 tion with teachers and comrades in college halls. 
 But the American college will have lost that which 
 has made it a powerful instrument in developing 
 respect of authority and awakening the keenest sense 
 of responsibility to the State and the Church. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 By president MATTHEW H. BUCKHAM 
 THE MORAL LIFE OF THE COLLEGE 
 
 I SHALL treat my subject under two heads: 
 First, the moral life of the college for the sake 
 of the intellectual; secondly, the moral life for 
 its own sake. 
 
 That the moral life of the college affects the 
 intellectual life for good or evil, affects it widely and 
 deeply, is a fact of such common experience that we 
 dwell on it not so much for confirmation as for re- 
 flection. It would not, I think, be extravagant to 
 say that by far the most important element in col- 
 lege life contributing to healthy and vigorous intel- 
 lectual activity is moral soundness, and consequently 
 moral vitality, in the academic body. And I mean 
 by this all that it seems to mean : that it is impos- 
 sible to have a high degree of intellectual vigor, a 
 high and fine intellectual tone, without having be- 
 neath it and around it and all through it a prevailing 
 and inspiring moral earnestness, all the better and 
 more effective if it reach even to spirituality. I 
 venture the assertion that no college man present 
 can recall a time in his college experience which 
 142 
 
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S ADDRESS 1 43 
 
 was a time of unusual scholarship and which was not 
 also a time of unusual moral and perhaps even relig- 
 ious elevation. And calling to mind our phenomen- 
 al classes — we have all had them — do not those 
 classes represent to our memories a personal charac- 
 ter as conspicuous as was their intellectual brilliancy? 
 And those other times and other classes that we 
 look back upon with no pleasurable memories, times 
 when evil influences seemed to be in the air, when 
 our days were made anxious and our nights restless 
 by some malign agency which we could not over- 
 come, were not those the times when scholarship 
 was at its lowest, and when we expected nothing 
 better than dull classes and a dreary mediocrity in 
 the intellectual outcome ? 
 
 For this influence of the moral upon the intellec- 
 tual life there are two obvious reasons. The first is, 
 that the moral life alone can furnish the requisite 
 conditions for zest in intellectual pursuits. We 
 count among the fundamental and universal endow- 
 ments of the human mind, desire for knowledge, the 
 pleasure of acquiring it, the joy of possessing it. 
 But this natural desire has full play only when the 
 moral environment is favorable to its exercise. 
 Amid the innocence of childhood it has free and 
 happy scope and range. With what perpetual and 
 insatiable delight the child adds to its knowledge 
 during every waking hour of its existence. Living 
 is mainly learning, and it is pure joy. Nothing 
 
144 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 daunts or discourages or fatigues. A child that 
 can learn so difficult a thing as language, especially 
 the English language, and learn it without fret or 
 tears, can learn anything it may ever have to learn, 
 if the conditions are as favorable. This pleasurable 
 acquiring of knowledge continues with the boy or 
 girl so long as physical health is preserved and wise 
 supervision keeps out distracting influences and se- 
 cures the right grades up which knowledge is easily 
 pursued. But let some untoward influence come in 
 upon the moral life, some influence which even if it 
 is not positively bad yet disturbs the normal condi- 
 tion of the general life, and how soon and how easily 
 this love of learning, love of study, abates and is lost. 
 Healthy sport does not interfere with it, — sustains 
 it, rather, — but any amusement or occupation which 
 either by its character or its excess intrudes a rival 
 or alien element into the moral experience tends to 
 diminish zest in intellectual pursuits. The moral 
 atmosphere must be clear, must have plenty of oxy- 
 gen, and a due amount of ozone, and must be free 
 from all noxious elements ; otherwise the eyes grow 
 dull, the pulse flags, and the intellectual fibre is lost. 
 A healthy college life is one of the essential condi- 
 tions of high intellectual attainment, — a life of reg- 
 ular hours ; of quiet, restful nights ; a due amount of 
 happy, exhilarating sport ; helpful influences at home 
 or following one from home ; leisure from care and 
 all intense feeling ; the calm which comes from a 
 
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S ADDRESS 1 45 
 
 good conscience and a right purpose and a relig- 
 ious trust, — all this furnishes the best, even the nec- 
 essary condition for the maximum of intellectual 
 zest and enthusiasm. 
 
 Another dependence of the intellectual upon the 
 moral life of the college is for the motives which 
 sustain and inspire it. No actual or imaginable 
 vocation of mankind could be more delightful than 
 that of teaching young men and women who were 
 eager to learn. If only the main work of college 
 were to guide into right channels the youthful ardor 
 for knowledge ! But this, alas, is not the situation 
 which we have to deal with. It is a great mistake 
 to assume that it is, — the mistake which so many 
 teachers make, and fail because they make. The 
 teacher is fortunate who finds a few in his class who 
 are alert and responsive to his teachings; the rest are 
 for the most part indifferent or waiting. In face of 
 this situation the ordinary teacher murmurs, scolds, 
 threatens, vents his spleen against the lower schools, 
 declares that the only remedy is to weed out this 
 inferior material, and would, if he had his way, make 
 almost a solitude and call it peace. The superior 
 teacher is well represented in what was once said to 
 me by one of the leading teachers in our most fa- 
 mous university : " When things are not going right 
 in my class, I always assume first that the fault is in 
 me, — at least, I always ask if the remedy is not in 
 something I can do." Now in such cases, in all cases 
 
146 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 when the wise and loving instructor is studying 
 ways and means for promoting the welfare of his 
 pupils, he will find great help in working upon the 
 moral side of the problem. I spoke of this under 
 the former head under its corrective aspect ; we are 
 now considering it on its dynamic side. What one 
 of the many available motives to intellectual effort 
 can I put into action ? Shame for low standing or 
 failure in class, dread of the displeasure of parents 
 or friends, the spirit of emulation, — these only as 
 lower motives leading to something higher, — the 
 sense of obligation, the rewards of earnest effort, the 
 prospect of future success, the pleasure of a sense 
 of growth and of power, gratitude, affection, in- 
 creased power of usefulness, — some or all these 
 prudential and moral forces can be turned into mo- 
 tives for a more strenuous intellectual life. But the 
 effectiveness of all these forces can be multiplied 
 many fold by the personality which transmits them 
 to individual minds. Proper rules, general exhorta- 
 tions, admonitions, — what are they all worth in 
 appeals to souls, compared with strong, engaging, 
 sweet, masterful personality, such as that of Jowett 
 of Balliol, Arnold of Rugby, Woolsey of Yale, Hop- 
 kins of Williams, Agassiz of Harvard! From Soc- 
 rates to Father Taylor, personality has always been 
 the strongest force in education. It is not a dis- 
 covery of modern times. But our own generation 
 has seen a great change in this regard. More and 
 
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S ADDRESS 1 47 
 
 more in our time teachers and pupils are coming 
 into those genial relations in which personality be- 
 comes most effective, — the relation of older friend 
 to younger, both working together in the same field 
 and with the same spirit, — each contributing to the 
 other something that makes the life of each richer 
 and happier. 
 
 And another great force of which the college can 
 avail itself for intellectual ends is the social force. 
 When graduates say that what they most value and 
 cherish in their college career is the social part of it, 
 they mean not merely that this was a source of enjoy- 
 ment, but that these social influences, the compan- 
 ionship of men of intellect and culture, enlarged and 
 stimulated and sweetened their lives. And this is 
 what academic life ought to do, and in normal con- 
 ditions does for every student. These social influ- 
 ences come from three sources : from the academic 
 body as a whole, from fraternity life, and from the 
 extra-collegiate community. 
 
 The esprit de corps of the academic body as a 
 whole is the joint product of the Faculty wdth their 
 families and the students, of which the paramount 
 factor is, or ought to be, the faculty element, leaving 
 at the same time to the student portion freedom 
 and the full consciousness of it, and the frankest 
 utterance, and all the vivacity and frolic humor 
 which are the privilege and charm of youth. But 
 the Faculty, as individuals and as a body, by their 
 
148 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 own intellectual activity, by their leadership in lit- 
 erary and scientific enterprise, by their progressive 
 spirit and pioneership in their specialties, should 
 create a collegiate atmosphere which would be stim- 
 ulating to the whole academic body, and compel 
 even the dullards either to rouse themselves to ac- 
 tivity or betake themselves to occupations in which 
 less intellectual exertion is required. 
 
 Of the fraternity spirit and influence in the intel- 
 lectual and moral life of college, most college men 
 now think favorably. The fraternities are usually 
 confederacies for good purposes through good 
 means. The fears entertained by many good men 
 when these fraternities were first established have 
 not been justified, and in most cases the fears have 
 been given up. In the only institution I know of 
 in which fraternities are prohibited, neither the in- 
 tellectual nor the moral tone is conspicuously higher 
 than in institutions where they are permitted. The 
 only serious objection raised against them, so far as 
 I know, is the danger that in every institution there 
 will be some one fraternity which will gather into it 
 the few men of the baser sort and give them a power 
 for evil which they would not otherwise have. But 
 such a fraternity, it would seem, would be likely to 
 have a short and miserable existence in the face of 
 its rivals. 
 
 This brings us to speak briefly of the moral life 
 of the college in and for itself. There are two notions 
 
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S ADDRESS 1 49 
 
 which are so commonly accepted as to be regarded 
 as almost axiomatic, but which will bear a little 
 questioning. One is, that school and college are 
 chargeable with responsibility for the moral char- 
 acter of the pupils ; and the other, that morality can 
 be secured by instruction. Now, the latter is true 
 to a very limited extent. Children and youth are 
 not made good by teaching them what goodness is 
 any more than they are made rich by teaching them 
 the science of wealth. Virtue is not knowledge, — 
 it is not right judgment merely, — it is right desire, 
 right choosing, right will. It is induced in young 
 minds and lives by training, by discipline, by love 
 cooperating with law, by personality communicat- 
 ing itself to personality, life giving itself to life. 
 The two great agencies divinely appointed for doing 
 this are the home and the church. The school and 
 the college cannot do this work if the home and the 
 church leave their part undone. It can supplement 
 their work; it cannot fulfil it. Parents cannot send 
 to college a boy of unsettled or low moral character 
 and expect the college to make a good man of him. 
 In most cases it is too late for that. This is be- 
 coming more and more painfully obvious as the age 
 of entering college has increased. Moral character 
 has already become more or less fixed. The college 
 cannot be turned into a reformatory without lower- 
 ing the moral tone of the whole college community. 
 But, on the other hand, the college has a unique 
 
I50 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 opportunity for maturing and enriching character 
 which has passed through its initial stages success- 
 fully. What the college cannot do, and should not 
 be called on to do, is to make average good men out 
 of weaklings and reprobates. What it can do, and 
 ought always to aim to do, is work of another sort. 
 It has to do with the picked men and women of the 
 community whom society, by a kind of natural selec- 
 tion, has chosen to perform its higher functions. 
 These few the college should aim to bring up to the 
 highest attainable moral standard; to idealize life 
 in them, and through them to elevate the whole 
 community. " What do ye more than others ? " 
 should be felt as a deep reproach by the academic 
 body. Society may fairly say to us, " For what 
 have I given you these special opportunities for 
 self-culture, this seclusion from the humdrum life 
 of the general world, these costly appliances for 
 study; why are so many consecrated gifts bestowed 
 on you; why are you prayed for in so many litanies, 
 — but that you may work out a higher style of 
 living, first for yourself and then for us all } " 
 
 And we have one great and special opportunity 
 for accomplishing this. The great Apostle wrote to 
 his young converts : " I would have you wise unto 
 that which is good and simple concerning evil." 
 The great privilege of college life, as also its great 
 duty, is to be associated ever with that which is 
 highest and best in human thought and human 
 
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S ADDRESS 151 
 
 life; to think with its great thinkers; to think 
 God's thoughts and the thoughts of men most like 
 God, after them ; to master the great truths of his- 
 tory and literature and art and science ; to be sepa- 
 rate for the time from all that is mean and low and 
 petty in human life ; and by familiarity with all that 
 is noble and good to grow into the likeness of that 
 on which the mind and heart do mainly dwell. And 
 I think we may fairly ask the community to sustain 
 us in this high conception of what college member- 
 ship requires of us. You pay us no compliment 
 when you excuse in us what you would condemn in 
 others; when you condone faults in us which would 
 shock you if committed by others. The highest 
 service which a community surrounding a college 
 can render to it is to require as a condition of its 
 respect and loyalty a standard of character in its 
 members distinctly higher than it requires of the 
 average man. 
 
 If I proceed now to say a very few words on relig- 
 ion in college life, it is rather because it will be 
 expected of me than that I hope to give forth much 
 wisdom on the subject. The old monastic idea of 
 college life which charged the college authorities 
 with the religious culture of the students has gone 
 out of date. The college is not now entrusted with 
 the means to accomplish this, and therefore does 
 not undertake it. But the academic body, though 
 no longer a clerical body, is still a religious body, 
 
152 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 because it cannot discharge its high function as 
 a creator of character for public service without 
 including religion as one of the essential elements 
 of character. But it accomplishes this best by co- 
 operating with the Christian Church in the use of 
 those agencies by which it seeks to cultivate relig- 
 ious character. The college gives to these agencies 
 opportunity, encouragement, sympathy, participa- 
 tion. It does not send the student to church to be 
 trained as by a distinct organization ; it takes him 
 by the hand and goes with him, partakes with him 
 in its offices, services, ministrations, beneficences. 
 It is not good for students to get the notion of 
 a religion for them different from the religion of 
 others, — a kind of esoteric religion ; good for 
 scholars, but too fine for men in general. Better 
 that they scatter among the churches and share the 
 life of a common Christian humanity. 
 
 As regards religious services conducted by the 
 college, a great deal of unnecessary and invidious 
 rhetoric has been called forth by what some are 
 pleased to term " compulsory worship," — a term 
 which, divested of its war paint, means simply re- 
 quired attendance at religious exercises, — a prac- 
 tice which students who have come from the homes 
 and churches of New England would never regard 
 as a restraint of liberty if their feelings had not been 
 played upon by those who have no sympathy with 
 any religious exercises. But it may be that the time 
 
PRESIDENT BUCKHAM'S ADDRESS 1 53 
 
 has come for modifying this college function, as we 
 have modified most others, so that we may retain 
 the essential benefit of it in some new forms more 
 in harmony with the spirit of the time. To con- 
 tinue morning chapel as it now is and make attend- 
 ance voluntary, would, in all our smaller colleges, 
 simply end in abolishing it altogether; and very 
 few, surely, desire that. Many of us are hoping that 
 some college will devise and lead the way in estab- 
 lishing some form of religious exercise in which 
 all the academic body. Faculty and students, can 
 heartily join, and thus retain and increase the be- 
 neficent influence of religion upon both the intel- 
 lectual and the moral life of college. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 By president WILLIAM J. TUCKER 
 THE COLLEGE CURRICULUM 
 
 ONE of the first contracts for instruction in 
 Dartmouth College ran as follows; it 
 bears date of November 9, 1777: — 
 
 "An agreement between the Reverend Doctor 
 Eleazar Wheelock, president of Dartmouth Col- 
 lege, and Mr. John Smith, late tutor of the same, 
 with respect to said Mr. Smith's settlement and 
 salary in capacity of professor of the languages 
 in Dartmouth College. 
 
 " Mr. Smith agrees to settle as Professor of Eng- 
 lish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee, etc., in Dart- 
 mouth College, to teach which, and as many of these 
 and other such languages as he shall understand, as 
 the Trustees shall judge necessary and practicable 
 for one man, and also to read lectures on them, as 
 often as the president, tutors, etc., with himself, shall 
 judge profitable for the Seminary. He also agrees, 
 while he can do it consistently with his office as 
 Professor, annually to serve as tutor to a class of 
 students in the College. In consideration of which, 
 154 
 
PRESIDENT TUCKER'S ADDRESS 1 55 
 
 Dr. Wheelock agrees to give him (the said Mr. 
 Smith) one hundred pounds L. My. annually, as a 
 salary to be paid, one-half in money, and the other 
 half in money or in necessary articles for a family." 
 
 I have quoted this early contract, made just be- 
 fore the founding of Middlebury College, to show 
 the utter absence at that time of "questions" touch- 
 ing the college curriculum. Given your professor 
 of languages, with unlimited range, a professor in 
 divinity or philosophy, and a tutor in mathematics, 
 and you had the outfit. The college curriculum 
 remained practically the same far into the present 
 century. 
 
 Senator Hoar, in a recent article on " Harvard 
 College Fifty-eight Years Ago," gives this personal 
 reminiscence : — 
 
 " I do not think Harvard College had changed 
 very much when I entered it on my sixteenth birth- 
 day, in the year 1842, in manners, character of stu- 
 dents or teachers, or the course of instruction, for 
 nearly a century. There were some elementary 
 lectures and recitations in astronomy and mechanics. 
 There was a short course of lectures on chemistry, 
 accompanied by a few experiments. But the stu- 
 dents had no opportunity for laboratory work. 
 There was a delightful course of instruction from 
 Dr. Walker in ethics and metaphysics. There was 
 also some instruction in modern languages, — Ger- 
 man, French, and Italian, — all of very slight value. 
 
156 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 But the substance of the instruction consisted in 
 learning to translate rather easy Latin and Greek, 
 writing Latin, and courses in algebra and geometry 
 not very far advanced." 
 
 If there was anything in education, until within 
 what may be called our own times, absolutely fixed, 
 accepted with unquestioned authority, it was the 
 college curriculum. The college was the acknowl- 
 edged master in the field of the higher education. 
 The schools which ventured beyond the range of 
 elementary instruction were " fitting schools." To- 
 day if there is any one thing in the higher education 
 unfixed, undetermined at every point, it is the col- 
 lege curriculum. Whether you consider the subject- 
 matter of the college discipline, or its arrangement, 
 or its adjustment to that which precedes or which 
 follows after, you are instantly within current 
 discussion. 
 
 In the few moments in which I speak upon this 
 topic I must content myself, and ask you to be con- 
 tent, with the expression of opinion. This is not 
 the time or the place for argument. 
 
 The subject-matter of the college discipline has 
 nearly trebled in volume within our generation 
 through the incoming of the sciences with the sci- 
 entific method, and through the incoming of the 
 new humanities based on history, with its applica- 
 tion to economics, politics, and sociology, and upon 
 the modern languages and literatures. The marvel 
 
PRESIDENT TUCKER'S ADDRESS 1 57 
 
 of this great increase has been the naturalness of 
 the process. The new learning has come in by the 
 way of hospitality. The old learning has played 
 the host with generosity, often to the degree of 
 sacrifice. 
 
 There have been, however, two difficulties attend- 
 ing this incoming of the new subject-matter into the 
 college curriculum. The first difficulty has been 
 that of securing preparation for it in the secondary 
 schools equal to the preparation already given for 
 the old subject-matter. A part of this difficulty will 
 pass away with time. The modern languages can 
 be taught, and will be taught, with more and more 
 regard to their academic value, though I doubt if 
 they can ever become in this stage the full equiva- 
 lent of the ancient classics. French is the language 
 of style. No language admits of finer discrimina- 
 tions. But the sense of style comes late in the 
 process of culture. For the first three years at least, 
 Greek has an inherent advantage over French. The 
 physical sciences, especially physics, are so depend- 
 ent upon mathematics that it is impossible to carry 
 them far beyond the stage of manipulation in the 
 secondary schools. As a rule, a year of college 
 mathematics must precede the thorough study of 
 physics. History, too, when pursued by a scientific 
 method, is a study of maturity. One may learn 
 dates and become familiar with historic men and 
 events at an early period. But the judgment of 
 
158 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 men or of events, the tracing of results to their 
 causes, the study of origins, — all these are quite 
 distinct from the early ventures of the imagination 
 and the memory into the domain of history. The 
 hesitancy in putting the stamp of equality upon the 
 new subject-matter is due in part to the difficulty of 
 guaranteeing the method of entrance into the col- 
 lege curriculum. 
 
 The second difficulty lies in the tendency to di- 
 vert the study of the sciences to the ends of utility. 
 Utility is the long and the high end of a vast deal of 
 the best study. I find myself in full accord with the 
 paper presented by President Murkland, — a paper 
 of such insight and comprehensiveness as an 
 academic audience has seldom the good fortune to 
 hear. It has been the standing boast of Balliol Col- 
 lege for years that through its discipline in the 
 classics, mathematics, and philosophy, it made the 
 rulers of India. But it is quite possible to hurry 
 away after the American fashion into practicality. 
 The sciences seem to open the easy road. The new 
 subject-matter can be used prematurely to that end 
 as the old cannot be. But there is no necessity for 
 this use of it. I affirm its higher use. I put it on 
 a growing equality with the old in all that consti- 
 tutes the training of a broadly educated man. I can 
 no more conceive of an educated man of to-day as 
 devoid of the scientific spirit, or as ignorant of 
 the methods and results of the natural and physical 
 
PRESIDENT TUCKER'S ADDRESS 1 59 
 
 sciences, than I can conceive of him as devoid of the 
 spirit of the common humanity, or as ignorant of 
 the great historic forces which have been at work 
 in the life of men or of nations. There is a habit 
 of mind born of the scientific spirit which is neces- 
 sary to utility, but which is not of it. " There is 
 nothing so prolific," President Gilman of Johns 
 Hopkins has said, *' There is nothing so prolific in 
 utilities as abstractions." Or to quote the more 
 spirited words of Cuvier: — 
 
 " These grand practical innovations are only the 
 easy applications of truths of a superior order, not 
 sought with a practical intent, truths which their 
 authors have pursued for their own sake, impelled 
 solely by an ardor for knowledge. Those who put 
 them in practice could not have discovered them ; 
 those who have discovered them had neither the 
 time nor the inclination to pursue them to a practi- 
 cal result. Absorbed in the higher regions whither 
 their contemplations had carried them, they had 
 hardly perceived this movement, and these crea- 
 tions, though born of their own words. These ris- 
 ing workshops, these people's colonies, these vessels 
 which furrov/ the seas, this abundance, this luxury, 
 this turmoil, all this comes from discoverers in 
 science, and all this remains strange to them. 
 The day that a doctrine comes into practice they 
 abandon it to the populace; it concerns them no 
 more. " 
 
l6o MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 I have no time to speak of the introduction of 
 what I have termed the new humanities into the 
 college curriculum, further than to say that they have 
 brought in the element of moral sensitiveness. They 
 are not opposed to the scientific method or spirit, 
 but they give what science does not possess, — the 
 sense of the human. 
 
 The only academic question growing out of the 
 difficulties to which I have referred is in regard to 
 degrees. Is the subject-matter of the college curricu- 
 lum of to-day sufficiently homogeneous to warrant 
 a single degree ; or must we continue to discrimi- 
 nate against the new subject-matter through new 
 degrees? Different colleges would doubtless give 
 different answers, according to their requirements 
 for admission, according to their facilities for work, 
 according to their traditions and aims, if an immedi- 
 ate answer were called for, but I think that we are 
 fast approaching a consensus of opinion on this 
 question. I believe that the time is not far distant 
 when a single degree will satisfy the work which 
 can be legitimately carried on under the college 
 curriculum. 
 
 The arrangement of the college curriculum under 
 the vast influx of new material must inevitably be a 
 more serious matter than the admission of the mate- 
 rial. Practically it involves the principle of electives. 
 By no possibility can all the subjects of the curricu- 
 lum be made subjects of study with any attempt at 
 
PRESIDENT TUCKER'S ADDRESS l6l 
 
 thoroughness. There are three methods of carrying 
 out the necessary process of exclusion ; first by such 
 choice previous to entering college as will reduce 
 the number of subjects which can be taken. Prep- 
 aration for college may be such that one will be 
 shut up to a given course in college. Second, so 
 many subjects may be required, and for so long a 
 period, that comparatively few can be elected for 
 continuous and advanced study. Third, when the 
 election is apparently free, subjects may be so clas- 
 sified and grouped that the choice is practically 
 conditioned. 
 
 The principle of election or rejection is so neces- 
 sary a part of the present educational system that 
 the only question really is, By whom shall the elec- 
 tion or rejection be made, — by the college authori- 
 ties, treating all alike, by departments naturally 
 related for support, or by the individual student with 
 or without advice ? I am quite sure that the tend- 
 ency is toward some determination of choice rather 
 than away from it. When unlimited freedom ap- 
 pears upon the surface there are usually undercur- 
 rents which set in definite directions. We are all 
 agreed that a college education must have two char- 
 acteristics, a reasonable breadth and thoroughness. 
 A man is not liberally educated who knows but one 
 thing, however well he may know it, neither is he 
 liberally educated who knows many things without 
 a definite and certain knowledge. Neither a narrow 
 
1 62 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 nor a desultory course means going through college. 
 I am disposed to think that we ought to take the 
 risks of breadth in view of the fact that the profes- 
 sional study which follows allows little or no choice. 
 I am further inclined to the use of the elective prin- 
 ciple up to the point of its moral advantage. I have 
 seen too many men saved intellectually and morally 
 through the working of the principle to ignore or 
 distrust its moral power. As I have elsewhere said, 
 it is the great intellectual appeal which the college 
 can make to the individual. 
 
