THE INAUGURATION 
 
 — OF — 
 
 Newton Bateman, 
 
 H / % 
 
 — AS — 
 
 President of Knox College, 
 
 GALESBURG, ILLINOIS, 
 
 JUNE 23, A. D. 1875. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES. 
 
 LI BRAKY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 « UR3ANA-CHAMPAIGU 
 
 GALESBURG, ILL.: 
 
 RBINTBB BY THK GaLKSBUBO PBINTINU AN1> BuBLIWHINU GoMBANY. 
 
 187S. 
 
III. Ro-veu lOApll F i-fnc. r\ .SO 
 
 K“17K 
 
 Inaugural Ceremonies. 
 
 THE INVESTITURE. 
 
 Agreeably to public announcement previously made, a very large audience 
 assembled in the Opera House, in the City of Galesburg, Illinois, at eight 
 o’clock on the evening of Wednesday, June 23, 1875, to witness the Inau- 
 guration of Newton Bateman, as President of Knox College. 
 
 The Trustees, Faculty and invited guests having taken their places on the 
 platform, and prayer having been offered by the Rev. Dr. Bascom, the Hon. 
 Charles B. Lawrence, Vice President of the Board, holding in his hand the 
 keys of the College, arose and addressed the President elect, as follows : 
 
 The Board of Trustees of Knox College having elected you to the office of 
 President of this Institution, I now, in their name, deliver to you these sym- 
 * bols of your authority, and present you to this audience as the duly consti- 
 tuted executive head of Knox College. 
 
 The President elect replied as follows : 
 
 Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees : With a due appreciation of its 
 honor and dignity, and with a profound sense of' its difficulties and responsi- 
 bilities, I accept the Presidency of Knox College, pledging myself to a faith 
 ful observance of all its lawfully constituted authorities, to study its peace, 
 honor and welfare, and to labor earnestly for its enlargement and prosperity, 
 as God shall give me wisdom and strength, until the solemn trust now 
 assumed shall be by you recalled, or by me surrendered. 
 
 Turning to the audience, President Bateman then spoke as follows : 
 
 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 Every college has an individuality, a character, of its own. In thinking 
 of a particular college, as in thinking of a particular person, its distinctive 
 characteristics come at once into view, and by them our general estimate of it 
 is determined. And as personal characteristics are of two kinds, of the body 
 and of the soul, so also are those of* colleges — a consideration of both is, in 
 
 192433 
 
4 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