 The adjustment of the college curriculum to that 
 which goes before and to that which follows after has 
 suddenly become the most practical question before 
 us. It takes the form, — Shall the college course be 
 shortened to three years ? The question must be 
 answered, I take it, not upon sentimental but upon 
 educational grounds; but let us understand the ques- 
 tion. If it means that some men can do and ought 
 to be allowed to do in three years what other men 
 can do only in four years, very good. This means 
 simply the arrangement of the college curriculum by 
 courses instead of by years. When this is practica- 
 ble so far as the teaching force is concerned, and the 
 health of the student will allow, there is every reason 
 for the change. If it means that some high schools 
 and academies can place their students in sopho- 
 more year as well fitted as the majority of schools 
 can place their students in freshman year, very 
 
PRESIDENT TUCKER'S ADDRESS 1 63 
 
 good. The example of such schools is a stimulus 
 and incentive to high scholarship. If it means that 
 subjects ought to be introduced into the senior year 
 which will enable the graduate to make closer con- 
 nection with the professional school, very good. I 
 think that many of our colleges ought to have bet- 
 ter terminal facilities. There are many subjects 
 which can be counted as either academic or profes- 
 sional. Let them have place in the college curric- 
 ulum. But if the question means the absolute 
 shortening of the college curriculum by a year at 
 the beginning or at the end, then I protest against 
 the reduction on educational grounds. The reduc- 
 tion cannot be called for in the interest of the higher 
 education, but rather in the interest of some substi- 
 tutes for the college within the range of the higher 
 education. The substitutes offered are the high 
 school and the university. The time saved must 
 go to one or the other, with the ultimate liability or 
 expectation that the whole time occupied by the 
 college will be divided between the two. My objec- 
 tion to the proposed transfer of time lies in the fact 
 that the substitutes offered are not substitutes. The 
 high school is local, the university is special. The 
 college in spirit, in aim, and in fact is national. It 
 brings together men of many types of mind. It edu- 
 cates in part through its constituency. It creates 
 the conditions for the best action of mind upon 
 mind. It enlarges the individual environment 
 
1 64 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 And as related to the university the college stands, 
 for maturity before specialization. It demands 
 breadth as well as intensity of interest. It antici- 
 pates those interests which lie outside professional 
 life within the wide field of citizenship. If I say 
 that it has primary regard for the development of 
 the man himself, I am not uttering educational cant, 
 but only the very truth upon which we all insist 
 when we are not pleading for some kind of special- 
 ism. The college is to-day the chief bulwark against 
 the American spirit of impatience. There is danger 
 that the university, as it is beginning to be adminis- 
 tered, will foster that spirit. I am convinced that 
 there is an educational value in the college idea 
 which we cannot afford to lose out of our educa- 
 tional system. There are and can be no substitutes 
 for it, nor, as I believe, any equivalents for it. The 
 American college embodies and preserves the best 
 traditions we have coming down to us from church 
 and state ; and it meets the demands of the present 
 both for defense and for advance. It represents the 
 educational privilege of an increasing number to 
 whom the college degree is the final degree. It gives 
 vitality, breadth, freedom, and, as I believe, intellec- 
 tual security, to the educational training of the peo- 
 ple. We cannot afford to consider the abridgment 
 of its power. 
 
 I am in favor of every reasonable adjustment of 
 the college curriculum to all other parts of the edu- 
 
PRESIDENT TUCKER'S ADDRESS 1 65 
 
 cational system, but I would yield nothing which 
 would affect its substantial integrity. 
 
 Mr. President and Men of Middlebury, — As I 
 bring greetings to you personally, I pay tribute to 
 your work. I give you the word not only of affec- 
 tion and of honor, but of gratitude. The hundred 
 years of your history is cause for profound and 
 far-reaching thankfulness. The men of noble dis- 
 tinction, of high and permanent influence, whom you 
 have sent out over the whole world, endorse and per- 
 petuate the discipline which you represent. May 
 the years and centuries before you bring in their 
 own growth and expansion, and make their own 
 adjustment to the demands of education, but through 
 all changes and in the midst of all enlargements may 
 you keep your honorable identity. 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS 
 ARPINATIS 
 
 THE dramatization of certain events in the 
 momentous times of Cicero and his col- 
 leagues in the government, offered by the 
 Middlebury students on the evening of Wednesday, 
 July 4, the Educational Day of centennial week, was 
 not a new feature in the scholastic life of the College. 
 On the contrary, the presentation was the culmina- 
 tion of three years of effort to reproduce, vjith some 
 accuracy, not only the sounds of the Latin tongue 
 in actual speech of men and women, but also the 
 environment of scene and background belonging to 
 life in the old Roman city. Without this previous 
 experience it is improbable that the elaborate at- 
 tempt would have been made on so important an 
 occasion. The story of the beginnings of dramatic 
 venture in this field, the first guesses at costuming, 
 the cutting and recutting of various material in the 
 trial for the right fabric, the making of musical in- 
 struments and stage furniture, the search for a com- 
 petent artist to paint the large amount of scenery 
 necessary, would fill a volume, and but the briefest 
 record may here be given. 
 i66 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS ARPINATIS 1 67 
 
 The Class of 1900 were asked to read antipho- 
 nally an ode of Horace in illustration of the rhythm 
 and cadence of Latin poetry, before a convention 
 of Latin teachers to be held at the College on 
 March 8, 1898. The practice of this reading in 
 the class-room led to the question of a musical ren- 
 dering. When this had been attempted, and decided 
 to be not too venturesome, the need of some imita- 
 tion of the ancient accompaniment of pipes was too 
 obvious to be neglected, and there followed the trial 
 of various instruments until those were found which 
 seemed to give the true effect. Each successive 
 rehearsal now encouraged the participants to believe 
 that they were imitating, a little more closely than 
 before, chorus singing not entirely unlike that to 
 which Cicero or Horace may often have listened. 
 As the work went on, there grew, not unnaturally, 
 a feeling for accuracy in all details of the venture, 
 for venture it still seemed. Nor is it strange that, 
 having advanced thus far toward the ideal, there 
 should now be regret at the presence of an in- 
 harmonious feature, namely, the modern garments 
 which they wore, and which were characterized by 
 the members as an anachronism and out of tune 
 with the musical effect that they were trying to 
 produce. Although the suggestion of tunica and 
 toga was too bold a solution of the difficulty to meet 
 with entire favor at the outset, a few of the number 
 began to experiment with drapery. The not un- 
 
1 68 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 graceful results of even the first attempts were too 
 fascinating to be abandoned. Little by little, when 
 a number of trials showed more or less success in 
 making and wearing the garments, and the cos- 
 tumes assumed more and more the look and fold 
 of tunica and toga, the doubtful ones were per- 
 suaded, until at last the entire chorus committed 
 itself to this final cast. The donning of Caius's 
 toga and Caia's tunica seemed to complete the 
 illusion ; and when, after repeated changes of score 
 and costume, the evening of the rendering had at 
 last come, the forgetfulness of self and of the audi- 
 ence, in sympathy with the ancient role assumed 
 was so genuinely felt and so clearly shown as to 
 impress the audience with remarkable power. 
 
 At a second meeting of the Latin teachers, one 
 year later, a bolder design was formed. The Latin 
 department arranged a drama of certain events in 
 the life of Cicero which centered about the con- 
 spiracy of Catiline, basing the text upon the letters 
 and orations of Cicero and the histories of Sallust 
 and Plutarch. It was, of course, venturesome to 
 assign to the eloquent consul, and to others, expres- 
 sions which they may never have used. Yet the 
 utmost care was taken, in connecting the well- 
 known passages from the various authors, that there 
 should be no sentiments assigned to the speaker 
 other than those which he was known from actual 
 history to have uttered. 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS ARPINATIS 169 
 
 Since no room in any of the college buildings 
 was of sufficient size, or suited in other ways, for the 
 production of the drama, it was necessary to secure 
 the town hall. Here, again, difficulty arose be- 
 cause of the limited accommodations for the actors. 
 But a skilful hand was found to temporarily enlarge 
 and adapt the stage to new requirements, though 
 this lessened the seating capacity of the room. Nor 
 were there in the stage furnishings fixtures which 
 could be used in this Roman setting. Tables, curule 
 chairs, lamps, altars, and other accessories must all 
 be made for the occasion, and as there were no pat- 
 terns available, much time and labor were neces- 
 sarily required to produce all that was demanded by 
 the presentation. 
 
 A more serious question was the scenery. Here 
 the College was fortunate beyond all expectation. 
 Mr. Charles Witham, whose unrivaled paintings 
 for the Roman plays of Booth and Barrett had 
 given fame years since, was persuaded to visit Mid- 
 dlebury to consider the possibilities of the stage, 
 and to offer judgment regarding the paintings 
 needful. After careful estimate, although his ser- 
 vices were in continual demand in larger fields, he 
 was influenced to undertake the labor of the deco- 
 ration. Though unable to show fully his wonderful 
 skill under the limitations of the hall, he generously 
 contributed more of his time and talent than could 
 have been expected, that he might fully harmonize 
 
I70 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 the scenic effects with the needs of the production. 
 To him is due much of the success of the entertain- 
 ment. Since the language spoken was strange to 
 many in the audience, plainly no inconsiderable 
 part of the effect must be supplied by the scenery. 
 The magic of Mr. Witham's brush seemed to defy 
 all limit as he wrought out upon the canvas temple, 
 column, atrium, and street. The amazement of 
 the audience, as the parting curtains revealed the 
 temple of Jupiter, the Forum, and the brilliant 
 house interior, was not the least interesting feature 
 of the evening's entertainment. The delusion of the 
 perspective was so great in some instances that it 
 seemed impossible that the stage had not been 
 extended beyond the limit of the building. The 
 remarkable sympathy of the actors with the parts 
 which they had assumed, the graceful costumes, and 
 the perspective in the various scenes, caused the 
 Latin teachers to feel that the representation was 
 of great educational value in thus vividly portraying 
 the life and ways of ancient Rome. 
 
 The entire arrangement of parts had been dis- 
 tributed among sixty-five students, and occupied in 
 the rendering nearly three hours. The employ- 
 ment of so many in rehearsals and upon special 
 committees was necessarily something of a hin- 
 drance to other departments of the college work. 
 Yet not only did the various members of the Fac- 
 ulty freely overlook whatever embarrassment arose 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS ARPINATIS 171 
 
 from this cause, but some gave unsparingly of their 
 time that the essay might bring honor to the Col- 
 lege. The drilling of the choruses and assistance 
 in the making of the libretto which was published 
 in connection with the drama were instances of 
 this generous service. To the encouragement and 
 financial aid of the senior member of the Board of 
 Trustees, Governor John W. Stewart, was due the 
 possibility of much elaboration in the details which 
 otherwise must have been omitted. 
 
 The vote of the Trustees, at their meeting in June, 
 1899, ^^^t th^ drama should be repeated during the 
 centennial exercises, brought the Latin department 
 face to face with a number of serious problems. Two 
 seemed difficult of adjustment. First, so many and 
 imperative are the demands of the commencement 
 season, particularly in the case of a graduating class, 
 that great embarrassment would be experienced in 
 trying to secure the cooperation of the students. 
 If the obligations were burdensome at the usual 
 Commencement, it was feared that, at the impor- 
 tant anniversary approaching, the part assigned the 
 undergraduates might be too great for fulfilment. 
 The result showed that the apprehension was not 
 needlessly entertained. Another difficult question 
 was the place of presentation. The necessity of a 
 specially erected building for the drama was early 
 recognized by those most interested in the under- 
 taking, but so many were the duties crowding 
 
172 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 upon the department, that there naturally was hesi- 
 tation to add a feature involving so much additional 
 thought and expense. Late in the year — too late 
 for the most successful completion — the need of 
 such a building was seen to be imperative if ade- 
 quate accommodations were to be provided. A 
 larger stage than the limited one in the hall used in 
 the previous year was also desirable to perfect the 
 dramatization. 
 
 The proportions of the Centennial Building — for 
 such was the name given to this improvised theatre 
 — were a fortunate guess, rather than measurements 
 from any other structure. The dimensions were one 
 hundred and forty-five feet by sixty, and the floor 
 space within was divided laterally into an audience 
 room of eighty feet, a stage of thirty feet, and dress- 
 ing rooms, in the rear, of thirty-five feet. The height 
 was twenty and one-half feet to the eaves and thirty 
 to the ridge. The roof was of a single span in order 
 that no obstacle of even the slightest nature might 
 be interposed to the view. Every precaution was 
 taken to secure the safety of the audience. The 
 floor was doubly strengthened, and emergency doors 
 were cut at the middle of each side, while four large 
 doors for entrance and exit opened upon a generous 
 porch at the front. About nine hundred sittings 
 were provided, but at the last, as the accommoda- 
 tion was seen to be insufficient, a gallery was con- 
 structed across the front of the building which would 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS ARPINATIS 173 
 
 seat one hundred and twenty more. Even with this 
 addition, every seat was sold before July 4, and the 
 committee were reluctantly obliged to return unful- 
 filled the late orders for tickets. A unique feature 
 of the audience room was an inclined floor so sup- 
 ported that it could be brought to a horizontal 
 without interference with other parts of the build- 
 ing. Through this device the floor was leveled by 
 morning and in readiness for the luncheon of the 
 Centennial Day. The roughness of the exterior 
 was somewhat concealed by hangings of bunting, 
 while the interior was beautifully decorated with soft 
 Pompeian browns and blues in harmony with the 
 paintings and curtains of the stage. 
 
 It was a matter greatly to be regretted that the 
 delay of the contractor in completing the building 
 should interfere with the rehearsals of the few weeks 
 immediately preceding the presentation; but the 
 patience and loyalty of the students overcame even 
 this, the most serious of all hindrances that threat- 
 ened at times to seriously mar the success which 
 had been hoped. All the rehearsals took place on 
 an unfinished stage, with scaffolding, half-colored 
 canvas, lumber of all description, and carpenters' 
 equipment scattered in utmost confusion, while the 
 directions of the painter and the hammering of the 
 laborers wearied and discouraged the actors. 
 
 By the greatest good fortune, the member of the 
 Faculty in charge of the music of the Centennial 
 
174 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 possessed unfailing patience, and, in spite of every 
 hindrance, led the chorus singing to a harmonious 
 end, almost bringing the hammer strokes of the car- 
 penters into unison beats with the antique measures. 
 Nor was there less good fortune in the use of the 
 former skilful hand, at whose inventive touch the 
 continually arising difficulties of stage arrange- 
 ment disappeared. Yet, in spite of every effort, 
 Wednesday evening overtook the drama still in 
 the throes of preparation. No brief reference 
 can convey an adequate picture of the confused 
 condition of the undertaking even to the opening 
 of the doors. 
 
 The evening was fair. Long before eight o'clock 
 a continuous line of carriages crowded the roadway 
 to the entrances, and by a few minutes past the 
 hour the largest audience that ever gathered under 
 a roof in Middlebury had found seats in the com- 
 fortable chairs provided. 
 
 The first scene was devised to serve as a fitting 
 introduction to all that followed. In the dimly 
 lighted nave of a temple, whose pillars faded far 
 into the darkness, stood a statue of Apollo, while 
 there solemnly advanced in the half light a score of 
 suppliants chanting the Greek words of one of the 
 old invocation hymns. The music swelled through 
 gentle supplication to more earnest prayer to the 
 gods, and then died away in lingering and plaintive 
 appeal. 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS ARPINATIS 1 75 
 
 Practised helpers swiftly readjusted the stage when 
 the curtains had shut out the stately processional, 
 and there then appeared a representation of the 
 interior of the temple of Jupiter Stator, arranged 
 as a meeting place for the Roman senate. In the 
 apse of a temple which seemed to reach away in- 
 definitely in receding columns beyond the marble 
 seats, and which was by some regarded as the 
 masterpiece of all the artist's work, there stood 
 the imposing form of the god. The scene when 
 the senators file into their seats, then rise as Cicero 
 appears, while from a side aisle Catiline also ad- 
 vances to his place, made one wonder momentarily 
 whether these stately moving forms in classic dra- 
 pery were not the real rulers of the world by some 
 chance revivified for a brief hour. The passing over 
 of the senators, the startled looks which are turned to 
 Cicero, who, in composure and yet in wrath, regards 
 his defiant adversary, the bursting forth of the fire 
 of invective no longer able to be controlled, in that 
 masterpiece of oratory which has thrilled so many 
 students of Cicero in the years which have since 
 come and gone, lacked in the presentation nothing 
 which the actors were able to supply. As the words 
 of their chief ring out in accusation, the senators, 
 that they may play well their part, pretend, in face 
 and in gesture, amazement and fear; but as pres- 
 ently the passion of the charge burns to the soul of 
 the now cringing conspirator, both players and au- 
 
176 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 dience forget that the action is but feigned. Rarely 
 can it have happened that one speaking Cicero's 
 words after him has so interpreted his thought to 
 others as did the impersonator in this evening's 
 drama. It is an interesting fact, and not un- 
 worthy of being here recorded, that during the 
 progress of the rehearsals, the magnitude of this 
 part, and the reality of the transfer to a Roman 
 world and time, at first almost prevented, though 
 it finally inspired, the action. The absolute loss 
 of self in invective, in entreaty, in dignified argu- 
 ment, in the lighter tone of the home scenes, in 
 solemn appeal to the gods, was everywhere a remark- 
 able achievement, and plainly unattainable to one 
 who had not by much study entered deeply into the 
 life and spirit of the consul. 
 
 As the great orator finished with words of 
 appeal to the deity sitting majestically above the 
 assembly, Catiline, who had now shown, now re- 
 pressed, the emotions having play within him, dis- 
 sembling humility and injury in both speech and 
 attitude, rose to make defence. His words — 
 they are written in Sallust — were few before some 
 of the senators cry, "parricida," "prodltor," and 
 "impietas." Wilder and wilder grows the scene, 
 until, in a final outburst, a threat of vengeance, 
 the haughty nobleman flings himself from the 
 assembly now ringing with the angry interruptions 
 of his colleag:ues. 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS ARPINATIS 1 77 
 
 The citizens pass to and fro with banter and jest, 
 in the next scene, until the consul appears to for- 
 mally announce the flight of Catiline. The place 
 is, of course, the Forum. The background used was 
 an adaptation of Bauernfeld's painting, which looks 
 up the Via Sacra, past the shrine of Castor and 
 Pollux and the Basilica to the temples of Saturn 
 and Concord, with the arx of the Capitoline showing 
 in the distance. It seemed to extend to impossible 
 limits, not only because of the perspective, but by 
 reason of ingenious lighting. 
 
 There now followed the longest scene of the 
 drama, the trial of the conspirators, and the one 
 which best illustrated the troublous times through 
 which the consul was endeavoring to lead the state. 
 The rolling of the curtains shows the senators com- 
 ing through the aisles and passages to their seats in 
 the temple of Concord. After vows to the gods, 
 under the direction of the pontifex maximus, at the 
 altar, from which the smoke of incense rises, Cicero 
 lays briefly before the senate the story of the arrest 
 of the conspirators at the Mulvian bridge on the 
 previous night. Volturcius, who it is hoped will 
 turn state's evidence, is brought in. With most 
 admirable skill the consul seeks to draw from the 
 unwilling man the details of the plot. It is a des- 
 perate venture and hope. Not only is the conspir- 
 ator on trial, but as well the " novus homo," before 
 his critical and haughty colleagues, many of whom, 
 
178 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 through various motives, would be gratified should 
 the evidence be insufficient to prove the case. If 
 the consul fails to convince the majority of the 
 still doubting nobility, his little prestige is lost and 
 his dearly bought power gone. Skilfully does he 
 attack and powerfully plead with the wary con- 
 spirator. At first the issue seems doubtful, but 
 the torrential words, now fierce-edged with sarcasm, 
 now persuasive of loyalty, are at least irresistible; 
 they compel compliance, and the consul turns in a 
 burst of triumph to the circle and reads in their 
 faces that he has won. 
 
 But the victory is not yet complete. Cicero 
 well knows that the evidence is still too slight 
 to break an opposition so powerful, and the ex- 
 amination proceeds, though the tone of the charge 
 is changed in surety of the outcome. The two 
 Gallic chiefs enter and tell their story. Cethegus, 
 introduced, at first makes light of the accusation, 
 then storms defiance and denial until silenced 
 by the reading of an intercepted letter. Statilius 
 and Gabinius are easier marks. The climax of 
 the scene is the introduction of Lentulus, the 
 praetor, in the rich robe of his office. The sena- 
 tors start from their seats in amazement It was 
 evident that their consul was playing at a desperate 
 game. Plain, too, was it that he would win or lose 
 all with the success or failure of this final thrust in 
 the conflict with a dissolute nobility. Lentulus, 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS ARPINATIS 1 79 
 
 haughty with dignity and with contempt for the 
 proceedings, is yet forced to acknowledge the seal 
 of an unopened letter addressed to the Gallic chiefs. 
 Flaccus, his colleague in office, breaks the wax and 
 reads the fatal words of betrayal of trust. The mag- 
 nificent power of the consul is seen in the eloquence 
 which slowly breaks down the haughty defiance of 
 the nobleman. From pride he is driven to anger, 
 from anger to embarrassment, then to confusion 
 and falsification, until at last, in the very abjectness 
 of shame, he confesses his guilt. Then follows the 
 solemn ceremony of putting off the robe of state 
 that impiety may not be shown in the punishment 
 of one made sacred in person because of his office. 
 In the hush which has fallen upon actors and audi- 
 ence alike, Silenus, the consul elect, moves that a 
 thanksgiving be offered the immortal gods because 
 of the deliverance of the city and the citizens from 
 the threatened danger. 
 
 After a brief scene showing Cicero in his home, 
 the senate is again disclosed in deliberation. What 
 punishment shall befall the conspirators .^^ Caesar 
 and Cato lead the opposite opinions, but the division 
 of the house, made as the curtains roll together, 
 shows that the majority are with Cato for the pen- 
 alty of death. 
 
 The days of the consulship of Cicero are now 
 over. Again the Forum is filled with moving forms. 
 Flaccus, the praetor, and a number of citizens discuss 
 
l8o MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 the rumor that Cicero is to be prevented from publicly 
 recounting his official acts. The rumor is not un- 
 founded. As the consul appears and begins his 
 address to the people, the tribune Marcellus formally 
 forbids the justification of his year of leadership. 
 He may not disobey. But he makes the recourse 
 allowed him as powerful as an oration. In the 
 silence that falls on the patricians and plebeians be- 
 fore him he solemnly makes oath that he has saved 
 the state. But the shadow of exile is falling. 
 
 Once more, a few scenes later, he appears, but 
 now in triumph. It was thought not unfitting that 
 the last sight of the consul should be in illustration 
 of his own words, " When they had made known to 
 me their congratulation in loudest cheers, with 
 thronging and with shouts they attended me even to 
 the Capitoline, and both in the Forum and on the 
 Capitoline itself there was an astounding multitude." 
 
 The heavier parts of the drama were alternated 
 by Forum and house views in which, against the 
 brilliantly colored hangings, the drapery of the 
 moving figures was peculiarly effective. Of all these 
 eleven scenes, it is not easy to say with which the 
 audience were most pleased. The admirable imper- 
 sonation of Terentia and Tullia in the home of 
 Quintus Cicero and Pomponia, when there seemed 
 to return to us the real Romans of the Letters in 
 the stateliness and grace with which in thought we 
 clothe them, or that glimpse of Cicero's house, with 
 
TEMPORIBUS HOMINIS ARPINATIS l8l 
 
 the singing of Publilia to soothe the wearied consul 
 after the fatigue of the trial, proved, to some, the 
 most typically Roman scenes ; to, others, the Vestals 
 formed the most beautiful grouping of the evening ; 
 some were particularly pleased with the choruses at 
 the close ; while others, again, preferred the strong 
 forensic element, rather than the lighter scenes, or 
 foils, however brilliant they may have been. 
 
 In this drama of Roman life, as in the two presen- 
 tations out of which it grew, there was made promi- 
 nent in every feature the thought that the portrayal 
 must be accurate, whatever the toil involved. The 
 end must be educational rather than entertaining. 
 Happily the former aim, in nearly all of the details, 
 insured the latter result. But it continually hap- 
 pened, particularly in the selection and arrangement 
 of individual costumes, that many fell by the way 
 into the temptation to adapt some small detail — it 
 might be the cut of a sandal or a cunningly devised 
 fold of the palla — according to some preconceived 
 idea, or a sense of what was personally becoming, 
 rather than to the exact pattern of some classic model. 
 Yet, whenever inaccuracy was pointed out, the schol- 
 arly enthusiasm of the participants always led them 
 to the rejection of every gloss and false effect. It was, 
 therefore, gratifying that there were present so large 
 a number of educators from both the school and col- 
 lege field, since it was believed that, notwithstanding 
 the impossibility of adequate rehearsals, and a con- 
 
1 82 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 sequent loss of that last refining touch which is oft- 
 times so effective, the life passing to and fro before 
 this critical audience did not far belie its prototype. 
 The picture, now hurrying, now loitering, across the 
 brilliant background, from the simple toga of a citizen 
 to the elaborate folds that clad the stately Vestalis 
 Maxima, was Roman in all its dignity and beauty. 
 
 To the question whether the end so earnestly 
 sought, a true glimpse of the life under that old 
 civilization which has entered into and moulded all 
 subsequent history, was realized, there came answer 
 in many forms. Words written a few days later by 
 one of the most honored guests are offered — it is 
 hoped not unfairly — as typical of a general impres- 
 sion. " There was no one thing in the entire cen- 
 tennial exercises which made so profound impression 
 on me. The whole thing seemed to be so adapted 
 to the College and to the occasion. For students to 
 take part in such an exercise as that, is worth in the 
 study of Latin, in my judgment, all that I received 
 in my college course." 
 
 To have made real for a few hours that old world 
 of nineteen centuries ago, from which we derive so 
 much that is strong and true in our own domain, 
 was, surely, in the elaborate programme offered by 
 the College at her turning of the years, no unworthy 
 ideal of student contribution. To their scholarly 
 toil and patient, self-denying help belong unstinted 
 honor and praise. 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 
 
 By professor WALTER E. HOWARD 
 
 THE history of humanity is the record of a 
 struggle. The aggregate achievement of 
 mankind is the measure of it. The ulti- 
 mate hope of the race rests in the future, as it has 
 rested since that far time when the haggard earth 
 fled through the midnight of unthinkable space — 
 it rests in the initial impulse of that creative mind 
 which bounded the first day by a rosy dawn and a 
 golden sunset. For before the sunrise God was, 
 after the sunset God will be, — the first Great Cause 
 in that infinite series whose final term is the im- 
 measurable possibilities of the human soul. Educa- 
 tion began with the dawn, and the earth was led out 
 of darkness into light, out of cold and horror into 
 warmth and beauty, out of chaos into order, out of 
 death and despair into love and life. 
 
 A low-browed, lurching creature looking on the 
 ground and muttering with his lips, — brute-eyed, 
 savage, shaggy, with incoherent cries beating the 
 air, snarling at his food, — the savage prototype of 
 him who was to come. A wide-browed man, clear- 
 eyed, clothed, serene, self-poised, doing justice and 
 183 
 
1 84 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 judgment, with wisdom and calm speech, from a 
 written law. And this is the educated grandson of 
 the naked savage with the brutal brow. 
 
 A wilderness untrod, with mountains unclimbed 
 and streams unvexed, a forest primeval, teeming 
 with wild and lawless life, — that was our father's 
 welcome home. A land that blossoms like the 
 rose, — that is the son's inheritance. 
 
 The earth swings on, and Time fills up his over- 
 flowing hands with dropping years. Man, the son 
 of God and heir of all the ages, stands upon the 
 uplands of the world clad with glory and honor. 
 " Thou madest him to have dominion over the 
 works of thy hand, thou hast put all things under 
 his feet." 
 
 The education of humanity that some men call 
 its evolution, is God's thought for man and man's 
 work for God. The part that man, with fear and 
 hope, has wrought in his own salvation, is the 
 greatest glory of the human race. The part the 
 English man has borne in that gigantic conquest 
 of himself is the greatest glory of the English race. 
 But education is more than learning to read, and 
 more than one factor has entered into the evolution 
 of the race. The cloistered monks of Canterbury 
 did their part with pen and page ; the English 
 barons dug liberty into England's soil with battle- 
 axe and sword; the gray old colleges beside the 
 Isis and the Cam poured out their streams of learn- 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 185 
 
 ing to refresh the world ; and grim Cromwell taught 
 freedom of conscience with the headsman's axe. We 
 are heirs of England's law and learning, — children 
 of them that reared Oxford and Cambridge; sons 
 of them who built Westminster Abbey and fill its 
 tombs. But of all the wealth of brawn and brain 
 that we are heir to, there has never been a legacy 
 so rich as the love of learning and the love of books 
 that Young England inherited from Old England 
 three hundred years ago. The men who made New 
 England built it by the Book. Seeking a home 
 in the wilderness, they chose its site fast by the 
 oracles of God ; knowing they had no continuing 
 city, they yet built upon a rock. Lifting their eyes 
 unto Heaven, " their dearest country," they were 
 not unmindful of the true foundation of an earthly 
 state. 
 
 To rightly tell the story of this College, one must 
 also tell the story of the times in which it grew, and 
 the men who made the times. The men who settled 
 this valley and established this College, a hundred 
 years ago, were sons of the Puritans — were Puritans 
 themselves. In the interval between that unfor- 
 gotten, bleak December day when the Mayflower 
 with its cargo of immortals fluttered into Plymouth 
 Bay and the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 many changes had come about. We miss from the 
 men of 1800 much that makes the men of 1600 so 
 unique. The earlier men were the product of their 
 
1 86 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 time. They were stern because life was real. They 
 were solemn because death was sure. They prayed 
 with their backs to the wall that they might meet 
 their enemies face to face. They feared God and 
 Him only. They were reserved because they had 
 been set apart. They were just because Justice is 
 an attribute of God. They were unemotional 
 because they had no nerves. They were honest 
 because they hated a lie. 
 
 The men of 1800 inherited their fathers' virtues 
 and acquired some for themselves. Conditions had 
 changed — character stood fast. The old world 
 had slipped away. The new world was the only 
 world these later Puritans had ever known. These 
 men had never felt the shadow of a King fall on 
 them as they prayed. They had not cut the leaves 
 of their Bible with a sword. They had not been 
 born under a leaden sky or in an iron age. They 
 had seen the glory of a sunrise in a new world. The 
 trackless forests, the majestic mountains, and the 
 rolling streams not only broadened their minds with 
 lessons of wonderful opportunity in their present 
 lives, but stimulated their imaginations with visions 
 of matchless possibilities in the years to come. The 
 grim severity of the older Puritans had borne in 
 them the sweeter fruitage of a calm and sober life, 
 and yet at no expense of taste or fibre. The times 
 had not yet set themselves to the easy life that saps 
 vigor and rots manhood. The Puritans of a hun- 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 187 
 
 dred years ago had themselves felt the weariness of 
 great tasks and the exaltation of great victories of 
 peace and war. To grapple with savage nature, to 
 subdue the forests, and to grub the fields, to wrestle 
 with the oak and throw him, — that was the work 
 these later Puritans had to do in this new New 
 England. And they did it well. No servile race 
 was here to do their bidding, but all alone, father 
 and stalwart sons, in sweat and grime, subdued the 
 crocky fields, and laid the sleepers of both home and 
 state. Their hands grew large and wholesome, their 
 joints big and ugly, for their work was hard and 
 endless ; but they also lifted hands of faith to 
 Heaven. We reap the fruit of their toil and sacri- 
 fice, but let it not be said with thankless hearts or 
 grudging words. 
 
 Nor was this all. These, too, had been embat- 
 tled farmers and the hands that swung the sickle had 
 also held the reaping hook of war. Ticonderoga 
 was just three weeks from Lexington, and Hubbard- 
 4:on and Bennington and Saratoga had proved the 
 valor of simple farmers fighting for their homes. 
 The trying times before and after the Revolution, 
 when Vermont was mistress of herself alone, and the 
 men of Vermont were learning the lessons of self- 
 government in the school of a wilderness, developed 
 in the men of this valley a strength of character and 
 a force of will and self-reliance that have never been 
 surpassed. And they had not outgrown the Bible. 
 
1 88 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 Before the sunrise God was, after the sunset God 
 would be, — and upon that rock they built a church 
 that the gates of hell shall not prevail against; 
 and upon that rock they reared a state that shall 
 endure till men forget. 
 
 The belief in a real God, — not an intellectual 
 abstraction, — a God that saw their toll and heard 
 their prayers, a God that loved good and hated 
 sin, a God that in the beginning created the 
 heaven and the earth and had never abdicated nor 
 been dethroned, a God that ruled the world and 
 was yet a very present help in time of trouble, — the 
 belief in God was as strong and unswerving in the 
 men of 1800 as in the men who died at Smithfield, 
 fought at Naseby, or knelt on Plymouth Rock. 
 They had not learned the value of the higher criti- 
 cism. They had not found out that Genesis is a 
 fable and Job a myth. They had not discovered 
 that the Bible is but a compilation of moral les- 
 sons. To them it was the Holy Bible and the very 
 word of God. They believed the Bible and believed 
 in it. They lived by its precepts and they died in 
 its hope. They beheved in something besides a 
 mere negation, and they believed it with all their 
 hearts. They were positive, aggressive, masterful, 
 and the leaven of their lives, the spirit of their 
 enterprise, the resolution of their character, and the 
 temper of their courage may be seen to this day, 
 even in men who deny their fathers' God and smile 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 1 89 
 
 at their fathers' faith. Nor was this all. The pio- 
 neers in this wilderness were sons of Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut. Some of them had been nursed 
 upon the lap of those great foster-mothers, Harvard 
 and Yale, and all of them were New England's 
 heirs, — inheritors of those twin New England 
 notions, the schoolhouse and the church. They 
 caught the torch of civilization from the older States 
 and with it drove away the shadow of the woods. 
 They smote the forests, and lo ! a church in every 
 valley, a schoolhouse on every hill. They prized 
 learning for they loved truth. They were not afraid 
 of learning, nor scared of its beauty, nor terrified at 
 its philosophy. Nothing would have pleased them 
 more than to pit the truths of the gospel against 
 the philosophy of the ancient world or the infidelity 
 of the new. They felt no doubt and they knew no 
 fear. Such were the men — sublime in their faith, 
 fearless of heart, stalwart of body, steadfast of soul — 
 who peopled this valley, and a hundred years ago 
 laid the corner-stone of this College in poverty 
 and prayer. We do not know the story of that 
 day's work, — we only know results. Even in such 
 a little time the picture has faded and the words 
 are lost. What hymns they sang, what prayers 
 they prayed, what words of hope and cheer and 
 prophecy they said — with what simple form or hal- 
 lowed ceremony did their work, we cannot tell. 
 But we may well believe that such men at such a 
 
I90 MTDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 time were not forgetful of their duty nor unmindful 
 of their destiny ; and while they built a college for 
 their children, they also built a monument for 
 themselves. 
 
 But whether there be shafts of stone, they shall 
 fail ; whether there be tablets of brass, they shall 
 cease; whether there be mausoleums and monu- 
 ments, they shall vanish away. But charity never 
 faileth ; and when the ostentatious tomb has crum- 
 bled back to dust and betrayed to oblivion even its 
 tenant's name ; when those vain men who hoped to 
 bribe men's memory with marble shafts and granite 
 columns have slipped into sudden and deserved for- 
 getfulness, where is neither thought nor mention ; 
 when they are dead and gone, these simple, modest 
 lovers of their fellow men who have built a college 
 for the young, a hospital for the sick, a home for 
 the poor, even a fountain where a panting dog 
 may drink, — these choice spirits, lovers of all cre- 
 ated life, shall live on immortal, their names en- 
 shrined in the love and memory of long succeeding 
 years. The names of some who founded this Col- 
 lege, and who have given it life, we know, and even 
 as I speak you softly whisper to yourselves their 
 well-remembered names. But not all. Sometimes 
 upon a battle-field grown green in peace, among 
 the monuments to famous troops and the shafts to 
 famous men, the victors carve a simple stone " To 
 the memory of the unknown dead." So here and 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 191 
 
 now, with grateful hearts and fond remembrance, 
 pay we our tribute of love and gratitude to those 
 unknown men and women who, in hardship and 
 poverty and sacrifice, on these hillsides and in these 
 valleys, first earned in weariness and yet in hope, 
 hallowed with their prayers, and gave with their 
 blessing their ungrudging gifts. Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you not one of them is forgotten before God ; 
 let them not be forgotten by us this day — or ever. 
 
 The story of the first half-century in the life of 
 this College has many times been told. It is a 
 wonderful story. I doubt if in the history of New 
 England college life a more wonderful record has 
 been made, or a more wonderful story can be told. 
 The quality of the work done here is measured by 
 the men who were educated in this College during 
 its first fifty years, — judges of supreme courts, 
 bishops mitred and unmitred, scholars and teachers, 
 statesmen and poets. And what was the secret of 
 that success ? First of all, good stuff. The students 
 who came here in that early day were the sons of 
 the men and women I have told you of. They were 
 the heirs of their fathers' sturdy piety and their 
 mothers' sturdy faith. Strength of body, power of 
 mind, loyalty to conscience, — this was their Puritan 
 heritage. These qualities they brought to college 
 when they came, and these qualities, strengthened 
 and not enfeebled, enriched and not starved, devel- 
 oped and not dwarfed, they carried with them when 
 
192 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 they went. And the world of that time, their world 
 and age, knew them and welcomed them into its 
 life and service. One supreme advantage the boys 
 of that time had. They were for the most part poor, 
 and yet their poverty was not of that abject kind 
 companioned with ignorance, weakness of body, 
 feebleness of mind. Their poverty was of that ro- 
 bust, self-respecting, wholesome sort that lashes the 
 lazy, coaxes the irresolute, beckons the ambitious 
 into sweeter fields, to sunnier heights, than any 
 other guide may know. The man who is born to 
 wealth has clearly missed the pleasure of acquisi- 
 tion ; the man who is born great has surely never 
 felt the delight of conquest; the man whose career 
 has been made for him has never felt the exaltation 
 of a man's fight or the charm of a man s victory. 
 To none of these has fate been cruel that she 
 might be kind. Those old boys were, not without 
 exception, but for the most part, poor boys. They 
 came in general from the farm ; they were sons 
 of the soil. They had prepared for college as 
 best they could, — some at school; some said their 
 lessons to the wide-browed village minister, who 
 loved to rub a little brighter his college Latin 
 against the charming ignorance of some brave, 
 uncouth, ambitious boy ; and some literally learned 
 their Greek at the tail of a plough. They saw visions 
 and dreamed dreams. Few books were in their 
 fathers' houses ; but they had read the story of one 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 1 93 
 
 Perfect Life. Few pictures were on their walls; 
 but at sunset, as they stood beside the pasture bars, 
 they had seen the glory in the purple sky. And 
 one would be a lawyer and plead for justice in a 
 poor man's cause; and ^ one would be a statesman 
 and make his country great with wider liberty and 
 purer laws; and one would tell the story of that 
 Perfect Life in darkened lands beyond the sea. 
 "And a boy's will is the wind's will, and the 
 thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." And 
 so he left the old homestead — the parsonage and 
 the farm — with the father's benediction and the 
 mother's smile, with the sister to walk a little way 
 beside him on his road and then turn back again, 
 in homespun suit as warm and ill-fitting as loving 
 hands could make, and came to college. The story 
 of one is the story of many. One man, as famous 
 in his time as any scholar of the classics in the 
 world, and not forgotten yet, one evening topped 
 the Cornwall hills, with just six dollars in his pocket, 
 for a four years' college course. He taught school 
 winters, and took his pay in products of the farm, 
 which in due course of nature he transmuted into 
 second aorists and hexameters. Another, known 
 wherever the poet of the world is read, used to carry 
 his shoes in his hands to the schoolhouse door to 
 save their wear upon the gritty road. 
 
 It was not an easy life. Hard work, coarse food, 
 self-denial, — these may be the things that the hero 
 13 
 
194 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 of the scholars' world is made of, but they are 
 things no more pleasant or agreeable to him than 
 to the idle son of the lavish millionaire ; let no one 
 think it. But some things are dearer than others 
 are hateful. The recompense of the reward is 
 sometimes more attractive than the charms of Pha- 
 raoh's royal court, and commands respect. Such 
 are the compensations of nature: necessity compels 
 labor; but labor gives power, study gives wisdom, 
 practice gives skill. Necessity compels fighting 
 and struggle ; but fighting gives courage, and from 
 struggle comes strength. Necessity compels sacri- 
 fice ; but sacrifice sweetens life. The way is 
 smoother now. The bounty of generous men and 
 the liberality of the State have made a college edu- 
 cation so easy now that it sometimes takes less 
 courage and enterprise to go to college than to stay 
 away. We are such devotees to education in this 
 country, the idea that a liberal education is every 
 boy's due is so ingrain with us, and the belief that 
 it will solve all problems and open all doors is so 
 common, that American benefaction has largely 
 displayed itself in freely opening college doors to 
 all who knock. Scholarships, fellowships, prizes 
 are now so common that no one who has nerve 
 enough to convert a half-formed wish into a lazy 
 resolution need go untaught. But the question 
 may well be asked, if all this ease and lavishness of 
 opportunity does not slack the robust twist of inde- 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 1 95 
 
 pendence, and steal courage and dull ambition and 
 lull the beating heart of youth. But one thing it 
 certainly does. It takes away necessity. It takes 
 away the struggle. It lessens sacrifice. Let us 
 hope that with freedom from struggle comes not 
 also loss of strength, that with relief from sacrifice 
 comes not also lack of force, and that when helped 
 by others the beneficiary does not also forget to 
 help himself, and even nurse ingratitude. 
 
 The raw material in those early days was good — 
 first growth — hard of substance, tough of fibre. 
 What of the workmanship of the first half-century ? 
 The Faculty of that day were skilled workmen. 
 They wrought well. They made their impress upon 
 the minds of the young men who came to them, and 
 that influence is still alive and potent, though the 
 men are dead. Their course of study may seem to 
 us a narrow one, but men are more than courses of 
 study. The right man on the other end of the log 
 makes the college. Rugby without Thomas Arnold 
 would have been an English village up in Warwick- 
 shire. Mark Hopkins was more to Williams Col- 
 lege than all its stone and mortar. It is always diffi- 
 cult to analyze a composite force and to give to each 
 element its fair and exact credit. The students of 
 our first half-century had the advantage of the best 
 heredity that ever produced a man. They were the 
 product of the best blood, the best bone, the best 
 nerve and muscle and sinew, the best brain, heart, 
 
196 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 and conscience that ever yet fell into human form. 
 There may have been men with bluer blood, with 
 softer manners and more polished speech ; there may 
 have been men with as rugged frames, with intellect 
 as keen, with conscience as true and heart as tender 
 as the New England Puritan, but the combination 
 has never been equaled in a whole race of men since 
 the world began. Our first half-century graduates 
 were the sons of this parentage. They had been 
 born in humble surroundings, nurtured in hardship, 
 and reared in the fear and admonition of the Lord. 
 They had been educated in a little college by big 
 men. They had followed a narrow course of study 
 into a broad and generous scholarship. They had 
 grown from boyhood to manhood driven by noble 
 ambitions and led by masterful duty, and they went 
 out into the world with a splendid, all-round equip- 
 ment for the truest and highest personal success and 
 usefulness. They went out with strength and cour- 
 age to achieve success and to do good. These men 
 represented two widely different types of activity, but 
 stood together, not apart, in a common struggle for 
 the commonwealth. In a certain way they repre- 
 sented the church and state. They stood for public 
 service through the gospel and public service through 
 the law. They represented the evangelization of the 
 pulpit and the civilization of the bar, — the law of 
 man and the law of God, — the things that make for 
 righteousness. The time was ripe for great achieve- 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 197 
 
 ment, and the world was broad in opportunity. Old 
 parties were breaking up, and new combinations 
 were forming. The party of Washington and 
 Adams was going, or had gone, to pieces. The 
 young men of that day could easily grasp leadership, 
 and control the newer combinations. It is the young 
 men who form new and permanent parties, and dur- 
 ing the first half of this century two powerful politi- 
 cal organizations were formed, and another was made 
 possible, which exercised tremendous influence in 
 this country, and in turn moulded its destiny. And 
 there were great questions at stake, — questions that 
 thrilled men's hearts and stirred their blood. The 
 last generation had fought for the sublime principle 
 that all men are created equal and have the unalien- 
 able rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
 ness ; that taxation without representation is tyranny. 
 The next generation of young Americans who had 
 learned their lessons of liberty in fireside tales of 
 Bunker Hill and Lexington and Ticonderoga from 
 the very lips of their fighting sires, — these young 
 New Englanders, brave, generous, impulsive, edu- 
 cated in the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the Com- 
 mon Law, went out into the world with a blush on 
 the cheek when they looked at their flag with the 
 bragging lie of freedom in its folds. A nation can- 
 not exist half slave and half free, and the inevitable 
 conflict that began before the century, gave cause 
 grand enough, and opportunity wide enough, for 
 
1 98 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 the youth of New England to show that Runny- 
 mede and Marston Moor, Plymouth Rock and 
 Bunker Hill and Calvary were not forgotten. But 
 New England is not bounded by the narrow rim of 
 her six little States. Her parish also was the world, 
 her forum every place where justice lacked a tongue. 
 New England has been the leaven hid in forty-five 
 measures of meal; not the mother of presidents, but 
 the mother of States. And into the empty West our 
 young men went in that early day. And wherever 
 they planted themselves, there was healthy granula- 
 tion and abundant growth. 
 
 Our first half-century was preeminently an era 
 of the intellect — of the lawyer, the minister, the 
 missionary, and the teacher. The law and the min- 
 istry were early rivals for the professional devotion 
 of men trained to think, and especially in that time 
 when theology took on so much of the legal, logical, 
 and judicial character. Those who chose the law 
 were men who in stainless character and lofty pur- 
 pose were not unworthy of their Puritan parentage. 
 They opened law-offices furnished with a deal table, 
 Blackstone's Commentaries, and the Statutes of the 
 State. They literally laid down the law. They 
 carried to the uncouth bar of the lawless West the 
 common sense of their shrewd New England race — 
 the culture of the school and college, the power of 
 real wisdom, the logic of trained minds, the integrity 
 of the Puritan, the strength of the hills. They 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 1 99 
 
 adorned the bar, they dignified the bench, and in 
 the halls of legislation they bore a conspicuous and 
 honorable part. The organic law of many a West- 
 ern state bears to-day the impress of their forming 
 hands. And so in the country villages of Vermont, 
 in the cities of the East and West — across the 
 Alleghanies, beyond the Mississippi, and on the 
 great plains, they made their way, establishing law 
 and doing equity with clear thought and clean 
 hands. 
 
 The typical New England minister of fifty years 
 ago, as of a hundred years ago, was sui generis. He 
 was a scholar, a thinker, a reasoner, a logician. His 
 intellect was trained. Some might say his emotions 
 were suppressed; certainly they were controlled. 
 These men especially excelled in cogent thinking 
 and in clear and powerful expression of their 
 thought. Their congregations were trained to this 
 intellectual style and habit, and delighted in it. Not 
 a Httle of the intellectual grip of New England char- 
 acter is due to the training in intellectual processes 
 which the people received from regular and attentive 
 attendance upon the double service every Sunday, 
 year after year, in the village church. It was an 
 education in itself. The stern theology of the older 
 time had not passed away. They still believed every 
 word of the Bible. They beHeved in foreordination 
 and the eternal decrees, and that theology that has 
 developed the grandest race of thinkers the world 
 
200 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 has ever known, — keenest in logic, shrewdest in wit, 
 coolest in judgment, calmest in temper, bravest in 
 danger, heroic in sacrifice, — that theology was their 
 theology, and that faith was their faith. Whatever 
 we may think of it as an abstract proposition, no 
 one can deny that it developed a race of men virile 
 of body and virile of mind, prepotent to this day. 
 And many a man masterful in business, domi- 
 nating in law, sweeping a splendid swath of success 
 through the world, is the son or the grandson of 
 one of these same old Puritan ministers with the 
 high forehead and the thin lips. Yet as time goes 
 on we can detect a subtle change. While pure 
 reason still holds sway, there creep into their clear 
 and simple style a loftier eloquence and a deeper 
 human sympathy. The imagination comes in play; 
 the sense of beauty, the love of God, are felt more 
 keenly, and, being felt, they find expression in 
 manly, never maudlin, speech. The New Eng- 
 land minister transplanted to the efflorescent West 
 did not lose his character or fibre. He did not 
 run to pith and sap; but he did throw out a few 
 new buds, he did develop a more luxuriant foliage. 
 And in his shadow men still hid themselves from 
 the drought of infideHty and the storm of doubt. 
 Our graduates were splendid representatives of the 
 New England Puritan ministry. Pure in life, clear 
 in mind, powerful in reason, classic in speech, in 
 country meeting-house and in city church they pre- 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 20I 
 
 served the ancient landmarks and maintained the an- 
 cient standard of Christian thought and speech. 
 
 But there was another class of men who must not 
 be this day forgotten. They were men of bone and 
 substance like all those old New Englanders, 
 gaunt, high-browed, bright-eyed. Their library also 
 consisted of two books, a hymn-book and the 
 Bible. They went away in youth and hope. They 
 were not hectic-cheeked enthusiasts, but they were 
 sober men and earnest men, who had heard that 
 divine command, " Go ye into all the world and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature," and obeyed. 
 They, too, went into the West and held the frontier 
 posts with the Indians and the trader. They were not 
 spasmodic in their zeal, but tireless. Year in and 
 year out, in summer's heat and winter's cold, they 
 toiled on. They measured endless prairie trails 
 with weary feet; they climbed mountains; they 
 forded streams. They felt the slipping years go by 
 without home or sure abiding place. While others 
 laid the foundation for a fortune, they laid the foun- 
 dation for a church ; while others gathered for the 
 asking fertile acres for a homestead, they had no 
 time to ask or gather. And so they lived and so 
 they wrought, "in weariness and painfulness, in 
 watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings 
 often, in cold and nakedness." And to-day many 
 of these heroic men, who had in life not where 
 to lay their heads, sleep well and safely in un- 
 
202 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 known graves in mountain and plain, where sigh 
 the sombre woods — where rolls the Oregon. But 
 they are not forgotten. While we pay our tribute 
 this day to statesman and soldier, to scholar and 
 poet, let us not forget these soldiers of the Cross 
 who pass before us with their waving banners and 
 their sounding shields. Their banner is the banner 
 of the Cross, their sword is the sword of the Spirit, their 
 armor the breastplate of righteousness and the hel- 
 met of salvation. Their conquest is the soul. Hush 
 the trumpet, still the drum, — and let us stand silent 
 before these men of whom the world is not worthy. 
 Soldiers upon the picket lines of civilization ! Pio- 
 neers and patriots ! Servants of God ! Well done ! 
 And what is true of these men is also true of 
 those other heroic souls whose sympathies, wide as 
 the world, swept them into foreign fields. Exiles from 
 home, they lived their homesick lives in patience. 
 They built altars on the Bosphorus and beside the 
 Ganges. Their country was the world. In Asia, in 
 Africa, in the islands of the sea, they told the races 
 of an ancient era the story of the new. Scholars 
 who had mastered here the ancient languages of 
 Greece and Rome set themselves to familiar tasks 
 in India and Siam. They translated the Bible into 
 strange tongues. They preached the Gospel to the 
 poor in barbarous dialects and uncouth speech. 
 They endured the fever of the tropics and the pesti- 
 lence of the horrible East. They were reviled, they 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 203 
 
 were despoiled, they were scourged. In sublime 
 patience they worked and waited, — sometimes for 
 years without a convert or a sign from heaven, — 
 yet never in despair. They lived with the lowest 
 castes, they fed them in famine, they nursed them in 
 sickness, they held the hands of the dying, they 
 buried the loathsome dead. What a life ! Year 
 after year — and life is long. Exiled from country, 
 parted from friends, and all for what ? For a soldier's 
 glory or a statesman's fame ? Ah, no. Just to tell the 
 heathen the story of the Cross; just to carry an un- 
 known Gospel to the poor, and then to die and be 
 forgotten like one of them. Talk of courage and 
 self-sacrifice and duty ! There is no courage and 
 self-sacrifice and duty like this since Time began. 
 And the students of this College in all this work of 
 home and foreign missions have borne a splendid part. 
 The history of missions is largely a history of this Col- 
 lege. And it is a story to be proud of, a story that 
 every man may feel his eyes grow dim about with- 
 out shame, however litde he may sympathize with 
 the cause itself, as a record of human courage, 
 fidelity to duty, love of humanity, loyalty to God 
 that has never been surpassed in the annals of man- 
 kind. 
 
 And there were the teachers. The schoolmaster 
 was abroad in the land. He swarmed in the South 
 and West. Tutors in families, principals of schools, 
 professors in colleges, presidents of universities, — 
 
204 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 they were found in every grade of the teachers' 
 profession, and in every rank adorned it. They 
 were pioneers. They established schools and col- 
 leges that have flourished for fifty years and still 
 endure. We are familiar with New England's story 
 in the West; it is a twice-told tale. But the in- 
 fluence of this College in the Southern States before 
 the war is quite as remarkable, though but litde 
 known. As lawyers they took the highest rank at 
 the Southern bar, as teachers they were unsur- 
 passed, as preachers they sustained New England's 
 fame. As politicians they were mosdy Whigs, and 
 therefore little known to official life. But intellec- 
 tually, socially, and professionally they took the 
 highest rank. Their influence was deep and wide, 
 and has endured. They touched the Southern life 
 at many points, and in all those things that make 
 for law, for education, for Christian character and 
 civic virtue, their work is still remembered and their 
 influence is still felt. 
 
 But the century swings into its middle course. 
 Times have changed. The fields are stumpless. 
 Farms stretch out in broad and fertile acres, perfect 
 in culture, clean in tilth. The log cabin has been 
 twice displaced, and now the big white farm-house 
 sheltered by grandsire-planted elms and maples is 
 the evolution of a New England home. Its fire- 
 side knows New England culture, its larder knows 
 New England thrift. "The pastures are clothed 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 205 
 
 with flocks ; the valleys also are covered over with 
 corn; they shout for joy, they also sing." Highways 
 had broadened, villages had multiplied ; and every 
 village was a commercial and industrial centre. 
 Naturally developed by the necessities of thrifty and 
 prosperous agricultural surroundings, these village 
 and rural communities grew into an ideal and 
 balanced industrial life. All crafts and trades and 
 local commerce found healthy and prosperous de- 
 velopment. And industry brought wealth and 
 thrift won plenty. The stately mansions that lined 
 the lengthening village street proclaimed the per- 
 fection of that tempered wealth and wholesome 
 comfort and healthy industry and professional dig- 
 nity which New England villages once enjoyed. 
 And let us not forget the debt of gratitude this Col- 
 lege and the students of this College owe to the 
 town of Middlebury and its citizens. For a hundred 
 years their homes have been open to us, and their 
 cheer and bounty ours. We have known the last- 
 ing friendships of their firesides, and shared the 
 gracious influences of their social life. Their men 
 have helped many a baffled struggler on his way, 
 their matrons mothered many a homesick boy, their 
 daughters inspired the life and glorified the home 
 of many a worthy man. We cannot separate the 
 College and the village in our thought or in our life. 
 It is Middlebury College, and as our outward lives 
 are linked together, so should our spirits be, in mu- 
 
2o6 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 tual love and pride and helpfulness. The New 
 England love of learning, zeal for study, hunger for 
 books had developed by the middle century into a 
 broader culture and a wider intellectual life. Rail- 
 roads, telegraphs, newspapers, and magazines were 
 the sun and rain in which the New England char- 
 acter bloomed and fruited. And over all, wealth of 
 field, pride of flock, comfort of home, there extended 
 an open-hearted hospitality that never shut its door 
 in the face of a stranger nor closed it to a friend. 
 And yet these people were not rich in the modern 
 sense. That good old New England word describes 
 them fitly: they were independent, and, what is 
 better, the Nev/ England character had not been 
 bred out of them nor shamed within them. Their 
 men were still industrious, and their women capable. 
 Plenty had not fostered pride, nor leisure laziness. 
 On week-days, as before, the thriftiest farmers were 
 earliest afield. On Sundays their horses still filled 
 the meeting-house sheds, their children filled its 
 pews. 
 
 But the shadow of a coming crisis was already 
 casting its cloud on all this scene of peace and 
 plenty. The slavery question and the Union ques- 
 tion, that had dominated the political thought of 
 New England for two generations, were clamoring 
 for their answer. Politics crept into the pulpit, and 
 the schoolhouse became a forum. These questions 
 were debated everywhere, on the farm and at the 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 207 
 
 fireside, in the shop or at the village store, or where 
 chance travellers met beside the road. In such an 
 atmosphere of life and thought and labor, the young 
 men of that day were reared, and under such influ- 
 ences they came to college. Not that the oppres- 
 sion of the great conflict was consciously upon them. 
 They filled the brimming cup of life with hope and 
 purpose then as now. But yet there was an uncon- 
 scious preparation for the trying days to come; and 
 when that time came, when the last compromise 
 had been rejected, the last word said, when the flute 
 faltered and the trumpet rang, then the men of Mid- 
 dlebury, like the men of every Northern college, 
 graduate and undergraduate, calmly laid aside the 
 book and pen, or implement of labor, and peaceful 
 hope and fond purpose and young desire, and coolly, 
 as became their race, without passion, as became 
 their cause, enlisted for the war. They fought the 
 battle of the Lord; they fought to free men, not 
 enslave them ; and many of our best and bravest 
 paid their last full measure of devotion, " that gov- 
 ernment of the people, by the people, for the 
 people should not perish from the earth." 
 
 Our first martyr in that sacred cause of liberty 
 was Bennett, of the Class of '64. I shall name no 
 other. Let that young life, sweet, pure, courtly, 
 brave, gentle as a girl, stand as the knightly type 
 of all those men who in that contest gave the 
 scholar's proof that "a sweet and pleasant thing 
 
2o8 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 it is for one's country to die." The war is over; but 
 *' There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; and 
 there is pansies, that's for thoughts." 
 
 Any comparison between the product of the two 
 half-centuries would be manifestly fair to neither, 
 necessarily false to both. The conditions are not 
 the same, the men unlike, opportunities unequal, 
 ideals changed. Theology, law, and medicine no 
 longer monopolize the ambition or dominate the 
 lives of educated men. Manufacturing, commerce, 
 transportation, general business, now draw young 
 men of learning into widening fields of activity, and 
 call the keenest intellects and best trained minds 
 into their exacting service, where rewards are sure 
 and often great, but yet remote from public gaze. 
 Then, too, the men of the first half-century have 
 for the most part done their work. The record is 
 closed. The men of the second half stand now with 
 tasks unfinished ; some have hardly started, others 
 not begun. But taking the century as a whole, how 
 does the record of this College stand .^^ Let our 
 scholars tell their story of patient study and years 
 of thankless toil in corners where their fellow-men 
 regard them not, and the babble of the idle world 
 goes past them, while they give the Bible to every 
 tongue to read the story of the Cross ; revise the 
 Scriptures for men's faith and hope to rest upon ; 
 reread the lines of Shakespeare, and with subtle 
 touch unlock the treasure-house of his immortal 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 209 
 
 genius; lead the feet of blind old Homer from the 
 halls of ancient kings; tell again the memorable 
 story of the deathless Greeks; or with keen anal- 
 ysis and fine discrimination unfold the strength and 
 beauty of our mother tongue. And there was one 
 who told in epic prose the story of our native 
 heroes and drew a fadeless picture of our early 
 life; and one who dipped his pen in sunshine 
 and wrote to cheer and charm mankind. Let 
 our statesmen tell their story of healthful legisla- 
 tion, wise administration of public affairs, loyalty 
 to liberty, fidelity to justice, obedience to law, with 
 an influence as wholesome as the winds that sweep 
 our northern hills. Let our jurists speak of their 
 unsullied record at the bar, their spotless ermine 
 on the bench. And let those heroic men who 
 on our own frontier and on the wide world's outmost 
 rim upheld the Cross, tell their story of devotion to 
 duty and of love of God. But that would leave the 
 story incomplete. A mountain range is not made 
 up alone of dazzling peaks that lift their shining 
 heights into the solemn sky. But the table-lands 
 and rolling hills with valleys in between, the un- 
 named mountains, and the sweep of height, all knit 
 the ribs of earth and make the strength of the hills 
 that is also His. So not these famous men alone 
 make up the record of our mothers' household. Let 
 them also speak who have trod with patient feet a 
 narrower round of toil, have carried into their busi- 
 14 
 
2IO MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 ness their mothers' lessons of truth and virtue, have 
 done their work, have healed the sick, have loved 
 their God and kept the faith in little corners where 
 their lives have been a constant blessing to their 
 fellow-men — unheralded, perhaps, but not unknown 
 and not forgotten. And more than this must be 
 remembered, for the good men do lives after them in 
 lives of other men inspired, ennobled, and enriched, 
 to be by them transmitted to others still, and so on 
 in endless series till the Lord shall come. And this 
 is our record : a hundred years of usefulness, and so 
 a century of honor. 
 
 But we should look forward as well as back. 
 We may pay, and we should pay, our tribute to 
 the Past. With dim eyes we should think of 
 our fathers' toil and sacrifice, with pride of their 
 courage, with exultation of their matchless record 
 of faithfulness to truth and duty. And then we 
 should turn our faces to the rising sun of the 
 new century, and meet the future with a steadfast 
 heart. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker 
 of heaven and earth. And it cannot be that man has 
 been brought thus far to be turned back again and 
 made to retrace his steps with muttering lip and 
 sullen brow. But in the future as in the past, man- 
 kind will make many crooked paths; we may wander 
 years to gain a little distance. And in the future as 
 in the past, mankind will smart at his own mistakes 
 and stumble over the obstacles of his own seeking. 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 211 
 
 The lessons of the Past we shall still refuse to learn, 
 and into the darkness of the Future we shall still 
 blindly grope our way. But nevertheless the evolu- 
 tion of the race shall some day be complete. And 
 some day the world will have learned its lesson, that 
 men shall not gather grapes from thorns; that false- 
 hood does not breed truth ; that vice does not bring 
 forth virtue, injustice and cruelty do not beget peace 
 and blessing. It is the business of the college to 
 help the world to learn its lesson. 
 
 The college of the future, if it hopes to long en- 
 dure and if it deserves to long endure, must be 
 founded on a rock. Before the sunrise God was ; 
 after the sunset God shall be. What I say may seem 
 to some of you trite, old-fashioned, commonplace, 
 passe. So much the worse for you and us, if many 
 think so. But the eternal verities will endure — the 
 eternity of God, the immortality of the soul, the power 
 of the endless life. When the New England college, 
 when this College, no longer believes these things, 
 and no longer by precept and example teaches them, 
 the New England college, and this College, with its 
 influence and its power, will also have passed away. 
 The college of the future should give a broad and 
 generous scholarship. Literature, art, science, reli- 
 gion, fidelity to all truth, should mark it. All lines 
 of truth are converging highways that lead to God. 
 Fear it not. Art is long. Knowledge multiplies. 
 A liberal education to-day means much more than 
 
212 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 it meant a hundred years ago. But still, if it is to 
 be liberal, it must not be narrowed too soon into 
 the poverty of specialization. A college may pay 
 too generous and too willing tribute to the clamor- 
 ous exactions of this mortal life. And the college 
 of the future should teach the love of country and 
 the duties of good citizenship. It should not teach 
 a blinded fetishism that says to the evil of a party 
 platform, " Be thou my good." It should not teach 
 a servile obedience to popular clamor that cries, 
 " My country, right or wrong." It should teach 
 that wrong can never be right nor even wise, nor 
 evil good. It should teach the universal truths of 
 liberty, justice, and respect for law. It should teach 
 individual honesty and national honor. It should 
 make good citizens because it makes good men. 
 Young men should not be made to believe, nor be 
 permitted to believe, that politics is simply a field 
 for individual ambition to wrestle in, or that public 
 office is simply big game to stalk for the excitement 
 of the hunt and the personal glory of a great kill. 
 But they should be taught that public office is in- 
 deed a public trust; not a fool's bauble for wealth 
 to buy, not a prize for some supreme egotist to 
 clutch, but a crown to be bestowed, for some humble 
 head to wear. And the college of the future should 
 teach the solidarity of the race, the brotherhood of 
 man. Every year the world is fuller, every year the 
 struggle is harder, and every year the competition 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 21 3 
 
 for work and place grows swifter and more fierce. 
 Must it be that with this increasing struggle men 
 must grow more savage and relentless, like wild 
 beasts growling over white bones in a jungle? I 
 will not believe it. Against the advocates of the 
 strenuous life that would trample a pitiless way to 
 selfish success, let the college interpose with lessons 
 of gentleness and pity. Against the cynicism of 
 ambition and selfishness let the college pit unself- 
 ishness and the love of God. They have the 
 experience of the relentless world, they have the 
 arrogance of success, but we have the blessing of 
 Heaven and the brave heart of generous youth, and 
 on it the American colleges in the coming years 
 may write their will. 
 
 Peace is not only the ideal, but it is the normal 
 state of society. Wars are not the rule, but the 
 exception. To fit young men for the peaceful pur- 
 suits of life is the function of the college. Creative 
 genius is of a higher order than the savage instinct 
 of death and destruction : to create is better than to 
 destroy ; to build up is better than to tear down ; 
 to save life is better than to take life. Man has not 
 yet bred out of his nature the taint of the savage, 
 the lust of conquest, and the thirst for blood. The 
 barbaric splendor of shining arms and clashing steel 
 and rolling drums and the thunder of the charge 
 have still their charm ; but nevertheless peace and 
 not war is the ideal and the normal life. We do 
 
214 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 pray, " Give us peace in our time," and we look for- 
 ward to that promised day when the nations shall 
 learn war no more. Is that the vision of a dreamer, 
 the dream of a poet, or the promise of God ? Is it, 
 then, " Fie on this dull life " ? Well, there is left the 
 danger of carrying cups of water to them who die 
 of pestilence, and there remains the excitement of 
 giving bread to them that starve. The work of this 
 College, in the future as in the past, is not to teach 
 the science of slaughter or the arts of war, but rather 
 to teach the science of constructive life and the arts 
 of peace; to make good men and wise men, who 
 shall make an impress not only upon their own 
 time, but upon all time to come ; to make scholars 
 who shall master the wisdom of the past and mould 
 it into blessing for the coming age ; to make states- 
 men who shall solve the perplexing problems of the 
 advancing years; to make jurists who shall wisely 
 judge and, without fear or favor, administer the law 
 as those who share with God functions divine; to 
 make preachers who shall still the turmoil in the 
 world's troubled heart and lead mankind into paths 
 of peace ; to make citizens to whose wisdom and 
 valor the honor and the destiny of this great nation 
 may be safely left. 
 
 But the waiting century beckons us as the other 
 waves farewell. The gates of the new era swing 
 wide open to our eager yet reluctant feet. We 
 pause upon its threshold with crowding recollections 
 
CENTENNIAL ORATION 215 
 
 thick upon us. The Past holds us while yet the 
 Future calls — the Past with its splendid story, its 
 sacred memories, and its gracious life. We wait 
 your benediction, Spirits of the immortal Dead! 
 And now we turn our faces to the rising sun of a 
 new day, — a day of promise, a day of hope. Tre- 
 mendous possibilities await us. The new century is 
 heir of all the ages past, and what we shall be doth 
 not yet appear ; but we may not doubt that the com- 
 ing years will be rich in opportunity for individual 
 development and for beneficent service to all man- 
 kind. With high ideals of what this human life 
 should be, with chastened ambitions and unselfish 
 purpose, with minds trained to think and souls to 
 feel, the college men of the twentieth century may 
 conquer the world. Let this college of the future 
 sow the seed of sound learning, wise thinking, and 
 right living, and she shall reap sure harvests of 
 blessing and benefaction in due time, if she faint 
 not. 
 
 " Beyond the sowing and the reaping we shall be 
 soon." But the gracious mother of us all, beautiful 
 in her immortal youth, shall live on, loved and cher- 
 ished by succeeding generations, extending her in- 
 fluence into wide and wider circles, teaching always 
 the lessons of faithfulness and honor. And may the 
 God of our fathers, who led and guarded them, lead 
 and guard us still. 
 
CENTENNIAL VERSES 
 
 By professor EDWIN H. HIGLEY 
 
 ACROSS the stage of human life 
 A hurrying throng moves swiftly on ; 
 In joy or grief, in peace or strife, 
 They act their parts and soon are gone. 
 Yet over all abides th' eternal sway, 
 Which counts a thousand years as but a day. 
 
 So when a century is told. 
 By heaven's time 'tis no great age ! 
 Our Alma Mater is not old, — 
 She 's not been long upon the stage ! 
 Still fresh and fair, tho' growing somewhat stout, 
 'Tis plain her play of life is not played out. 
 
 No drama's end, no falling curtain, 
 
 Supply to-day a mournful theme ; 
 
 No direful fears or hopes uncertain 
 
 Obstruct the flow of joy's full stream. 
 The action still moves on without surcease. 
 And shows 'tis just the opening of the piece. 
 
 We seek to scan, with hurried glance. 
 
 The actors, as they pass us by. 
 
 Successive groups retire, advance, 
 
 Or yet await the prompter's cry. 
 In five-fold column, each with varied mien. 
 They move across the wide centennial scene. 
 216 
 
CENTENNIAL VERSES 21 7 
 
 GROUP THE FIRST, 1800-1820 
 
 Eighteen hundred — eighteen twenty, 
 
 Sturdy youths with zeal a plenty, 
 Clustering round the old East College, 
 Scant of wealth, but rich in knowledge ; 
 Tougher lessons theirs than we knew, 
 For they studied law and Hebrew ; 
 Theologues with doctrines torrid. 
 Thinking Jefferson was horrid, 
 Talking much of searching cargoes. 
 Raving much of French embargoes. 
 Now and then a lesson dropping, 
 When the Plattsburg guns were popping. 
 Soon, their throng increasing greatly. 
 Round a structure new and stately. 
 Praises — that shall ne'er grow fainter ! 
 Hailed thy Hall, Gamaliel Painter ! 
 
 Sturdy youths with zeal a plenty, 
 
 'Twixt those years from naught to twenty, 
 
 Sapienter^ cum laborer 
 
 DiligenteVy cum amorCy 
 
 Making Alma Mater's story. 
 
 GROUP THE SECOND, 1820-1840 
 
 Fuller in number the column appears. 
 Wending its way through the next score of years ; 
 Masters were found of endurable stuff, 
 Fowler, and Turner, and Adams, and Hough, 
 Setting to rights all the systems of science. 
 Training a true generation of giants. 
 Notable leaders of notable men. 
 Never to fade from our memory's ken ! 
 
2l8 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 While, as when Israel sought Canaan's land, 
 A Joshua guided, with masterful hand. 
 And now Alma Mater revealed her true worth, 
 Sending her sons to the ends of the earth. 
 Judges and jurists and preachers of truth, 
 Leaders of senates and teachers of youth. 
 Charming a world with melodious measures, 
 Op'ning our souls to Shakespearian treasures. 
 Solving diplomacy's knottiest knot. 
 Statesmen, who walked without blemish or blot. 
 These, Alma Mater, thy jewels of gold, 
 Never to pass from our memory's hold ! 
 
 GROUP THE THIRD, 1 840-1 860 
 
 And now the scene another picture shows ; 
 
 The line contracts, the column thinner grows ; 
 
 Yet onward still they move without dismay. 
 
 While " Benjamin their ruler " leads the way, 
 
 And Alma Mater lays all fears to rest — 
 
 (Tis chiefs with Bible names that suit her best !) 
 
 Tho' now we call him Benjamin or Ben, 
 
 No soul alive had dared to do it then ! 
 
 A leader prudent, dignified, devout. 
 
 Alert to all within and all without. 
 
 The culprits opened all their inmost souls. 
 
 When he benignly hauled them o'er the coals. 
 
 And those who learned of him — we need not name. 
 
 The age has felt their power and guards their fame. 
 
 Wherever great achievements must be done. 
 
 Our Alma Mater sends a proper son ; — 
 
 To sound the solemn depths of law divine. 
 
 Or set in truer phrase each sacred line, 
 
 To punish crime, to solve a railway tangle. 
 
 Or do brave battle at the Bloody Angle, 
 
CENTENNIAL VERSES 219 
 
 To fill all parts in life's great melodrama, 
 To govern states, or teach a nation grammar, 
 To grapple boldly every human ill, 
 *Tis Middlebury always fills the bill ! 
 
 GROUP THE FOURTH, 1 860-1 880 
 
 Like a storm swooping down on a landscape serene, 
 
 The approach of grim war casts a gloom on the scene. 
 
 Thrust aside are the Muses and tasks academic, 
 
 For the turmoil of stern preparations polemic. 
 
 Vowing Freedom should wear without blemish her crown. 
 
 Forth they marched with the song and the soul of John 
 
 Brown ! 
 Marched away — many a one — who returned not again. 
 But whose names, glory-crowned, swell the roll of the slain. 
 And those names ne'er shall lack our warm tribute of tears, 
 Though now dimly discerned 'neath the dust of the years. 
 With great gaps in its ranks, where the bravest were gone, 
 Through the following years still the column moved on. 
 By the courage and faith of the faithful and few. 
 Amid perils and gloom it was guided safe through. 
 Alma Mater her Parker holds dear to her heart. 
 Who, her sentinel staunch, watched the darkness depart. 
 Could she waver or flinch at the stormiest fate, 
 When her veteran warrior was Cyrus the Great? 
 
 GROUP THE FIFTH, 1880-1900 
 
 Lo ! with motion animated. 
 Tripping gaily o'er the stage, 
 
 Going fast, as tho' belated. 
 Now appears the modern age. 
 
220 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 Age that seems almost demonic, 
 
 Flashing incandescent jets ; 
 Age electro-telephonic, 
 
 Age of bikes and cigarettes ! 
 
 Alma Mater feels the movement, 
 Glows with warmer life and hope, 
 
 Thrills with progress and improvement, 
 Looks abroad with wider scope. 
 
 E'en the fossil rhynchonella 
 
 Has to hear of Kellogg's grammar, 
 
 And beneath his stone umbrella 
 Quakes in fear of Seely's hammer ! 
 
 Blessings fall in fuller measure 
 
 Into Alma Mater's hand ; 
 In her storehouse richer treasure, 
 
 Fairer halls about her stand. 
 
 Some men swear by Jove or Juno, 
 Some by Venus, some by Mars, 
 
 But our Alma Mater, — you know — 
 Says, quite simply, " Bless my Starrs ! " 
 
 Bless those orbs that round them cluster, 
 
 Still diffusing rays divine, 
 Lending literature new lustre, 
 
 Setting science in her shrine ! 
 
 Alma Mater, in confusion. 
 
 Thought her children all were brothers. 
 That was but a great delusion ; 
 
 Now she finds that there are others, — 
 
CENTENNIAL VERSES 221 
 
 Other forms and other faces, 
 
 Such as ancient poets tell us 
 Once adorned the classic Graces 
 
 Or the Muses of fair Hellas. 
 
 Alma Mater — all the sweeter — 
 
 Now a broader flag unfurls, 
 Makes humanity completer, 
 
 Treats alike her boys and girls ! 
 
 The five-fold column disappears. 
 
 A moment, now, the stage is bare. 
 Yet many another hundred years 
 
 Shall follow after, still more fair; 
 And truth divine, inspirer of the past. 
 Shall light their progress while the ages last. 
 
THE LUNCHEON 
 
 THE luncheon was served in the Centennial 
 Building at the close of the exercises in 
 the church. The assembly having been 
 called to order, prayer was offered by Professor 
 Charles M. Mead, D.D., '56, who officiated as 
 chaplain. 
 
 o 
 
 PROFESSOR MEAD'S PRAYER 
 
 GOD of our fathers, we thank Thee that 
 Thou didst put it into their hearts to found 
 this College. We thank Thee for what we and 
 others with us and before us have received here of 
 instruction, of culture, of discipline, of spiritual 
 stimulus, of pleasure and precious fellowship. We 
 thank Thee that Thou hast permitted us to par- 
 ticipate in the festivities of this memorable day. 
 And now, on this last great day of the feast, as we 
 are assembled together to partake of this repast 
 of body and spirit that Thy bounty has provided, 
 we pray that Thy benediction may rest upon us 
 all : upon the president of this school of learn- 
 ing; upon its instructors, its students, its alumni, 
 and its friends. Sanctify to us the joys and privi- 
 leges of the past; fulfill, we pray Thee, our hopes 
 
THE LUNCHEON 223 
 
 for the future, and let Thy name have the praise 
 forevermore. Amen. 
 
 At the conclusion of the dinner, the chairman, 
 Hon. John W. Stewart, said: — 
 Fellow Alumni, Ladies and Gentlemen, Honored Guests : 
 
 IT is a fitting close of the great anniversary 
 which we have so pleasantly celebrated, that 
 we gather in this festival. I have no time, and 
 less inclination, to make an extended prefatory 
 address. It is proper, however, that I should say 
 that this is a day of rejoicing and reunion ; a day 
 of good-fellowship ; a day of brotherhood ; a day of 
 sisterhood; a day of fatherhood and sonship, of 
 friendship and harmony. 
 
 It is a happy thing that some assemblies are 
 possible in this day and generation, where there 
 are no differences of sentiment; where we are 
 all at one — perfectly agreed. Whatever we may 
 think of the higher criticism, about which some 
 of my friends differ, we are all agreed upon the 
 higher education. And whatever we may think 
 of the Westminster Confession, we are all agreed 
 that the perpetuity of the institutions of this gov- 
 ernment, and its security, rest upon the education 
 of the people of this country. So here we are 
 all at one. 
 
 I rejoice that I am permitted to welcome you, 
 and I am particularly gratified that I stand some- 
 
2 24 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 what in the place of the so-called speaker, who is 
 called speaker by courtesy, because he does not 
 speak, but is the organ or instrument by which 
 others are brought to speak. It is my happy 
 fortune that I can call upon my brethren some- 
 what liberally on the right hand and on the left, 
 and I now have the pleasure of introducing to you 
 the honored Governor of the State of Vermont, 
 a man of large affairs, a man very busy with the 
 interests that have been committed to his charge, 
 but a man never forgetful of the greater interests 
 of the Commonwealth which centre around the 
 institutions of learning of this State. I introduce 
 to you His Excellency, Governor Smith. 
 
 GOVERNOR SMITH'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 IF there is ever a time when I regret that the 
 lines of my educational life were cast in other 
 directions than the universities of this State, it 
 is upon these occasions when I am invited to 
 take part in their commencement exercises. It is 
 especially so to-day, to me, as my term runs out, 
 and I have been permitted simply to join unoffi- 
 cially in the exercises of the day, in the conferring 
 of degrees, in the songs and laughter. 
 
 But I take some consolation, and a great deal 
 of pleasure, in the fact that I can congratulate 
 
THE LUNCHEON 225 
 
 you upon having a president worthy of the name ; 
 one who has built up an institution, and has main- 
 tained its character and its standing. Through him 
 I insist that I am Hnked to Middlebury College, 
 and if I am not an alumnus, I am just as near it 
 as blood relationship can make me. 
 
 It had been my intention to make, in the few re- 
 marks that I was assigned to deliver, a suggestion 
 in regard to the relation of the larger colleges of this 
 country to the smaller ones, and to predict, as far 
 as I might in the time that was allotted to me, the 
 future of the small college in relation to the larger 
 one; and I had intended to show that in my judg- 
 ment the time is rapidly approaching when, with the 
 expansion and development of the wealth of this 
 country, and the multiplying of the people who seek 
 the higher education, there will be competition 
 among them, and that the laws of competition will 
 ultimately force the smaller colleges either into other 
 directions and other channels of thought, or out of 
 the business altogether. I had intended to offer the 
 suggestion that the smaller colleges of this country 
 are destined to be crowded out by the larger ones so 
 far as diversified education is concerned ; and that the 
 smaller ones will go or be led into specialties, such 
 as obtain in professions in various ways, wherever 
 there is an aggregation of wealth. And I had in- 
 tended to say that I believe the principles which 
 underlie this College will crowd it into some spe- 
 15 
 
226 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 cialty, or will put it into the van of the universi- 
 ties. But I have felt that for two reasons the time 
 is too short to do it, or even to dwell upon it. One 
 reason is, that after an absence of twenty-five years 
 from my friend Carter, who taught me German, at 
 whose feet I sat and imbibed the knowledge that he 
 gave us, the force of habit is still so great that ever 
 since I came into his presence I have tried to con- 
 jugate all the German verbs, and to repeat all the 
 German, I could think of. And, again, although 
 this meeting is called to celebrate the one hun- 
 dredth anniversary of the College, I judge from 
 the number of speakers that if each were to take 
 all the time that I think I ought to have, we would 
 be celebrating the next Centennial before we are 
 through with this. 
 
 Mr. Stewart: We had been promised the at- 
 tendance of the honored President of Harvard 
 University, but an important engagement inter- 
 vened, so that it was impossible for him to come. 
 I am happy, however, to say that we have a repre- 
 sentative of that university which, although located 
 in the State of Massachusetts, belongs to the coun- 
 try and the world. It is too large for Massachu- 
 setts; its influence is too wide. It is the university 
 of the country; and I take great pleasure in in- 
 troducing to you Professor Wright of Harvard 
 University. 
 
THE LUNCHEON 22/ 
 
 PROFESSOR WRIGHT'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 1 APPEAR before you this afternoon in a double 
 capacity, but chiefly in a representative one, on 
 behalf of Harvard University: I bring you the greet- 
 ing of President Eliot personally, and at his request 
 the greetings of the ancient college. 
 
 It may be of interest to Middlebury College, the 
 missionary college, to know that Harvard Univer- 
 sity itself is engaged at this moment, and will be 
 engaged throughout a large part of the summer, 
 in a combination of home and foreign missionary 
 work. Finding it impossible to send the university 
 to Cuba, we have invited Cuba to come to the uni- 
 versity, and this very day President Eliot is engaged 
 in setting going the Cuban summer school. This 
 morning he was to meet the Cuban teachers and to 
 start them in their studies. It has therefore been 
 impossible for him to be present in person on this 
 occasion. 
 
 I should like to take this opportunity, first, to 
 make one or two remarks which are suggested in 
 part by the position that I occupy at Cambridge, — 
 that of Dean of the Graduate School, — but more 
 especially by some things that were said yesterday. 
 As President Tucker then pointed out, with the 
 vast increase of new studies, and the adoption of 
 these studies into the smaller colleges of the coun- 
 
2 28 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 try, a considerable amount of instruction is provided 
 in these colleges which, in a given institution, it is 
 impossible for all the students to assimilate, or even 
 in many cases to take any advantage of. This in- 
 struction is primarily of an advanced character, and 
 is instruction that has grown up perfectly naturally 
 in the college. It is the instruction in which, to a 
 great extent, the teachers find the greatest satisfac- 
 tion. For while the true teacher finds a sufficient 
 satisfaction in introducing his pupils into the ele- 
 ments of learning and science, he always finds an 
 overmastering delight in making them masters 
 thereof. The instruction thus provided is in vari- 
 ous departments of intellectual activity, — philoso- 
 phy, history, literature, language, science, — and, as 
 I have already said, it is impossible for all the stu- 
 dents to make all of it their own while they are yet 
 undergraduates ; but by the provision of opportuni- 
 ties for students to remain at college for a year or 
 two after they have received the Bachelor's degree, 
 these men and women may be enabled to avail 
 themselves of this body of instruction and to con- 
 tinue their studies, each in some special line, until 
 they shall have become masters in some one depart- 
 ment. For such persons an appropriate recognition 
 of this work on the part of their college is the de- 
 gree of Master of Arts; and the resident graduates 
 who are candidates for this degree form in each 
 college a healthful and vivifying nucleus from which 
 
THE LUNCHEON 229 
 
 issue the men and women whose life is to be de- 
 voted to scholarship, and from whom ultimately, 
 after they shall have duly continued their prepara- 
 tion, the teaching staff of the college shall be re- 
 cruited. It is a great satisfaction to behold that 
 in all of the smaller colleges this advanced in- 
 struction is gaining in recognition and popularity. 
 We see it in the increasing number of w^ell-fitted 
 men who enter the Graduate Schools of the larger 
 universities. 
 
 The second topic upon which I wish to make 
 brief comment is that of the moral tone and char- 
 acter of the student body, — of the American col- 
 lege student. 
 
 At Commencement last week in Cambridge, Pro- 
 fessor Briggs, the Dean of Harvard College, received 
 the degree of Doctor of Laws ; and when this dis- 
 tinction was conferred there was an extraordinary 
 exhibition of approbation such as made the day an 
 ever-memorable one for all who were present. The 
 reason for this expression of feeling you will partly 
 infer from the language used by the President in 
 conferring the degree : " Le Baron Russell Briggs, 
 well-beloved Dean of Harvard College, patient, ten- 
 der, discerning, candid, just, and cheering, because 
 convinced of the overwhelming predominance of 
 good in the student world." 
 
 At Harvard University, of course, there are all 
 elements, and there are all sorts of elements in every 
 
230 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 college and university ; but I beg you to remember 
 that when there is a special outburst of boyishness 
 which violates good taste and good morals, the stu- 
 dent body often takes note of it and visits with con- 
 dign punishment the perpetrators of the offence. 
 Thus the painters of the statue of John Harvard 
 were drummed out of the university by the students, 
 not by the Faculty. We should not judge the stu- 
 dent body as a whole by the escapades of a very 
 small fraction. In every college the students are 
 for the most part highly honorable men, whose 
 ideals are above those of the average young man 
 in the community, and in every healthy institution 
 the Faculty have no more efficient supporters in 
 maintaining high standards of morals and of char- 
 acter than the students. 
 
 Early in the century, President Timothy Dwight 
 of Yale visited Middlebury College, and he put into 
 his diary the statement that he doubted whether a 
 more virtuous body of men could be found in the 
 country than w^as here gathered. This I see now 
 provokes a smile ; but if President Hadley were 
 here to-day, and were to translate this sentiment 
 into the language of the present, it would be to the 
 effect that there is no finer set of young men in the 
 country, cleaner and manlier, than the normal col- 
 lege students. And this is true not only of Middle- 
 bury College, but of the University of Vermont, of 
 Dartmouth, and of the larger institutions. It is 
 
THE LUNCHEON 23 1 
 
 because the young men who come to our colleges 
 and universities are exceptional men that their esca- 
 pades, especially the most frivolous, attract public 
 attention ; but we should not forget with it all that 
 as college students surpass other men in their op- 
 portunities, they in the main surpass them in their 
 qualities. 
 
 When Saint Paul came to Rome, we are told that 
 the brethren went out to meet him at Appii Forum 
 and the Three Taverns, and that when he saw them 
 he thanked God and took courage. So you, apostles 
 of Middlebury's culture, when you come back to the 
 place whence you drew your inspiration, and see 
 what has been done in the past and what is now 
 being done, may well thank God and take courage 
 for the future, not only of your beloved college, but 
 of the country. 
 
 Mr. Stewart: We had a like assurance from 
 President Hadley that he would be present on this 
 occasion, representing Yale University, but unfor- 
 tunately he has been detained by illness in his 
 family. We are fortunate in having a representa- 
 tive of that institution, and it is perhaps proper and 
 interesting that I should say what may not be 
 known to all of you, that Middlebury is the child of 
 Yale. The first suggestion of the founding of Mid- 
 dlebury College came from the first visit of Presi- 
 dent Dwight, and it was by the inspiration of his 
 
232 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 words, and his advice, that the good men of that 
 time undertook to establish, and founded, this 
 College. 
 
 The gentleman whom I shall present to you is a 
 son of Eli, and while he may claim some advantage 
 from that, we can say, I think with equal truth, that 
 we are the grandsons of Eli. He is also a son of 
 Middlebury, because his father was an honored 
 graduate of this College, and at one time its presi- 
 dent. I take pleasure in introducing to you Pro- 
 fessor KiTCHEL. 
 
 REV. CORNELIUS L. KITCHEUS SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 IT gives me great pleasure on this occasion to 
 bear the greetings of Yale University to Middle- 
 bury. I could have wished that our honored presi- 
 dent might have brought the message in person. 
 It is with deep regret that President Hadley is not 
 here ; deep regret to himself, and I am sure it is a 
 matter of regret to you. It almost seems as if I 
 ought not to be glad to be here myself, but I can 
 not help saying that it is with the greatest satisfac- 
 tion I am enjoying the pleasures of this occasion. 
 I feel like a little girl of my acquaintance, about six 
 years old, who had been put to bed when a dinner 
 party was going on downstairs. When she heard 
 the sounds of revelry, she got up and went down 
 and had a splendid time, and when her mother took 
 
THE LUNCHEON 233 
 
 her to task she said, " Iknow I am bad, but I am 
 glad of it." So I am glad I am here to-day. Per- 
 haps I should say I am glad for myself, and sorry 
 for you. 
 
 I am glad because I do not feel a stranger here 
 to-day. Although Yale College and Middlebury 
 College are separated geographically, occupying as 
 they do the remote corners of New England, yet 
 they have been so intimately associated in their 
 history, and their ideals and aims are so similar, 
 that no alumnus of Yale can feel a stranger in this 
 place. 
 
 Another reason I am glad is because I want to 
 get some suggestions and some ideas as to " how to 
 do it." Ninety-nine years ago we celebrated a cen- 
 tennial, but how we did it we have pretty much 
 forgotten. As the Governor of North Carolina 
 said to the Governor of South Carolina, " It is a 
 long time between " — centennials. But I suppose 
 next year we have got to celebrate our bicentennial, 
 and you will forgive me if I keep my eyes and ears 
 open to see how you do it. I have already ob- 
 tained several ideas. One I shall most surely sug- 
 gest to our bicentennial committee, — that is, if 
 possible, to secure just such another lot of alumni, 
 in quality, as you have succeeded in doing at Mid- 
 dlebury. I remember hearing Henry Ward Beecher 
 say, in a lecture on "Success in Life," that if a man 
 wanted to be successful in life, he ought, first of all, 
 
234 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 to make a judicious selection of his parents; and I 
 think if a university wants to succeed in celebrating 
 its centennial, it ought to be judicious, as you have 
 been, in selecting its alumni. 
 
 I presume you have seen in the public prints an 
 analysis of the list of the alumni of Middlebury 
 College for the last century. I will simply say I 
 have read it with wonder and delight. I do not see 
 how that record can well be matched. Such a 
 number of ministers of the gospel, and missionaries 
 of the Cross, and presidents of universities and 
 colleges, and senators, and governors, and others 
 conspicuous in church and state, — I will honestly 
 say that I do not believe our record for our two 
 centuries will be, in quality, equal to that. 
 
 One reason for this is because, it seems to me, 
 Middlebury has had an advantage over larger insti- 
 tutions in the stuff you have had to work with. I 
 think that the Vermont boy, as he has come up 
 from his country home nestling amid your moun- 
 tains, is about as good stuff for a university to make 
 a record of its alumni with as could well be had. 
 Mr. Chairman, I believe in young men who have 
 their futures before them and not behind them, — 
 young men coming from frugal homes, — homes of 
 frugal abundance, full of work, full of energy, with 
 all their vitalities untainted, all their ambitions un- 
 sated by luxury and wealth, — such is the stuff out 
 of which great alumni are made. Such youth have 
 
THE LUNCHEON 
 
 235 
 
 ever been the boast of Yale University, also its very- 
 bone and sinew. The best material we have and 
 have ever had is the poor boys who come to us, 
 and out of them our best men are fashioned. I 
 have thought there was a certain likeness in that 
 material to the marble which you dig out of your 
 mountains. It is good stuff to work at. It pays 
 for the toil you put upon it. It takes a pohsh, and 
 when the structure is done, wherever you set it, 
 there it stands, age long, resplendent and enduring. 
 
 Another reason why it seems to me that your list 
 of alumni is so superior, is the quality of the tuition 
 and the administration which you have enjoyed in 
 Middlebury. I am sure you will forgive me if I say 
 that I know from personal observation what was the 
 patience, the energy, the wdsdom, the faith which 
 was put into one decade of that administration, 
 and I am sure into all the rest. 
 
 It is the fate of the college teacher to enjoy the 
 fruits of his work not at once. He sits in his chair 
 in his lecture-room, and the stream of youth pass 
 before him. He utters his message and they go, 
 passing on and out into the world and its activities, 
 when he has seen little more than the beginnings of 
 the work he has wTought upon them. Sometimes 
 he almost feels like the poet who said : " I have 
 writ my name in water." But when the decades 
 are fulfilled, and the great "round up" of the cen- 
 tury comes, then the patient teacher has at last 
 
236 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 his hour of triumph. To-day, you of Middlebury 
 College are " returning, bearing your sheaves with 
 you." And it is my faith to believe that those who 
 labored in this place in earlier days, who have gone 
 to their rest, though we see them not, are yet with us. 
 We cannot hear their voices with the ear of sense, 
 yet we may with the ear of the spirit, as they, too, join 
 with us in our song of joy and our hymns of triumph. 
 In closing, may I offer this sentiment : Middle- 
 bury College, — may she go on in other centuries to 
 do like work to that which she has done in this. 
 
 Mr. Stewart : The University of Vermont and 
 Middlebury College. It is a matter of extreme 
 gratification to me that under the administration of 
 our honored guest. President Buckham, and the 
 administration of our honored President Brainerd, 
 the relation between these two colleges has become 
 that of cordial, friendly cooperation in the great 
 work of education. There is no rivalry between us 
 except that which comes from a generous desire on 
 the part of each to do its best for the country. I 
 introduce to you President Buckham. 
 
 PRESIDENT MATTHEW H. BUCKHAM'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman, Fellow Alumni of Middlebury College: 
 
 FOR the last two days, during these most de- 
 lightful exercises of your Centennial, I have 
 been watching and listening with a mingled feeling 
 
THE LUNCHEON 237 
 
 of admiration and envy. Now, by the kindness, 
 Mr. Chairman, of the President and Fellows of 
 Middlebury College, you have taken away from me 
 all this feeling of envy, and have left with me the 
 feeling of admiration, adding to it a delightful sense 
 of fellowship and participation with you. 
 
 But this is not the first expression of good-will 
 between Middlebury College and the University of 
 Vermont. I do not know that it would do any 
 harm for me to divulge on this occasion a little his- 
 tory which very few of you probably have heard of. 
 Several years ago, in the attempt which was made 
 to unite Middlebury College and the University, 
 the University made overtures to Middlebury Col- 
 lege by the intimation to one of your trustees and 
 former professors, George N. Boardman, that if he 
 would accept the situation, our trustees would make 
 him President of the University of Vermont. But 
 as he did not accept, you put upon us a return 
 courtesy, and it was intimated to me that if I would 
 accept the situation I might be President of Middle- 
 bury College. 
 
 To make sure there was no mistake about that, 
 and also to get my heart warmed up towards Mid- 
 dlebury College, before I left home yesterday morn- 
 ing I looked up the correspondence and found that 
 my memory was correct. So now, brethren, you 
 see what an honor I have lost, and what a merciful 
 escape you had. But I am sure it is better as it is. 
 
238 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 I want to congratulate my brother Brainerd, and 
 all the trustees of Middlebury College, that they 
 will never have to wrestle hereafter with the prob- 
 lem of uniting the two colleges. It was an original 
 mistake to have the two, but we can never say which 
 should go out. Now, when both institutions are a 
 hundred years old, the thought of transplanting one 
 of them is so absurd that no president or trustee 
 will ever have occasion to tackle that problem 
 again. 
 
 I want to congratulate the friends of Middlebury 
 College on two or three things. I want to con- 
 gratulate you on your history. It seems to me the 
 best treasury of any college is its history. All 
 these college presidents will sympathize with me 
 when I say that the pressing problem with us is the 
 financial one. But I would like to ask you, gen- 
 tlemen, as trustees, and you, as president, if you 
 were offered a large sum of money on condition 
 that you would give up the history of Middlebury 
 College, and give away the inspiration and potency 
 of this history, if you would take the sum of money 
 as an equivalent. Of course you would not. 
 
 And I want to congratulate you upon the affec- 
 tion of your alumni. I had thought that the love 
 of the alumni of the University of Vermont was 
 about the most intimate and devoted affection that 
 possibly could exist between a body of alumni and 
 their alma mater. But what I have witnessed here, 
 
THE LUNCHEON 239 
 
 this large assemblage from all parts of the land, the 
 intense and unflagging interest in all these pro- 
 longed exercises, the enthusiastic response to every 
 appeal to your loyalty and pride, — all this has con- 
 vinced me that you also have your full share of this 
 most beautiful and most honorable sentiment of 
 affection for your college. And now that you 
 have made me one of you, you have given me the 
 right to have, to a certain extent, although a late 
 comer, the same feeling, and to rejoice with you in 
 your prosperity. And you must believe me, that 
 the honor you have conferred upon me, great as 
 it is, is not so gratifying as is the expression of 
 your good-will, and the kindly thought of the insti- 
 tution which you represent towards the University 
 of Vermont. 
 
 And now I congratulate you upon your future. 
 To me the future prosperity of Middlebury College 
 seems just as secure and settled as is the noonday 
 after the dawn. It is coming ; it is sure to come 
 and to grow. And as you have said, and I echo 
 the sentiment from the bottom of my heart, there 
 shall be no rivalry between the University of Ver- 
 mont and Middlebury College hereafter but that 
 generous rivalry by which we shall provoke each 
 other to love and good works. 
 
 Mr. Stewart: President Hopkins, of blessed 
 memory, the great President of Williams College, 
 
240 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 is said to have said many years ago, that he hoped 
 to bring Williams up to the standard of Middlebury. 
 I had the pleasure to be in Williamstown about the 
 time of their anniversary last year, and in looking 
 about, although I did not interview President Car- 
 ter or anybody else, I was an observer, and I was 
 satisfied from appearances that President Hopkins, 
 if he had then lived, — in fact he did live to see 
 his hope more than realized, — would have been 
 gratified. We all rejoice in the prosperity of Wil- 
 liams, even if she has surpassed us. She has done 
 a magnificent work, and it is with great pleasure 
 that I am able to present to you President Carter 
 of Williams College, who delivered yesterday an 
 admirable address which you all ought to have 
 heard. 
 
 PRESIDENT FRANKLIN CARTER'S SPEECH 
 
 IT may not be within the knowledge of this body 
 of alumni that when the line was run which 
 now constitutes the line between Massachusetts and 
 Vermont, by a deflection of the needle it was run 
 two miles farther north than it should have been. 
 Had it only run two miles farther south, Williams- 
 town would have been in Vermont. Whether Wil- 
 liams College would then have been Middlebury 
 College, or Middlebury College would have been 
 Williams College, I am not able to say. I think I 
 am safe in saying that Williams College would not 
 
THE LUNCHEON 241 
 
 have existed, because it was a provision in the will 
 of Ephraim Williams that unless that town should 
 fall within the State of Massachusetts, Williams 
 College, or the academy from which the college 
 grew, should not be founded. Undoubtedly if Wil- 
 liams College had not existed, Middlebury College 
 might have existed ; but as it is, they shine together 
 like two stars in the firmament. 
 
 It is a matter of great congratulation that I, as a 
 native of Connecticut coming into Vermont, find 
 myself so much at home. The very names that 
 were familiar to my boyhood — New Haven, Water- 
 bury, and Middlebury — give me a sense of home 
 feeling. 
 
 It is unquestionably true that both Williams and 
 Middlebury have been devoted to the Bible. It 
 was not a son of Middlebury, it was not a son of 
 Williams I am sure, — it may not have been a repub- 
 lican, it may have been a populist, who, upon being 
 asked who it was that said his burden was more 
 than he could bear, said that " it was Agag when 
 he was hewn in pieces before the Lord." 
 
 I have a single word to say about the loyalty 
 which alumni show to their college. No matter 
 where we see it, it is an evidence that he who cher- 
 ishes it is not without noble affections ; and it is as 
 marked in the son of the small college as in the son 
 of the great university. Any one familiar with the 
 history of these lesser colleges knows that there are 
 
242 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 men in their alumni who love to show the greatest 
 loyalty to the common centre of their scholarly life, 
 and to that organic unity which we call the col- 
 lege. Any one who has watched the history of the 
 smaller colleges cannot fail to be inspired by the 
 record. As the young men come to receive greater 
 respect and attain higher positions, and as the older 
 men pass out of our vision into the great reward, 
 leaving a noble record, no accurate observer can 
 fail to feel that he is watching the sure progressive 
 growth of a great and mighty influence ; and if he 
 be a worthy son of the college, his heart will thrill 
 with joy that he has a right to inherit these tradi- 
 tions, and to have a share in the ministrations of 
 his college to the service of humanity. 
 
 The university snob — a rare creature, thank God 
 — sometimes sneers at the small college, and the 
 graduate of the college sometimes thinks that he 
 might blush for the homespun which his college is 
 clothed with ; but the true son will rejoice to see 
 that inner, high, and invisible glory, the glory of 
 self-sacrifice, which a few names have made to rest 
 like a Shekinah upon the altar of his worship. 
 
 There is an epigram current in England that the 
 Oxford graduate looks as if the world belonged to 
 him, and that the Cambridge graduate looks as 
 though he did n't care to whom the world did be- 
 long. I don't know that there is any real signifi- 
 cance in this analysis. But the graduate of the New 
 
THE LUNCHEON 243 
 
 England college is a modest man, and looks neither 
 as if the world belonged to him, nor as if he did n't 
 care to whom the world belonged ; he looks, as w^e 
 have seen him, in lofty and lowly positions, as if he 
 belonged to the world, and was in the world to 
 make it better. 
 
 Mr. President, in the sure certitude of this fellow- 
 ship, the sons of Williams greet to-day the sons of 
 Middlebury. 
 
 I do not know whether the story which I have 
 heard is true or not, but it is said that in the revival 
 of missionary zeal in our college, a young man 
 came to this college in its infancy and spent a year 
 here that he might revive its missionary spirit. 
 But whether the story be fable or truth, it is the 
 sympathy of purpose that has caused the sons of 
 Williams to wish for the sons of Middlebury, and 
 for this College, the same fidelity to God's love 
 that has made the last century glorious ; and they 
 ask for this College that it may have the amplest 
 resources in order that that fidelity may contribute 
 even more efficiently in the future than it has in 
 the past, to the uplifting, and the blessing, and the 
 redemption of all sorts and conditions of men. 
 
 Mr. Stewart: We had a letter of regret from 
 President Stryker of Hamilton College, but we 
 have a representative from that institution to which 
 we once sent a president, — President Davis, — 
 
244 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 with us to-day, and I take pleasure in introducing 
 to you the Rev. Dr. Winslow. 
 
 DOCTOR WILLIAM C. WINSLOW'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 MY commission is brevity itself. Your hon- 
 ored President, Ezra Brainerd, wonderfully 
 blends the two qualities which make a man equally 
 dogmatic and winsome. When I met him yester- 
 day, for the first time in my life, he quietly touched 
 me on the shoulder, smiled benignantly, and said 
 he had heard from Hamilton College ; adding, with 
 a will greater than mine, " Say just a word or two 
 to-morrow at the luncheon." A word or two ! It 
 naturally means multum in parvo — I fear, very 
 little in my case. But what can you say in a word 
 or two at the birthday festival of one so loved and 
 honored as is Middlebury ? 
 
 I am introduced as of Hamilton College ; but I 
 am not even a non-commissioned officer of that 
 noble institution ; I am one of her sons, however, 
 and although not affiliated with any college, yet in 
 my way as archaeologist I dig up Egyptian roots 
 rather more than Greek roots, and try to advance 
 the cause which seeks after buried knowledge relat- 
 ing to the classical past and perhaps to Adam, and 
 the beginning of education, when Adam began to 
 talk, — or, rather, Eve instructed him in that art. 
 
THE LUNCHEON 245 
 
 But I must take care of my minute or two, and 
 remember how it was with the mummies. Were 
 they not pressed for time ? So am I. 
 
 In a word, I bring you hearty greetings from 
 Hamilton. I am sure you will deplore with me 
 that my college-mate, Secretary Root, of Washing- 
 ton, or Senator Hawley, of Connecticut, or Charles 
 Dudley Warner, could not be here to congratulate 
 you; and, above all, that President Stryker, the 
 Chrysostom of college presidents, is not here with 
 his own golden words to hail your twice-golden 
 birthday of one hundred years. I seem to hear his 
 voice, however, on behalf of Hamilton, coming to 
 us from the heart of New York State, over the 
 Mohawk valley and across Lake Champlain, as the 
 word from one of the smaller colleges to another 
 one, saying, in effect, " Be of good cheer, the day of 
 the college shall never pass away! The Middle- 
 burys, Amhersts, Williamses, Hamiltons have a 
 • part and a place to fill as much as have the old and 
 the rich-new universities.*' You see I believe in 
 colleges — my educational creed — and I look from 
 my own height to-day over the " Presidential 
 Range " before me ; following after some of the 
 presidents, speaking before others; so that I feel 
 like eulogizing the true and essential work which 
 the college does, whose students are in close touch 
 with president and professor as well as instructor 
 and tutor. 
 
246 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 But no ; of the several things in my mind inspired 
 by this occasion, I will say that I am a convert to- 
 day, henceforth and forever, to coeducation. I up- 
 hold the Wellesleys, Smiths, Vassars, Bryn Mawr 
 where so much advanced work is done; but as a result 
 of my visit here, where my eyes and ears are wide 
 open, I am in favor of coeducation. The Roman 
 drama performed last evening so admirably by the 
 undergraduates brilliantly proves that a college of 
 young men and young women can enact a drama 
 which, to my mind, would grace Sanders' Theatre 
 of Harvard University. I seem to see before me 
 now that beautiful daughter of Cicero, those other 
 daughters of Middlebury, and Cicero himself, so 
 naturally earnest, Catiline, so brazen and yet so 
 abashed, and the others, too, and I take additional 
 pride in Middlebury and stronger belief in coedu- 
 cation. 
 
 Yes, pride in Middlebury, for it is a kind of 
 family college, as my uncle Miron, of the Class, 
 of 181 5, graduated here, and my father here en- 
 tered the Class of 1825; besides which the family 
 came from Williston, where and elsewhere in 
 Vermont I often go to snuff your glorious Green 
 Mountain air ; and, among other connecting links, 
 I am on the roll of your Vermont Historical 
 Society. So my love for Middlebury is at once 
 natural and inspired — inspired by your very suc- 
 cessful celebration. 
 
THE LUNCHEON 247 
 
 But I now look up to see emblazoned over there 
 your cherished motto, Scientia et Virtus, and I will 
 wed to it two words from very old Egypt — older 
 even than Heliopolis, which was the Middlebury 
 College of Egypt, where Moses graduated in cap and 
 gown; Moses, the far-back predecessor of Ezra. 
 {Cries of 'rah, Wah, 'rah) Rah, by the way, goes 
 back to Egypt, too. Ra was the god of the rising 
 sun, and is most fitting for a rising college like 
 yours to invoke. I refer to Memphis now. It 
 got its name from men and nefer, two Egyptian 
 words standing for secure and beautiful. And so 
 I will end my simple but heartfelt remarks, as I 
 once more recall your noble motto, with this 
 addition, transmitted to us through thousands of 
 years: May Middlebury College forever represent 
 whatever is secure in character and beautiful in 
 every form of culture. 
 
 Mr. Stewart: We have a representative of an- 
 other institution, and a very useful institution, 
 one that has been adorned for some years by two 
 of our own men. Professor Kellogg and Professor 
 Sheldon; and such an institution as that must 
 have done good work. It gives me great pleasure 
 to present to you the president of that institution, 
 Dr. Snow. 
 
248 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 PRESIDENT HENRY S. SNOW'S SPEECH 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Alumni of Middlebury College, Ladies 
 AND Gentlemen: 
 
 IT IS a very great pleasure to me to be here with 
 you in Middlebury on this occasion. The Poly- 
 technic in Brooklyn owes very much to you that 
 you have sent us the man whose eloquence, 
 whose profound thought, you have listened to with 
 such delight during the present week. I looked up 
 to him years ago, and I look up to him still, as my 
 professor. I cherish him as one of the dearest of my 
 friends, and I am more and more thankful for every 
 influence in Middlebury which made him what he is, 
 and which may have sent him to Brooklyn. You 
 have also given us Dr. Samuel Sheldon, your 
 talented alumnus, and Professor of Electrical Engi- 
 neering, who has already made for himself a promi- 
 nent place among the scientific men of Brooklyn. 
 
 It has been an inspiration to me, coming, too, as 
 I do, from an institution hardly half as old as your 
 own, to witness the wonderful gathering of alumni 
 this week, and the enthusiasm which pervades your 
 air. It must be a delight as well as an inspiration to 
 the officers of the College to feel it. To be here as 
 an unworthy recipient of the honors which you have 
 bestowed upon me on this centennial occasion is in- 
 deed a pleasure which I recognize, and I equally 
 recognize in it your tribute to what Middlebury men 
 
THE LUNCHEON 249 
 
 have done for other colleges. Perhaps if I recognize 
 the way to render service in the cause of education, 
 I shall be better able to stand the responsibility and 
 the dignity. 
 
 And now, what shall I say to you, gentlemen of 
 Middlebury, and ladies of Middlebury, looking forth 
 upon the new century ? I doubt not the future of 
 the College will be larger than the past. I think it 
 stands for truth, but for that truth which recognizes 
 that so much of it as man has yet acquired and 
 proved is but the smallest fragment; that the great 
 undiscovered realm of truth lies before and not be- 
 hind us ; and that he who would dogmatically plant 
 himself upon the little that man has yet acquired, 
 and shut his eyes to the vastness of the future, being 
 contented with what the past has given, would be 
 as blind as would Columbus have been, had he sta- 
 tioned himself upon the West Indian island, think- 
 ing he had discovered the yet undiscovered country 
 that lay beyond the sea. 
 
 And the expression that I have heard this week 
 from the College stands for faith in the triumph of 
 men ; for faith in the power and ability of men to 
 grow ; for faith in the power of men to subdue the 
 vast forces of nature to their service ; for that faith 
 which rolls on with every additional conquest in 
 the world of science ; for the conviction, if not the 
 perception, of the reality of the unseen world, — the 
 world of soul and spirit. 
 
250 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 I wish for you a future larger than your past has 
 been, and that the College, founded upon a truth as 
 unshakable as the mountains that look down upon 
 Middlebury, with clearer vision, with a horizon as 
 boundless as that overarched by the blue dome from 
 which you have taken the colors of the College, 
 may go forward in the labors and duties of the new 
 century with larger hope and with larger success. 
 
 Mr. Stewart: It gives me great pleasure to 
 introduce to you, as the next speaker, the Rev. 
 Byron Sunderland, of Washington. I recollect 
 that when I was a lad in the time of Saxe, the 
 poetic sons of Middlebury were divided between 
 Saxe and Sunderland. Saxe was in the Class of 
 '39, and Dr. Sunderland in the Class of '38. It 
 depended on your mood somewhat, which of the 
 two poets you preferred. Saxe was a little more 
 funny ; Dr. Sunderland was a little more sentimen- 
 tal, and possibly poetic. At that time of my career, 
 being somewhat in a sentimental way, my bias was 
 rather in favor of Dr. Sunderland. Now, we want 
 to hear a word from my good friend. He labors 
 under a severe cold, and it is not easy for him to 
 speak at all, and you will therefore bear with that 
 infirmity. 
 
THE LUNCHEON 25 1 
 
 DOCTOR BYRON SUNDERLAND'S SPEECH 
 
 NOW, Mr. Chairman, what on earth made you 
 invite me to speak to-day, after all that we 
 have heard ? These gentlemen have gone over the 
 whole subject; they have used it up, and there is 
 nothing left for me to say. 
 
 But I wish to tell President Brainerd that when 
 he read out that peculiar handle to my name this 
 morning, I was completely overwhelmed. I wanted 
 to say something about my Alma Mater ; I wanted 
 to express my joy that she had not forgotten me, 
 and to say that it was still my prayer that she should 
 continue to be more and more in the future, more 
 illustrious than in the past. 
 
 But what can I say ? A man comes here and is 
 overwhelmed with memories and thoughts. I have 
 been out of college sixty-two years, and where 
 shall I set in and where shall I come out.-^ But 
 would n't it have been a pleasure if we could have 
 had James D. Butler here to-day, that most won- 
 derful encyclopedia of all knowledge that ever, I 
 think, went out from this college ? If we could 
 have had John G. Saxe, the prince of poetical pun- 
 sters, or Edward J. Phelps, of lamented memory? 
 Had that been possible, you would have listened to 
 something worthy and entertaining. 
 
 In reference to Mr. Phelps, I want to say that I owe 
 more to him than to any other one man for the turn 
 
252 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 of my life, and the fact of my going to Washington, 
 the capitol of the republic, and spending so many 
 of the years of my life there. It all depended upon 
 a little, almost whispered, sentence that fell upon 
 the ear of Mr. Phelps in the Treasury Building at 
 Washington, when he was seated at his desk as the 
 Second Comptroller of the Treasury. His chief 
 clerk was a member of the old First Presbyterian 
 Church, and they had been without a minister for 
 about eighteen months. They had sent a commit- 
 tee to the north and east, and all through New Eng- 
 land, and it came home without avail ; but there 
 was a conversation just in the open doorway of Mr. 
 Phelps's office, between this secretary and another 
 member of the church, and the secretary, Mr. John- 
 son, said : " Well, it is too bad ; I don't know what 
 we shall do for a minister." This was said almost 
 in a whisper, but it fell upon the ear of Mr. Phelps, 
 and he looked up from his writing and said: " What 
 is that, Johnson, — you have n't any minister.? Well, 
 I know just the man for you." I heard this from 
 Mr. Phelps, who told me afterwards that he had n't 
 thought of me for five years ; but we were in col- 
 lege together two years, and he knew that I in- 
 tended to be a minister. He did n't know where I 
 was at that time, but it shot into his head, and he 
 named me, and that was the beginning. 
 
 The reminiscences of this time are so many that 
 with your indulgence I will simply refer to two 
 
THE LUNCHEON 253 
 
 th-ings that happened while I have been living there. 
 One was the conversation that I had with President 
 Lincoln about two days before his proclamation of 
 emancipation came out, which you will remember 
 was on the first of January, 1863. The papers had 
 been intimating that he had merely made a bluff of 
 it, and that he didn't intend to put forth this procla- 
 mation, but merely to frighten the Southern people 
 into submission. I was very anxious about that, 
 and I got a friend to make an appointment with the 
 President for me. The first of January came that 
 year on Thursday. On Tuesday evening I held this 
 interview with the President by appointment. I 
 went in and said to him : " Mr. President, I have 
 come to present my congratulations, and to talk with 
 you about a proclamation." He was standing, a 
 great tall figure, the shades of night around us ; we 
 had only one little gas burner on the table between 
 us, and I almost feared to approach him. I could 
 just see his form, and when I said this he replied: 
 " Oh, Doctor, go on ; every little helps." I was very 
 earnest about it, but to make a long story short, I 
 made a remark or two, and he said : " Well, you 
 know, Doctor, Peter was going to do it, but when 
 the day came he did n't do much." I had just been 
 studying Peter's case, and I was glad he referred to 
 it ; I said : " Mr. President, if you will follow the 
 example of Peter until you are rebuked in the pres- 
 ence of the enemy as Peter w^as by his Master, you 
 
2 54 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 will come out all right." You will remember that 
 he was going to fight, and drew his sword, and 
 never left off until the Master turned and rebuked 
 him. That seemed to take the President, and 
 then he sat down and made one of the most mag- 
 nificent presentations of the whole question. He 
 made me think of one of the old prophets, and I 
 always regretted that there wasn't some stenogra- 
 pher there to take down what he said. Among 
 other things he told this story when he was talking 
 about the immediate effect of the emancipation 
 proclamation upon the negro race. He said : " I 
 don't know how it will be, it is a great responsibility 
 to think of such a thing; four million of those poor 
 creatures set loose in this way to take care of them- 
 selves. I told old Wade the other day it reminded 
 me of one of the first books I read in my boyhood, 
 a rough wood-cut on one side, and on the other page 
 a story telling what it meant; about the middle of 
 the book were two or three men who had got a large 
 potash kettle and had filled it with ice water, and 
 had got a negro and had plunged him in several 
 times, thinking they were going to make a white 
 man of him, but in the mean time the negro took 
 cold and died. And so, I don't know what will be 
 the effect." 
 
 In 1862, Senator Salisbury of Delaware, who had 
 been educated for the ministry and was a very fine 
 Hebrew scholar, but afterwards turned to the side 
 
THE LUNCHEON 255 
 
 of the law and got into the Senate, got up one day 
 and made a tremendous speech in favor of the Bible 
 argument for slavery. Many of the senators were 
 not as well acquainted with the Old Testament as he 
 was, and it made considerable of a disturbance. He 
 spoke an hour and a half. When I went up the 
 next morning to open the session of the Senate, I 
 was surrounded by a number of gentlemen who 
 said : " You ought to have been here yesterday ; 
 Salisbury has been giving a Bible argument in favor 
 of slavery." We were all strained up in those days, 
 and our ideas and thoughts were very swift ; and just 
 then Hannibal Hamlin rapped the Senate to order. 
 As I stepped up into the desk to commence my 
 prayer, this thing, I don't know how, shot into me 
 like an arrow, and I said : " O God of this Nation, 
 be pleased to teach this Senate, and to teach the 
 American people, that if slavery is a Bible institution, 
 so is hell itself; and O Lord God, be pleased to 
 help this Senate and the American people to abolish 
 the one and escape from the other." Well, the sena- 
 tors got about Salisbury that day and nagged him 
 almost to death, so that about four o'clock in the 
 afternoon he sent up a resolution to be read by the 
 clerk, which was, after considerable of a preamble : 
 " Resolved, that the chaplain of the Senate be ex- 
 pelled." But just then it was time to adjourn, and 
 that was the last we ever heard of his speech or his 
 resolution. 
 
256 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 I must not take up any more time. I have been 
 under the doctor's care since I have been here, but 
 I am delighted to be with you, and I think it is a 
 gracious kindness of Providence that I am here. 
 
 Mr. Stewart: We would like to hear a few 
 words from Dr. Boardman, of the Class of '47. 
 
 DOCTOR GEORGE N. BOARDMAN'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman : 
 
 I HAVE been asked to say a word about Dr. 
 Labaree's administration. I rise with reluc- 
 tance to speak on this subject, because it may seem 
 a discordant note in this tide of congratulations and 
 joyful sentiment, but perhaps it will do us no harm to 
 look back for a few moments and see from what we 
 have grown in attaining our present altitude. 
 
 In 1 84 1, Dr. Labaree was forty years old, a man 
 of great physical strength, fine attainments, good 
 reputation, from whom much was expected by his 
 friends. The old people of Hanover remembered 
 young Labaree as a stirring speaker in public meet- 
 ings, and he was known as a man of fine attain- 
 ments as a college graduate. He made no claim 
 to special acquisitions. He did, however, once 
 have a little brush with a learned professor of Latin 
 in an educational meeting, and I believe the learned 
 professor came in, in the afternoon, and made an 
 
THE LUNCHEON 257 
 
 apology for having assaulted him. He was a man 
 who was successful in whatever he undertook. I 
 remember that General Nash said of him once : " I 
 don't know what the College is coming to, but there 
 is a great man at the helm." 
 
 But he came in somewhat troublous times. He 
 sometimes said he had to make a new college. His 
 friends said the same thing. I have myself sometimes 
 compared his work with that of President Atwater, 
 who began his institutional career here in 1800, 
 and I have been reminded of these words of Watts ; 
 he says, does he not, somewhere: — 
 
 " *T was great to speak a world from naught, 
 'Twas greater to redeem." 
 
 He really restored the College, for it seemed to 
 have lost its standing. He did not know it when 
 he came, certainly not when he was appointed and 
 accepted the place, but he found afterwards he had 
 some difficulties to meet that were at first unsus- 
 pected; and it is a significant fact that he labored 
 twenty-five years without an attempt to enlarge the 
 institution, except to enlarge its funds. He came 
 in 184 1 ; I talked with him in 1859 about one addi- 
 tional professorship ; that is, to have a professorship 
 of philosophy, as other institutions were having. 
 He said it was useless to think of it at that time. 
 There were six instructors, — the president with his 
 professorship, four other professors, and a tutor. 
 
258 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 These constituted the Faculty, — a marked illustra- 
 tion of the truth of the remarks of President Tucker 
 as to the curriculum, in his address yesterday. 
 
 I will speak of one or two things that he had to 
 encounter. One was the alienation of the former 
 graduates of the college. I myself have met good 
 men who were vexed with the work or action of the 
 Trustees of that time, because they ignored Middle- 
 bury for some reason, — I never could explain it, — 
 and filled vacancies in the Faculty from graduates 
 of other colleges. They had an excellent tutor, who 
 was almost the backbone of the institution, of the 
 Class of '38, and who is present with us to-day, 
 William F. Bascom ; but in new appointments other 
 colleges were given the preference. 
 
 Dr. Labaree supposed that he was coming to 
 Middlebury to connect his work with what had 
 been done before, but he happened to meet, at some 
 place, Professor Hough, and there learned the state 
 of things. I do not know what Professor Hough said, 
 but a lady of Middlebury told me she supposed she 
 had heard the same remarks, and that never before 
 did she know what the English language was capable 
 of by way of reproach. 
 
 The antislavery sentiment was working like 
 leaven at the time, and he had to encounter it. 
 The younger people here know nothing of that. I 
 suppose they know that the civil war made some 
 commotion, but at the North it really united people. 
 
THE LUNCHEON 259 
 
 while the agitation preceding it divided them. 
 When such a man as Wendell Phillips, a good 
 orthodox churchman, could propose an antislavery 
 resolution, that the exit of the slave from the house 
 of his bondage must be over the ruins of the church 
 and the constitution, we may know there was some- 
 thing in the air. There was a good deal of jealousy 
 of the churches and of educational institutions, and 
 in order to test our College some one got up the 
 story that there were five colored young men, of 
 good character, who desired to enter some college 
 in New England, and wrote to President Labaree 
 asking if he would take them. He answered, very 
 discreetly, that we were willing to do our share in 
 educational work of that kind. The abolition 
 papers through New England, from Boston to Bur- 
 lington, rang with criticisms and sarcastic sneers 
 over the reply. That, however, was a small matter, 
 for it soon passed off, and the truth came out that 
 no such five persons existed, except in some one's 
 imagination. 
 
 Then there was the question of the union of the 
 colleges. The President was engaged in soliciting 
 funds, and was met with the remark that one college 
 was enough for Vermont. He entered into a very 
 cordial correspondence upon this matter with Presi- 
 dent Wheeler, and they always remained excellent 
 friends, — the President of the University and the 
 President of Middlebury College, — but after a good 
 
26o MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 deal of discussion, not to the detriment of Middle- 
 bury, the matter was dropped. 
 
 When this question was out of the way, he pro- 
 ceeded to raise twenty-five thousand dollars, — a 
 modest sum, but he did not dare go higher, as it 
 was thought best to confine the first effort towards 
 endowment to the vicinage of the College. Con- 
 nected with these turmoils was the breaking up of 
 the Faculty. At the close of the year 1847, Presi- 
 dent Labaree and James Meacham, afterward our 
 distinguished Congressman, were left alone as col- 
 lege instructors. It was not till the commencement 
 anniversary of 1848 that a new Faculty was fully 
 formed. 
 
 The semicentennial celebration in 1850 was a 
 cheering one, and the president hoped that the 
 still remaining work of college endowment might 
 be performed by agents, but this was an anticipation 
 not to be realized. After several abortive attempts, 
 he was compelled to resume himself that unattrac- 
 tive part of college labor, and continue it, on occa- 
 sions at least, to the close of his term of office. 
 
 We have not time to speak of later and better 
 known discouragements, as the distractions caused 
 by the civil war, the loss of students who entered 
 the army, and the loss of Starr Hall by fire. It 
 can be truthfully said, and it is but just to say, 
 that President Labaree, sustained indeed by loyal 
 friends, by his wisdom, courage, and indomitable 
 
THE LUNCHEON 26 1 
 
 perseverance, through twenty-five years of peculiar 
 trials, steadily advanced the interests of the College, 
 and in 1866 gave it over into the hands of his suc- 
 cessor in a much better condition than that in which 
 he found it. 
 
 There are two things that occur to me to say as 
 a matter of exhortation to the alumni, — that every 
 rich man give his money when it is needed. Fifty 
 thousand dollars in 1841 would have changed Dr. 
 Labaree's administration from a period of trial to 
 one of cheer. Another thing is this, to the college 
 authorities, to stand by the traditions. The break- 
 ing off of the past from the future in 1840 was a 
 sad mistake. We had a wise Corporation in many 
 respects. They knew a good minister, they knew a 
 good lawyer, but they did not know a college. They 
 were not imbued with the traditional sentiment that 
 pervades an institution. They had not learned to 
 love it for what it was and had been. 
 
 Our friend and honored alumnus, recently gone, 
 Edward J. Phelps, used to dwell with great elo- 
 quence upon the power of traditions. We need, the 
 corporation needs, to be imbued in every muscle, 
 bone, and sinew with the living transmitted senti- 
 ments of the institution. I have been sometimes 
 called a conservative, and I am willing to bear the 
 name, for there can be no advance except through a 
 force already existing. There is no growth except 
 in the maintaining of that which we have, and in 
 
262 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 guarding that which is already established. " To 
 thyself be true." 
 
 Mr. Stewart: I know you will all be glad to 
 hear a word from Dr. Hamlin, who came to the 
 College in an hour of extreme depression, and, in 
 my judgment, — and I know what I am talking 
 about, — gave it its first impulse on the upward 
 grade, on which it has been going ever since. He 
 took his coat off and went into the laboratory and 
 into the department of physics, and with his own 
 hand repaired the machinery. I came up here 
 one day, and said, "Where is Dr. Hamlin.?" 
 They told me, and I went to the library but did n't 
 find him ; and I kept going up and finally got into 
 the attic, and there, — it was dark and full of cob- 
 webs, as it usually was, with the beams so close that 
 I nearly broke my head in getting up, — there 
 I found Dr. Hamlin hard at work. We owe him a 
 debt of gratitude. He began with this century, 
 he is almost as old as the College; he cannot 
 make a long speech, and he ought not to try it; 
 but I know you want to see him, and I take great 
 pleasure, and feel it an honor, to introduce to you 
 Dr. Hamlin. 
 
THE LUNCHEON 263 
 
 PRESIDENT CYRUS HAMLIN'S SPEECH 
 Mr. President: 
 
 1 THINK I can make a short speech without 
 taking off my coat, and I wish to say at this 
 hour only two things : I wish to express my admi- 
 ration of what President Brainerd and his faithful 
 and able coadjutors have accomplished since I left 
 the College in 1885, and my profound gratitude for 
 the great kindness with which I have been received 
 by everybody in the College and out of it. God 
 bless you all. 
 
 Mr. Stewart: We are honored by the presence 
 of a gentleman, a busy man, but one who finds time 
 in the affairs of this world to devote a great deal of 
 time to the advancement of the cause of missions, 
 and I take pleasure in introducing to you the Hon- 
 orable Samuel B. Capen, LL.D., of Boston. 
 
 DOCTOR SAMUEL B. CAPEN'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman: 
 
 MY first word is to express my appreciation for 
 the honor you conferred upon me this morn- 
 ing, and for the permission to enter this brother- 
 hood. I am glad I can now say that. 
 
 I have been asked to say a word about the gradu- 
 ates of this institution in the foreign missionary 
 
264 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 work. An American bishop has said: " If you set 
 a Christian scholar working for God, you put a 
 force into the world that will counteract the influ- 
 ence of a thousand illiterate, vicious men." The 
 most effective force in this world to-day is the living 
 man in touch with living men. We do not under- 
 value the power of the printed page ; but when the 
 truth that is in that page is in the heart and brain 
 of the living soul, and then with conviction and 
 earnestness that truth is sent home to others, it 
 becomes a life in their lives. It was the Master's 
 method; Rewrote nothing himself. We are told 
 that He made once a few letters in the dust upon 
 the pavement, and that was all. What did He do.f^ 
 He took a little handful of men and told them of 
 the glory of the Kingdom, and then sent them forth 
 to preach and to teach in the spirit of the Master. 
 Middlebury College for a hundred years has been 
 doing just that thing. She has breathed her life 
 into her sons and her daughters, and then she has 
 bade them go forth to honorable achievement. 
 
 I have in my hand a list of thirty-five men, and I 
 think the list is not quite complete, who have been 
 sent forth by the American Board, who are grad- 
 uates of this institution. Magnificent list! Among 
 the names of those living I read those of Benjamin 
 Labaree, of the Class of 1854, a missionary to the 
 Nestorians, and my brother James L. Barton at my 
 left, of the Class of 1881, who was sent fifteen years 
 
THE LUNCHEON 265 
 
 ago to Turkey, and was fitted there as a missionary 
 and then as President of Euphrates College, for the 
 great position he now holds. One of our great 
 leaders said to me last year, " Doctor Barton is a 
 statesman and he is everywhere loved." 
 
 May I take two names out of the list and use them 
 as illustrations ? The first T would call your attention 
 to is that of Miron Winslow, whose honored nephew 
 you have listened to. You know him here as the 
 author of that wonderful Tamil English Lexicon, 
 which was the result for him of more than a quarter 
 of a century of work, three hours a day. He had to 
 make a language of thirty thousand words ; it is a 
 monument to his industry. He translated the Bible 
 and text-books, but he did another service with 
 which you are perhaps not so familiar. For many 
 years there was a conflict whether the whole work of 
 missions was not done, so far as missionaries were 
 concerned, when they simply did the evangelical 
 work of preaching the Gospel. Mr. Winslow 
 contended that we must train the boys and girls 
 to be missionaries to their own people. There 
 is no conflict to-day; the preacher and teacher 
 go hand in hand, and you must ever, in this 
 institution, remember Miron Winslow as the pio- 
 neer of those days. 
 
 The other name is that of Hiram Bingham, who 
 went to what were then called the Sandwich Islands, 
 in the same year, 18 19. When he went there, what 
 
266 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 did he find ? A race so degraded that men almost 
 doubted whether they were human or not. The 
 natives were sitting on the beach eating raw fish 
 with the dogs, and then eating the dogs. And what 
 is Hawaii to-day? President Barrows of Oberlin 
 College says : " If I were asked to give the place in 
 all the world where there is the greatest manifes- 
 tation of the power of the Gospel, I would take you 
 to those little islands in the Pacific." They are only 
 about the size of the State of Vermont, yet those 
 Hawaiian Christians give one-sixth as much money 
 as is given for missions in our Congregational 
 churches of the United States. The man who says 
 to-day that he does not believe in foreign missions 
 speaks from inexcusable ignorance, for the story of 
 the Hawaiian Islands is written. It is a stirring 
 story, and almost beyond comprehension, but you 
 friends of Middlebury will remember that Hiram 
 Bingham was there. You have been doing mag- 
 nificently in the past, and you are going to do 
 magnificently in the future. We are on the eve of 
 great movements ; we are coming to great achieve- 
 ments. Your sons, and the sons of other institutions, 
 in the spirit of the living Christ have turned them- 
 selves against heathendom, and all the customs and 
 superstitions of the past, and the world has been 
 standing back to say, absurd ! Yes, friends, the 
 same absurdity as when a little band of disciples, 
 inspired by the living Christ, threw themselves 
 
THE LUNCHEON 267 
 
 against the Roman Empire ; they who won then are 
 going to win now. God is back of it all. The 
 noblest work in this world, the noblest service, is to 
 be a minister of the Gospel; the noblest place in 
 that service is to be a missionary of the Cross. And 
 the sons of Middlebury have written their names 
 large in the roll of honor. Your past at least is 
 secure. May I not express the wish that the 
 glorious history of that past may be the prophecy of 
 still more glorious service in the future } 
 
 Mr. Stewart : There is a financial and business 
 end to all of this matter. You cannot make million- 
 aires, or lawyers, or anybody else, unless you put 
 business into it, and the law element is an essential 
 element in all the affairs of this world. 
 
 I wish to announce to the alumni present that we 
 have taken the opportunity, without consultation 
 with my friend, the gentleman I shall name, to uti- 
 lize his intelligence and his knowledge of affairs, 
 which are large and wide and acquired in many fields, 
 — we have undertaken to utilize these, without his 
 notice and without his knowledge, in making him a 
 member of the Board of Trustees of this institution. 
 
 He went far afield in early life. He made a large 
 mark on the shore of the Pacific, but he was drawn 
 back to our beloved State by a magnet which he 
 could not resist, and has been an honored resident 
 of the State for a quarter of a century. I take 
 
268 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 great pleasure in introducing to you my friend, 
 John G. McCullough of Bennington. 
 
 GENERAL JOHN G. McCULLOUGH'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman : 
 
 IN this era of universities (for everything is now 
 a university), it is quite exceptional and re- 
 freshing, but no less charming, to be allowed to 
 attend once more a college Commencement; and 
 that, too, of a college whose venerable locks are 
 whitened by an hundred years, and which for a 
 whole century has resisted the insidious process of 
 metempsychosis, and still stands in 1900, as in 1800, 
 proudly erect, plain Middlebury College. Her sons 
 are to be congratulated that their Alma Mater has 
 not become by transmigration a step-mother, but 
 still remains true to her first love. 
 
 And so, too, in turn, is the College to be con- 
 gratulated, that she has sent out into the world, 
 during all these years, so many sons who have 
 reflected honor upon her, and have won for them- 
 selves distinction in every walk of life. Many of 
 them we have heard from to-day ; others, doubtless, 
 will speak later on at this crowded banquet, all 
 bringing their tribute to this shrine. (The Chair- 
 man, in the hour or so at his disposal, is embarrassed 
 with riches.) Many more are absent, living lives 
 of usefulness all over this land. Still many more 
 
THE LUNCHEON 269 
 
 have gone over to the other shore, leaving enviable 
 records of well-spent lives. Among these, may I 
 not say, is Middlebury's greatest alumnus ; and it 
 has been suggested to me by one or two of those in 
 authority here, that it would be appropriate to voice 
 a word, and only a word, of eulogy at this time. 
 Had he lived, it was expected that Mr. Phelps 
 would have delivered the Centennial Oration to-day. 
 It detracts nothing from the gentleman who deliv- 
 ered the oration at the church this morning; it is 
 no disparagement to that able and eloquent and 
 discriminating address, to say that those who lis- 
 tened to Phelps on Marshall, at Saratoga, and on 
 Vermont, at Bennington, or who heard his farewell 
 at the London banquet as he was leaving the 
 shores of England, or his reply to the toast of Fore- 
 fathers' Day, at a New England dinner in New 
 York a few years ago, would have been electrified 
 on this occasion by a masterpiece of American 
 oratory on Middlebury College. But neither the 
 time, the lateness of the hour, nor the limitations of 
 the surroundings, permit any extended eulogy. We 
 can but throw a wild flower on his bier as it passes 
 by to-day. It must be left to some fitter one on 
 some more fitting occasion to pronounce a full and 
 just review of the man and his life work. 
 
 Mr. Phelps was a thorough New Englander, and 
 came of strong New England stock. He was en- 
 dowed by nature with a good constitution and he 
 
2 70 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 never abused it. He grew in mental vigor from his 
 youth to the end of his days. I did not know him 
 in his earlier years, but ever since I had the pleasure 
 of his acquaintance I always felt that he would be 
 equal to any emergency and easily meet every 
 demand. In his intercourse with men he was a 
 perfect gentleman. His transforming and uplifting 
 influence, especially with the young, seemed ever 
 present. He despised pretense and sham. He 
 detested hypocrisy and demagogy. 
 
 Mr. Phelps was a scholar, a lawyer,. a statesman, 
 a diplomatist. He was an educated and refined 
 scholar; and would have graced the ermine of the 
 judge, or the lawn of the prelate, the one as easily 
 as the other. He was a lover of the fine arts, 
 especially of music and painting, and it was ever an 
 exquisite delight to lead him into an easy conversa- 
 tional discourse on either. He was a born conver- 
 sationalist, — interesting, intelligent, charming, in- 
 structive, full of anecdote, and bubbling over with 
 wit and humor. 
 
 In letter-writing, — that lost art, — in my opinion 
 neither Lowell, nor Stevenson, nor any other ex- 
 celled him. He was only his own equal. Racy and 
 bright, full of novel conceits and unexpected lights 
 and shadows, now a vein of sadness, anon of glad- 
 ness, running through his lines as the mood ran 
 through his being. Unless Governor Stewart or 
 some other gathers together and publishes a volume 
 
THE LUNCHEON 271 
 
 of his letters, it will be an irreparable loss to litera- 
 ture. 
 
 As a member of the Vermont Bar, although there 
 are those present who could speak with fuller 
 knowledge and greater authority, in my judgment 
 Mr. Phelps during the past thirty or forty years 
 was almost, if not altogether, facile princeps. At 
 the bar of the Supreme Court of the Nation, of 
 which body he just escaped, by political chicanery, 
 being Chief Justice, he stood second to none, during 
 the past score of years and more, of all that able 
 and brilliant galaxy of lawyers and advocates appear- 
 ing before that august tribunal. His style was so 
 direct, his presentation of the facts of the case so 
 clear and concise, and so incisive and trenchant, 
 that victory was already half won when his state- 
 ment was made ; and this, followed up by a logic that 
 was at once the scimitar and the sledge-hammer, 
 carried conviction unerringly and irresistibly. 
 
 As a representative of this country at the first 
 court of the world, all along down the long line 
 of ambassadors and ministers at St. James', he is 
 the acknowledged peer, on both sides of the ocean, 
 of the proudest. The nation that sent him, and 
 the nation to which he was sent, seemed equally 
 proud of the lofty and dignified bearing that ever 
 characterized his course. 
 
 Mr. Phelps was an orator in the best sense of the 
 word. Webster was his great exemplar — the God- 
 
2 72 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 like Daniel, who trod this earth a demigod. He 
 was cultured and finished and eloquent, — eloquent 
 in ideas, not in words, — and his diction was perfect. 
 Our loss of the oration which he would have 
 delivered here to-day is not our loss alone; it is 
 the loss of the English-speaking world. 
 
 In a word, he was preeminent in every sphere. 
 But I forbear, my time is up, and I would close with 
 the salutation: Hail, good friend, bright genius, 
 Middlebury's greatest alumnus, hail and farewell ! 
 
 Mr. Stewart : I would like to hear a word from 
 Mr. Labaree, the son of our former honored 
 president. 
 
 DOCTOR JOHN C. LABAREE'S SPEECH 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 1 THANK you for the courteous invitation to say 
 a word on this occasion. The good Book says 
 that "the seat of the righteous shall be blessed." 
 Now I very carefully refrain from any criticism 
 assaulting that blessed Book ; but still it seems to me 
 somewhat questionable, the blessing of being called 
 upon to make a speech at this late hour, simply 
 because I am near the seat of the righteous. 
 
 It would be very agreeable to me, Mr. President, 
 in the name of one w4io has been spoken of very 
 kindly by Professor Boardman this afternoon, to 
 extend congratulations on the prosperity of Middle- 
 bury College at this time ; and I am sure, Sir, and 
 
' THE LUNCHEON 273 
 
 I delight SO to say, that were my father present he 
 would take great pleasure, as his sons do, in the 
 success attending the administration of President 
 Brainerd, and the gifts coming so largely and mag- 
 nificently from those who were his friends while he 
 was here. 
 
 Mr. President, I forbear to speak longer. It was 
 said by Professor Boardman that some one remarked 
 of my father that he had perseverance. It strikes 
 me that this audience has great patience; I will 
 not trespass upon it any longer, but offer my thanks 
 for your kindness and courtesy at this time. 
 
 Mr. Stewart : I want to hear a word from the 
 Rev. Dr. Holmes. 
 
 DOCTOR RICHARD S. HOLMES'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman : 
 
 LIKE Mr. Labaree, I thank you for the privi- 
 lege of standing upon this platform, but I 
 have regard for the patience and weariness of the 
 audience. 
 
 Let me call your mind back to the fact that we 
 are gathered together because this is the centennial 
 anniversary. I offer the following sentiment in the 
 name of our one hundred years: — 
 
 One hundred years, one hundred years ; 
 / What are one hundred years? 
 
 Our Alma Mater's lifetime, 
 And they wake our hearts to cheers. 
 18 
 
274 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 What though her numbers are but few, 
 
 She 's in achievement great, 
 Great in her patience, in her faith, 
 
 And in her power to wait 
 While centuries come and centuries go, 
 
 If such the call shall be. 
 Till patience, faith, and power joined 
 
 Shall crown her destiny. 
 
 Mr. Stewart : I see a smiling friend over in the 
 coriler, and I know he is anticipating with great 
 pleasure the call I now make upon him. 
 
 COL. ALDACE F. WALKER'S SPEECH 
 Mr. Chairman : 
 
 I AM sure no one wishes to hear anything from 
 me at this stage of the game. We have had a 
 most interesting and delightful week. It has been 
 profitable to us, and I trust it has been profitable to 
 our Alma Mater. I was asked — I won't deny it — 
 to make a few remarks on this occasion with refer- 
 ence to Middlebury College in connection with the 
 civil war. This request came to me three or four 
 days ago, and I prepared a most beautiful speech 
 which I do not propose to deliver. I will say only 
 one word connected with that topic, which has come 
 to my mind since our genial friend from Hamilton 
 called your attention to the motto at the other end 
 of the hall. I understand that to be the motto of 
 Middlebury College, — Scieniia et Virtus, I do not 
 profess to give the Roman pronunciation, and if I 
 
THE LUNCHEON 275 
 
 did, you would not recognise it as the Scientia et 
 Virtus we were taught. It has occurred to me that 
 our worthy forefathers, in selecting that motto as 
 the motto of this institution, had not perhaps the 
 benefit of the modern system of teaching Latin, 
 and other vicious things of which we hear so much. 
 They evidently considered that virtus meant that 
 character which we call virtue in poetry and in 
 oratory. But we are told now by our learned pro- 
 fessors of rhetoric that the chief virtue the good 
 old Romans knew was physical courage. That was 
 what they meant by virtue, — courage and physical 
 power to stand up and fight for the country. And 
 so, perhaps, our forefathers builded a little better 
 than they knew when they selected that motto, be- 
 cause we have there before us knowledge, science, 
 and the fighting quality which I understand the 
 motto really and truly to signify. And did not 
 Middlebury College typify the motto in that sig- 
 nification when about one hundred of her sons went 
 to fight for their country } Year by year the Col- 
 lege fell away as its members fell on the field of 
 battle; year by year the professors and president, 
 as has been told to you to-day, failed in their cour- 
 age for the future of the institution ; but they lost 
 no whit of their courage for their beloved land. 
 Middlebury College did its share on that occa- 
 sion, — its full share, and more than its share. 
 I thank you for hearing me say this much. 
 
276 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 Mr. Stewart : Last, but not least, I want to call 
 upon our friend from New York, whom we had the 
 pleasure of putting into the Board the other day, 
 and who is now one of the Trustees of Middlebury 
 College, Brother Gifford. 
 
 MR. JAMES M. GIFFORD'S SPEECH 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 1HAVE been wondering of what offense I may 
 have been guilty during my course in Middle- 
 bury College, or with what crimes you may be 
 chargeable, that I should be inflicted upon you at 
 this late hour. I have tried to escape, but at every 
 effort I have been called back by the subtle influ- 
 ence of Governor Stewart, and prevented by the 
 old-time control of President Brainerd. 
 
 Returning to his Alma Mater after an absence of 
 a fifth of a century, one views the changes on every 
 hand with feelings of surprise. We knew we would 
 miss the faces of the professors of long ago, and 
 feared that few of our college mates might return. 
 We had heard rumors of the progress the College 
 had made, but had no comprehension of the aca- 
 demic and material improvements of recent years. 
 Let us proclaim a meed of praise to the Faculty 
 and Trustees of the College for the wonderful im- 
 provements on every hand, and devoutly pray that 
 *'the good work may go on." 
 
THE LUNCHEON 277 
 
 Although we have just dedicated a library building, 
 the last gift of one of the College's most generous 
 friends in the past, and the munificence of one of 
 her beloved sons has made possible the beautiful 
 Science Hall, just rising into view, the College 
 needs a permanent auditorium in place of this tem- 
 porary structure, equipped as a gymnasium for the 
 use of the students during the school year, and to 
 whose halls the sons and daughters of Middlebury 
 may return at each recurring Commencement. If 
 through the generosity of any of the alumni who 
 have shown their courage and demonstrated their 
 love for the old College by remaining until the 
 shadows of evening have fallen, this dream shall 
 become a reality, I pledge you that the opening of 
 the new century shall be as propitious for the future 
 usefulness of the College as the closing of the old 
 marks the end of a hundred years of successful 
 work. 
 
 If I were to speak to a particular topic in the 
 short time allotted to me, it would be of the small 
 college and its true relation to the dawning century. 
 I do not agree with the views expressed by one of 
 the speakers here to-day, that the small college is 
 destined to be submerged by the onmoving tide 
 that tends toward immensity. I believe in the 
 sTnall college; I believe that the man who com- 
 pletes a course here receives more than the simple 
 instruction indicated by the curriculum. He par- 
 
278 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 ticipates in the personality of the instructor in a 
 degree that cannot take place in the larger college. 
 
 It has always been the pride of Middlebury Col- 
 lege that its chief object has been to make men, — 
 men who accomplish results, men who do things; 
 men who carry messages out to those waiting in the 
 world, and not the men who simply theorize and 
 adore in the market-place ; and I firmly believe that 
 in proportion as you strengthen the bond which 
 exists between the professor and the student, in 
 proportion as you increase the influence of the 
 professor over the student, in that proportion 5rou 
 help the student to know himself, and send forth 
 into the world a man who will make a success and 
 not a failure. 
 
 I will leave the thought which I have endeavored 
 to express by quoting from the inscription which 
 marks the granite shaft standing on the battlefield 
 of Lexington, — only two lines, but they are instinct 
 with eloquence, and symbolize the true spirit that 
 has guided the graduates of Middlebury College 
 both in peace and war: — 
 
 *' Too few to win, 
 Too brave to flee." 
 
 Mr. Stewart : The exercises of the afternoon are 
 now concluded. 
 
A REGISTER 
 
 OF GRADUATES AND NON-GRADUATES 
 ATTENDING THE ANNIVERSARY 
 
 GRADUATES. 
 
 Charles E. Abell, i86i . 
 Jul IN W. Abernethy, 1876 
 Bertha B. Adams, 1895 . 
 Charles A. Adams, 1895 . 
 David H. Adams, i860 
 Florence C. Allen, 1898 
 Frederic H. Allen, 1900 
 M. Annette Anderson, 1899 
 Clara B. Andrews, 1900 . 
 Florence M. Andrews, 1900 
 Lewis A. Austin, 1856. . 
 Lucia E. Avery, 1898 . . 
 
 William N. Bacon, 1853 . 
 Henry L. Bailey, 1886 . 
 Constance F. Barker, 1900 
 William T. Barnard, 1900 
 Henry M. Barnum, 1858 
 James L. Barton, 1881 
 Robert J. Barton, 1884 
 William F. Bascom, 1838 
 William M. Bass, 1832 
 Arthur E. Batchelder, 1900 
 Ethel Bates, 1900 . . . 
 Edward H. Baxter, 1876 
 
 Orwell, Vt. 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 Knoxville, 111. 
 Knoxville, 111. 
 Hampton, N. H. 
 Brattleboro, Vt. 
 Warehouse Point, Conn. 
 Shoreham, Vt. 
 Elba, N. Y. 
 Elba, N. Y. 
 Orange City, Fla. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 Bridport, Vt. 
 Middletown Springs, Vt. 
 Sidney, N. Y. 
 Granville, N. Y. 
 Freeport, 111. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Salisbury, Vt. 
 Washington, D. C. 
 Neponset, Mass. 
 Townshend, Vt. 
 South Royalston, Mass. 
 Hyde Park, Mass. 
 
 279 
 
28o 
 
 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 Ezra W. Benedict, 1891 . 
 Frank H. Bigelow, 1894 . 
 Charles Billings, 1886 
 Eugene C. Bingham, 1899 
 Rena I. BiSBEE, 1900 . . 
 Charles C. Bixby, 1847 . 
 David H. Blossom, 1896 . 
 George N. Boardman, 1847 
 Harlan S. Boardman, 1874 
 Samuel W. Boardman, 1851 
 Harriette E. Bolton, 1890 
 Samuel B. Botsford, 1900 
 William H. Botsford, 1898 
 Herbert E. Boyce, 1900 . 
 Thomas E. Boyce, 1876 . 
 Edward R. Brainerd, 1879 
 Ezra Brainerd, 1864 . . 
 
 F. Viola Brainerd, 1898 . 
 Cora A. Brock, 1896 . . 
 
 G. WoLCOTT Brooks, 1873 
 Edgar R. Brown, 1893 . 
 Luther A. Brown, 1897 . 
 Walter I. Brown, 1876 . 
 Blossom P. Bryant, 1891. 
 Ernest C. Bryant, 1891 . 
 Frederick H. Bryant, 1900 
 David N. Burke, 1867 
 Patrick F. Burke, 1868 . 
 Joseph W. Burnham, 1864 
 Frederick H. Button, 1890 
 William H. Button, 1890 
 
 John A. Cadwell, Jr., 1897 
 Frank W. Cady, 1899 . . . 
 Gilbert E. Cady, 1893 . . 
 Martin E. Cady, 1869 • - 
 
 Warrensburg, N. Y. 
 Natick, Mass. 
 Poultney, Vt. 
 Randolph, Vt. 
 Chicopee, Mass. 
 Brockton, Mass. 
 Salt Lake City, Utah. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Montpelier, Vt. 
 Maryville, Tenn. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Vergennes, Vt. 
 Vergennes, Vt. 
 Winchendon, Mass. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Los Angeles, Cal. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Wells River, Vt. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Newark, N. J. 
 New Haven, Vt. 
 Nephi, Utah. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Lincoln, Vt. 
 Port Henry, N. Y. 
 ■ Port Henry, N. Y. 
 Calumet, Mich. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 
 Proctor, Vt. 
 Chicago, 111. 
 Benson, Vt. 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
A REGISTER 
 
 281 
 
 Sidney B. Cady, 1880 . . 
 Thomas A. Carlson, 1900 
 Frank D. Chatterton, 1900 
 B. Frank Churchill, 1884 
 Frank G. Clark, 1864 
 James T. Clark, 1887 . . 
 Laura S. Clark, 1894. . 
 Edwin B. Clift, 1890 . . 
 George P. Collins, 1868 . 
 Elmer E. Cowles, 1884 . 
 Adaline C. Crampton, 1899 
 WiLLARD R. Cray, 1876 . 
 Evelyn A. Curtis, 1900 . 
 Earl L. Cushman, 1895 • 
 
 Edward Dana, 1876 . . 
 Edward J. Davenport, 1871 
 Eveline L. Dean, 1900 . 
 Francis B. Denio, 18 71 . 
 Herbert W. Denio, 1888 
 Elias Dewey, 1858 . . . 
 James B. Donoway, 1893 . 
 Henry R. Dorr, 1880. . 
 George C. Douglass, 1895 
 Mary D. Douglass, 1893. 
 Marion E. Dunbar, 1897 
 ViDA A. Dunbar, 1898 
 Walter B. Dunton, 1898 
 
 Edwin H. Eastman, 1876 
 Merritt H. Eddy, i860 . 
 Stanton S. Eddy, 1894 . 
 Loyal D. Eldredge, 1857 
 Willmm H. Eldridge, 1895 
 Edward D. Ellis, 1874 . 
 Jesse A. Ellsworth, 1886 
 
 Bloomfield, N. J. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Proctor, Vt. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Cedar Rapids, la. 
 Oswego, N. Y. 
 Randolph, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Ferrisburg, Vt. 
 Weybridge, Vt. 
 St. Albans, Vt. 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 Rockdale, N. Y. 
 Jersey City, N. J. 
 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 Orange, Mass. 
 Bangor, Me. 
 Concord, N. H. 
 Chicago, 111. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Worcester, Mass. 
 Scranton, Pa. 
 Milford, N. H. 
 Milford, N. H. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 
 Marblehead, Mass. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Proctor, Vt. 
 Poultney, Vt. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 
282 
 
 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 RuFUS C. Flagg, 1869 . . 
 John A. Fletcher, 1887 . 
 
 William W. Gay, 1876 
 Harriet D. Gerould, 1897 
 James M. Gifford, 1877 • 
 Henry M. Goddard, 1890 
 James E. Goodman, Jr., 1896 
 Ellen C. Gordon, 1897 . 
 Willis A. Guernsey, 1880 
 
 John P. Halnon, 1896 
 Michael F. Halpin, 1898 
 Vernon C. Harrington, 189 
 Erwin a. Hasseltine, 1862 
 George L. Hasseltine, 1893 
 Ava L. Hawley, 1896 . . 
 Florence M. Hemenway, 1900 
 Lewis H. Hemenway, 1864 
 Charles E. Hesselgrave, 1893 
 Susie W. Hesselgrave, 1893 
 Alfred E. Higley, 1868 . 
 Edwin H. Higley, 1868 . 
 Henry P. Higley, i860 . 
 Mary G. Higley, 1898 
 Herbert A. Hinman, 1898 
 Edward H. Hobbs, 1862 . 
 Florence M. Holden, 1897 
 Richard S. Holmes, 1862 
 Edward C. Hooker, 1900 
 Guy B. Horton, 1900 . . 
 Charles W. Howard, 1872 
 Henry E. Howard, 1882 . 
 L. Roy Howard, 1899 
 Walter E. Howard, 1871 
 Edward W. Howe, 1869 . 
 
 Ripon, Wis. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . New York, N. Y. 
 
 , HoUis, N. H. 
 
 , New York, N. Y. 
 
 West Concord, N. H. 
 
 . Granville, N. Y. 
 
 , Amesbury, Mass. 
 
 . Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 
 
 , Cornwall, Vt. 
 
 . New Haven, Vt. 
 
 . Cleveland, O. 
 
 . Bristol, Vt. 
 
 . Bristol, Vt. 
 
 , Middle Granville, N. Y. 
 
 . Brattleboro, Vt. 
 
 . Manchester, Vt. 
 Madison, N. J. 
 
 . Madison, N. J. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . Groton, Mass. 
 
 . Washington, D. C. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, N. Y. 
 
 . Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 . Worcester, Mass. 
 
 . Pittsburg, Pa. 
 
 . Marshfield, Mass. 
 
 . North Clarendon, Vt. 
 
 . Shoreham, Vt. 
 
 . Highgate Center, Vt. 
 
 . Barre, Vt. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . Boston, Mass. 
 
A REGISTER 
 
 283 
 
 Edwin D. Howe, 1887 
 Eugene E. Howe, 1888 . 
 Prentiss C. Hoyt, 1889 • 
 Henry W. Hulbert, 1879 
 Edmund G. Hunt, 1857 . 
 John W. Hunt, 1847 . . 
 Donald P. Hurlrurt, 1899 
 Frank B. Hyde, 1884 . . 
 
 Anna L. Janes, 1897 . . 
 
 Brainerd Kellogg, 1858 . 
 Charles F. Kingsley, 1872 
 
 John C. Labaree, 1856 . 
 Ira H. LaFleur, 1894 
 Harry F. Lake, 1899 . . 
 Albert W. Lamb, 1877 . 
 Guy C. Lamson, 1896 . • 
 C. Ford Langworthy, 1887 
 Adelbert a. Lavery, 1890 
 George E. Lawrence, 1867 
 Clarence G. Leavenworth, 
 Charles L. Leonard, 1895 
 Emma D. Leonard, 1893 . 
 James A. Lobban, 1898 
 
 Alexander Macdonald, 1892 
 Julius N. Mallory, 187 i 
 Sara V. Mann, 1900 . . . 
 Bert E. Marshall, 1895 . . 
 Moses M. Martin, 1861 . . 
 T. P. DwiGHT Matthews, 1870 
 Thomas H. McLeod, 1854 . 
 James F. McNaboe, 1892. . 
 Carl A. Mead, 1891 . . . 
 Charles M. Mead, 1856 . . 
 
 Valatie, N. Y. 
 Gilboa, N. Y. 
 West Addison, Vt. 
 Cleveland, O. 
 Beldens, Vt. 
 Washington, D. C. 
 Bridport, Vt. 
 Castleton, Vt. 
 
 St. Albans, Vt. 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 Salisbury, Vt. 
 
 Saugus, Mass. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Suncook, N. H. 
 East Orange, N. J. 
 West Cornwall, Vt. 
 Washington, D. C. 
 Ballston Spa, N. Y. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Cleveland, O. 
 Cambridge, N. Y. 
 Cambridge, N. Y. 
 Wilmington, Vt. 
 
 St. Regis Falls, N. Y 
 Scituate, Mass. 
 Rockland, Mass. 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 Ovid, Mich. 
 Cornwall, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
284 
 
 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 John A. Mead, 1864 
 Junius E. Mead, 1890 
 Pat M. Meldon, 1880 
 Elizabeth E. Merriam, 1895 
 Carl M. Merrill, 1896 . 
 Peter J. H. Meyers, 1847 
 Elmer P. Miller, 1884 . 
 John C. Miller, 1882. . 
 Benjamin C. Miner, 1893 
 Calvin B. Moody, 1877 . 
 James Moore, 1896. . . 
 Charles S. Murkland, 1881 
 
 F. Elisabeth Nichols, 1900 . 
 Harrison P. Nichols, 1869 • 
 Nathan R. Nichols, 1866 . 
 Thomas H. Noonan, 1891 
 
 James B. O'Neill, 1883 . . 
 
 C. B. F. Palmer, 1883 
 Kate E. Palmer, 1895 
 Emily G. Parker, 1900 
 Frank A. Parker, 1880 
 John E. Parker, 1858 
 Arthur C. Parkhurst, 1897 
 Sylvester B. Partridge, 1861 
 Alva C. Peck, 1880 . 
 Joseph A. Peck, 1898 . 
 May B. Peck, 1887 . 
 Lyman W. Peet, 1861 . 
 Harlan S. Perrigo, 1870 
 Erastus H. Phelps, 1861 
 Lawrence Phelps, 1875 
 Leroy M. Pierce, 1866 
 Ira E. Pinney, 1891 . 
 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Cohoes, N. Y. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Sterling, Mass. 
 Glens Falls, N. Y. 
 Chazy, N. Y. 
 Catskill, N. Y. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 New Haven, Vt. 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 Camden, N. Y. 
 Durham, N. H. 
 
 Norwich, Vt. 
 Chicago, 111. 
 Norwich, Vt. 
 Buffalo, N. Y. 
 
 Portland, Me. 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Round Lake, N. Y. 
 West Rutland, Vt. 
 Whiting, Vt. 
 Washington, D. C. 
 Worcester, Mass. 
 Swatow, China. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Chicago, 111. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Cornwall, Vt. 
 Potsdam, N. Y. 
 Fair Haven, Vt. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Medfield, Mass. 
 Washburn, No. Dak. 
 
A REGISTER 
 
 285 
 
 Mary O. Pollard, 1896 . 
 M. Grace Potter, 1899 . 
 Harry P. Powers, 1882 . 
 Charles E. Prentiss, 1864 
 Charles W. Prentiss, 1896 
 Samuel J. Preston, 1882 . 
 
 Leslie H. Raine, 1889 
 Jeremiah E. Rankin, 1848 
 Bertha E. Ranslow, 1894 
 Eugene J. Ranslow, 1866 
 Lauren Redfield, 1857 . 
 Daniel G. Reilly, 1891 . 
 George H. Remele, 1872 
 William A. Remele, 1876 
 Joel T. Rice, 1853 . . 
 Norman F. Rider, 1862 . 
 Flora C. Rock wood, 1897 
 Edward M. Roscoe, 1896 
 Lena M. Roseman, 1896 . 
 Carroll B. Ross, 1882 . 
 Charles L. Ross, 1895 
 Eleanor S. Ross, 1895 
 Henry H. Ross, 1872 . . 
 Lucretius D. Ross, 1852 . 
 Lucretius H. Ross, 1890 . 
 Paul G. Ross, 1893 . . 
 Willis M. Ross, 1886 . . 
 Leroy C. Russell, 1897 . 
 
 Sarah Scoles, 1899 . . 
 George D. Scoit, 1895 . 
 George R. W. Scott, 1864 
 Herman D. Sears, 1898 . 
 Francis H. Seeley, 1863 . 
 Henry H. Seely, 1894 . 
 
 Ludlow, Vt. 
 Boston, Mass. 
 Proctor, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Mamaroneck, N. Y. 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Washington, D. C. 
 Swanton, Vt. 
 Swanton, Vt. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Dayton, O. 
 West Medford, Mass. 
 Bridgewater, Vt. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Bristol, Vt. 
 East Middlebury, Vt. 
 Waterbury, Vt. 
 Bristol, Vt. 
 West Rutland, Vt. 
 Hoosick Falls, N. Y. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Poultney, Vt. 
 Bennington, Vt. 
 Poultney, Vt. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Buffalo, N. Y. 
 
 Leverett, Mass. 
 Newton, Mass. 
 Newton, Mass. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Delhi, N. Y. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 
286 
 
 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 LocKwooD M. Seely, 1895 
 H. Elroy Sessions, 1898 . 
 Milton L. Severance, 1859 
 Louis W. Severy, 1900 
 Annah B. Sheldon, 1892 . 
 Samuel Sheldon, 1883 
 Bernis W. Sherman, 1890 
 Elijah B. Sherman, i860 
 Linus E. Sherman, 1861 . 
 William R. Shipman, 1859 
 David K. Simonds, 1862 
 Abner Smith, 1866 . . 
 Alice M. Smhh, 1900 . 
 Clayton O. Smith, 1899 
 Nathan B. Smith, 1863 
 Lucy W. Southwick, 1899 
 
 HiLAND SOUTHWORTH, 1 8 75 
 
 Austin O. Spoor, 1874 
 Andrew T. Stapleton, 1877 
 James E. Stapleton, 1870 
 Jesse Stearns, 1883 . . 
 Charles G. Steele, i860 
 Harriette H. Steele, 1895 
 John E. Stetson, 1900 
 John W. Stewart, 1846 
 Charles F. Stone, 1869 
 Edward P. Stone, 1853 
 George W. Stone, 1899 
 Annis M. Sturges, 1899 
 Byron Sunderland, 1838 
 Fanny M. Sutton, 1898 
 Edward Y. Swift, 1850 
 Frederick G. Swinington, 1875 
 
 Beatrice K. Taft, 1900 . . 
 Winifred L. Taft, 1900 . . 
 
 . East Orange, N. J. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . Bristol, Vt. 
 
 . Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 . Chicago, 111. 
 
 . Chicago, 111. 
 
 . Colorado Springs, Col. 
 
 . Somerville, Mass. 
 
 . Manchester, Vt. 
 
 . Chicago, 111. 
 
 . Hyde Park, Mass. 
 
 . Willsboro, N. Y. 
 
 ". Pulaski, N. Y. 
 
 . Worcester, Mass. 
 
 . Abilene, Kas. 
 
 . Winooski, Vt. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . New York, N. Y. 
 
 . Boston, Mass. 
 
 . Boston, Mass. 
 
 . Hanover, Mass. 
 
 . Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 . Laconia, N. H. 
 
 . Lapeer, Mich. 
 
 . Newton, N. J. 
 
 . Centreville, Mass. 
 
 . Washington, D. C. 
 
 . Shelburne, Vt. 
 
 . Detroit, Mich. 
 
 . Rutland, Vt. 
 
 . Greenville, N. H. 
 
 . Greenville, N. H. 
 
A REGISTER 
 
 287 
 
 James Ten Broeke, 1884 . 
 Allen Tenny, 1856 . . 
 Chandler N. Thomas, 1861 
 Grace S. Thomas, 1891 . 
 John M. Thomas, 1890 . 
 Charles B. Toleman, 1894 
 Elijah M. Torrey, 1854 . 
 Willis I. Twitchell, 1877 
 
 Albert W. Varney, 1886. 
 Bessie C. Verder, 1898 . 
 Blanche A. Verder, 1895 
 Hedley a. Vicker, 1895 . 
 
 RuFUS Wainwright, 1852 . 
 RuFUS Wainwright, Jr., 1899 
 Aldace F. Walker, 1862 . 
 Edgar L. Walker, 1872 . 
 Frederick H. Walker, 1891 
 Henry F. Walker, i860 . 
 Charles B. Warner, 1877 
 Ernest J. Waterman, 1899 
 Emma P. Way, 1900 . . 
 Benjamin M. Weld, 1877. 
 John G. Wellington, 1838 
 Harry E. Wells, 1894 . 
 Theodore D. Wells, 1898 
 Charles E. Wheeler, 1900 
 Joel T. Whitney, 1868 . 
 LuELLA C. Whitney, 1898 
 Marcus D. Whitney, 1897 
 Charles M. Wilds, 1875 . 
 John K. Williams, i860 . 
 A. Bush Willmarth, 1900 
 Orlando Wooster, 1844 . 
 Belle E. Wright, 1900 . 
 
 Toronto, Canada. 
 Providence, R. I. 
 Bristol, Vt. 
 East Orange, N. J. 
 East Orange, N. J. 
 Little Britain, N. Y. 
 East Dorset, Vt. 
 Hartford, Conn. 
 
 Burlington, Vt. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 Sennett, N. Y. 
 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Montreal, Canada. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 North Blenheim, N. Y. 
 Burlington, Vt. 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Port Henry, N. Y. 
 Brattleboro, Vt. 
 Manchester, Vt. 
 New Haven, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Sidney, N. Y. 
 Eldred, N. Y. 
 So. Ashburnham, Mass. 
 Hyde Park, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. ' 
 Peacham, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 New Haven, Vt. 
 
288 
 
 MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE 
 
 George M.Wright, 1874. 
 George S. Wright, 1895 . 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Bethel, Vt. 
 
 NON- GRADUATES. 
 
 George H. Bailey, 1864 . . 
 Frank L. Bell, 1891 . . . 
 J. Edwy BuiTOLPH, 1882 . . 
 
 Thaddeus M. Chapman, 1866 
 Louise E. Clift, 1887 . . . 
 S. B. M. Cowles, 1858 . . 
 
 Alonzo B. Hepburn, 187 i . 
 Ola R. Houghton, 1900 . . 
 Olive B. Houghton, 1900 . 
 
 Julia E. Leavenworth, 1884 
 
 Edward J. Mathews, 1850 
 Charles D. Mead, 1851 . 
 
 Edwin F. Preston, 1884 . 
 
 Walter L. Sheldon, 1880 
 William H. Sheldon, 1880 
 
 May B. Taylor, 1896 
 
 Frank H. Warner, 1881 . 
 Ethel L. Waterman, 1899 
 
 Ferrisburg, Vt. 
 Glens Falls, N. Y. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 New Haven, Vt. 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 Cleveland, O. 
 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 Ticonderoga, N. Y, 
 
 St. Louis, Mo. 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 Middlebury, Vt. 
 
 West Cornwall, Vt. 
 Brattleboro, Vt. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adams, Charles B., 217 
 Aiken, Samuel C, 53, 54 
 Albee, Solon, 43 
 Albee, Sumner, 43 
 Allen, Charles L., 66 
 Allen, Ira M., 50, 64 
 Allen, Jonathan A., 66 
 Alumni Meeting, 2, 5 
 Anniversary Address, 2, 4, 32 
 Atwater, Jeremiah, 36, 38, 257 
 Atwood, Oscar, 12 
 
 Baccalaureate Services, 2, 4, 16 
 
 Barrett, Joseph H., 67 
 
 Barton, James L., i, 4, 51, 264, 265 
 
 Bascom, William F., 258 
 
 Bass, William M., 15, 66 
 
 Bates, Joshua, 36, 42, 70, 75, 218 
 
 Battell, Philip, 73 
 
 Beckwith, George C, 50 
 
 Beman, Carlisle P., 61 
 
 Beman, Nathan S. S., 35, 37, 39, 45^ 
 
 49» 53. 55> 56. 67, 68, 71, 76 
 Bennett, Henry W., 63, 207 
 Bingham, Hiram, 59, 265, 266 
 Blake, Clarence E., 67 
 Blanchard, Jonathan, 52, 53 
 Boardman, George N., 11, 70, 237, 
 
 256, 272 
 Boardman, Samuel W., 2, 4, 32 
 Brainerd, Ezra, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 16, 
 
 63, no, 238, 244, 251, 263, 273, 276 
 Bryant, Ernest C, i 
 Buckham, Matthew H., 3, 6, 10, 11, 
 
 12, III, 142, 236 
 
 19 2i 
 
 Buel, Alexander W., 75 
 Burge, Caleb, 71 
 Burnap, Uzziah C, 6^ 
 Burt, Edwin A., i 
 Butler, James D., 75, 251 
 Button, William Harvey, 64 
 Button, William Henry, i 
 
 Cadwell, Miles P. S., (>^ 
 
 Capen, Samuel B., 10, 11, 12, 263 
 
 Carter, Franklin, 3, 6, 11, 12, in, 
 
 126, 226, 240 
 Caswell, Jesse, 52 
 Centennial Ball, 4, 11 
 Centennial Hymn, 8 
 Centennial Oration, 4, 183 
 Centennial Poem, 4, 216 
 Chamberlain, Hiram, 53, 56 
 Chapin, Walter, 50 
 Chapman, Thad. M., 5 
 Chase, Benjamin, 50, 56, 61 
 Chase, Ira, 45, 70 
 Chickering, John W., 51, 54 
 Chipman, Daniel, 35, 36, 41, 65 
 Chipman, Nathaniel, 65 
 Church, Alonzo, 61 
 Churchill, John C, 44 
 Clark, Charles C. P., 66, 6^ 
 Cleveland, Charles, 52 
 Commencement Exercises, 3, 5 
 Committees of the Centennial, i 
 Conant, Samuel M., 64 
 Conant, Thomas J., 45, 67, 70, ']'^ 
 Converse, John R., 63 
 Cook, William D., 52 
 
290 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cossitt, Franceway R., 6 
 Crane, Albert A., 6^ 
 Cutter, Nehemiah, 66 
 
 Davis, Henry, 36, 42, 243 
 Dedication of the Egbert Starr Li- 
 brary, 5 
 Dedicatory Address, 81 
 Dedicatory Hymn, 6 
 Denio, Francis B,, 71 
 Dickinson, John, 2, 63 
 Dickson, John, 51 
 Dorland, Luke, 52 
 Douglas, Orson, 50 
 Drake, Cyrus B., 54 
 Drama, Roman, i, 3, 7, 166 
 D wight, Timothy, 36, 47, 48, 230, 231 
 
 Eaton, Henry A., 63 
 
 Eaton, Horace, 66, 73 
 
 Eaton, William W., i 
 
 Eddy, Merritt H., 66 
 
 Educational Conference, 3, 6, 103- 
 
 165 
 Evarts, James, 46 
 Evarts, Jeremiah, 46 
 
 Farnsworth, Wilson A., 13, 108 
 Fisk, Pliny, 56, 57, 58, 64 
 Fitch, Chauncey W., 60 
 Flagg, Rufus C, 6 
 Follett, Walter, 50 
 Foot, Daniel, 35 
 Foot, Solomon, 62 
 Fowler, William C, 217 
 
 Gifford, James M., 11, 276 
 Gildersleeve, Benjamin, $6 
 Goodrich, Charles, $4 
 Gorham, Daniel D., 61 
 Gowdy, Ralph, 66 
 Green, Beriah, 52 
 Guitteau, Sheridan, 50 
 
 Haines, Charles G., 64 
 Hall, Daniel, 36, 49 
 
 Hall, Edwin, 70, 71 
 
 Hallock, Edward J., 61 
 
 Hamlin, Cyrus, 4, 11, 12, 219, 262, 
 
 263 
 Hascall, Daniel, 71 
 Hatfield, Edwin F., 50, 53, 66, 67 
 Hemenway, Lewis H., 66 
 Henckels, Theodore, i, 8 
 Henry, Thomas C, 53, 55, 56, 64 
 Henshaw, John P. K., 44, 56, 71 
 Higley, Edwin H., i, 4, 8, 216 
 Hitchcock, Calvin, 54 
 Holmes, Richard S., 8, 11,273 
 Hooker, Henry B., 50 
 Hooker, Herman, 71 
 Hopkins, Daniel, 38 
 Haugh, John, 36, 42, 58, 65, 75, 217, 
 
 258 
 Howard, Walter E., i, 4, 8, 183 
 Howard, William A., 52 
 Howe, George, 45, 54, 56, 70 
 Howe, Henry, 60 
 Hoyt, Otto S., 50 
 Hoyt, Ova P., 50 
 Hudson, Henry N., 67 
 Hulbert, Henry W., 9 
 Hulburd, Calvin T., 44 
 Hurd, Albert, 61 
 
 Ide, George B., 45, 53 
 
 James, Edwin, 52 
 
 Keith, Renel, 56, 58 
 
 Kellogg, Brainerd, 3, 5, 67, 81, 220, 
 
 247 
 Kelly, Hall J., 52 
 Kimball, David T., 51 
 Kitchel, Cornelius L., 11, 12, 232 
 Kitchel, Harvey D., 12, 53 
 Knapp, George C, 59 
 
 Labaree, Benjamin, 73, 75, 218, 256, 
 
 258, 259, 260, 261, 264 
 Labaree, John C, 11, 272, 273 
 
INDEX 
 
 291 
 
 Lamed, Sylvester, 53, 55, 56,64, 68 
 Linsley, Joel H., 53 
 Long, Alfred J., 66 
 Luncheon, i, 4, 10, 222-278 
 
 Matthews, Darius, 35 
 McCullough, John G., 10, 11, 12, 
 
 268 
 McGilton, William W., i 
 Meacham, James, 73, 260 
 Mead, Charles M., i, 11, 68, 70,222 
 Mead, Hiram, 87, 70 
 Means, D. McGregor, 12 
 Merrill, Thomas A., 36 
 Messer, Asa, 56 
 Miller, Samuel, 35, 37 
 Morton, Daniel O., 56, 67 
 Morton, Levi P., 58 
 Munger, Eber D., 64 
 Murkland, Charles S., 3, 6, 9, 112 
 
 Nelson, Samuel, 40, 49 
 Northrop, Allen P., 61 
 
 Olin, Stephen, 45, 49, 53, 55, 56, 76 
 Ordway, Moses, 52 
 Owen, John J., 67, 68, 73 
 
 Painter, Gamaliel, 35, 37, 217 
 Parker, J. Earle, 2 
 Parker, William H., 73, 219 
 Parsons, Levi, 56, 57, 58, 64 
 Partridge, Sylvester B., 5, 59 
 Patton, Robert B., 73 
 Patton, William, 50, 53, 54 
 Pearson, Thomas S., 43, 64 
 Peet, Lyman B., 59 
 Petty, Aaron, 33 
 
 Phelps, Edward J., 11, 40, 46, 49,64, 
 75, 107, 251, 252, 261, 269, 270, 271 
 Phelps, Samuel S., 36, 64 
 Phillips, George W., 12 
 Pierce, James E., 64 
 Piatt, James K., 66 
 Post, Martin M., 54 
 
 Post, Reuben, 53, 54, 56 
 
 Post, Truman M., 45, 53, 54, 55, 56, 
 
 73, 76, 106 
 Proctor, Redfield, 12 
 Programme of the Centennial, 2 
 
 Ralph, Julian, 5 
 
 Rankin, Jeremiah E., 3, 6, 8, 13, 56, 
 
 62, 67, 103 
 Reception, President's, 3, 7 
 Register, 279 
 Rhodes, Holden, 56 
 Robbins, Rensselaer D. C, 67, 68, 
 
 73 
 Roberts, Daniel, 49, 65, 75 
 Roosevelt, Washington, 51 
 Root, David, 51 
 Ross, Lucretius D., 66 
 
 Sanford, Myron R., i, 3, 7 
 
 Sawyer, Thomas J., 45, 53, 70, 76 
 
 Saxe, John G., 67, 75, 250, 251 
 
 Scott, George R. W., 5 
 
 Seeley, Francis H., 9 
 
 Seely, Henry M., 220 
 
 Seymour, Charles R., 12 
 
 Seymour, Horatio, 36 
 
 Sheldon, Luther, 54 
 
 Sheldon, Samuel, 247, 248 
 
 Shepherd, Jonathan A., 53 
 
 Shipman, William R., 10 
 
 Skinner, Mark, 76 
 
 Slade, James M., i 
 
 Slade, William, 39, 50, 51 
 
 Smart, George T., 9 
 
 Smith, Daniel, 52 
 
 Smith, Eli B., 70 
 
 Smith, Edward C, 11, 12, 224 
 
 Smith, Henry, 53, 67, 68, 70, 73 
 
 Snow, Henry S., 10, IT, 12, 247, 
 
 248 
 Spaulding, John, 50 
 Sprague, Isaac N., 54 
 Squier, Miles P., 50, 60, 71 
 Starr, Charles, loi 
 
292 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Starr, Egbert, loi 
 
 Starr, M. Allen, loi 
 
 Starr, Peter, 36 
 
 Steele, John B., 54 
 
 Stewart, John W., i, 4, 8, 11, 171, 
 
 223 ff 
 Stoddard, Solomon, 42 
 Stone, Benjamin C, 50 
 Stone, James A. B., 70 
 Storrs, Seth, 35, 36, 37, 46 
 Stowell, Henry, 52 
 Sunderland, Byron, 10, 11, 54, 56, 
 
 250, 251 
 Swift, Samuel, 36, 64 
 
 Tenny, Erdix, 54 
 
 Thompson, Daniel P., 67 
 
 Thompson, John, 53 
 
 Tower, David B,, 67 
 
 Town, Salem, 39, 60, 67 
 
 Tucker, William J., 3, 8, 12, 11 1, 154, 
 
 227, 258 
 Turner, Edward, 217 
 
 Upsala, University of, 12 
 
 Vail, Henry H., i 
 
 Wadhams, Edgar P., 44, 45 
 
 Walker, Aldace F., 11, 274 
 
 Walker, Henry F., 66 
 
 Walker, Stephen A., 61 
 
 Warren, Edward, 58 
 
 Whitaker, Ozi W., 45 
 
 Wilcox, Carlos, 53, 55, 64 
 
 Wilds, Charles M., i 
 
 Willard, Emma, 68 
 
 Williamson, John, 63 
 
 Williston, Sarah Stoddard, 5 
 
 Winchester, Warren W., 71 
 
 Wines, Enoch C, 51, 53 
 
 Wing, Marcus T. C, 70 
 
 Winslow, Miron, 12, 56, 58, 59, 246, 
 
 265 
 Winslow, William C, 11, 12, 244 
 Witham, Charles, 169, 170 
 Wright, Charles B., i, 6 
 Wright, -John H., 11, 12, 226, 227 
 Wright, Norman F., 61 
 Wright, Silas, 40, 44, 45, 49, 106 
 Wright, Truman K., 61 
 
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 YD 22329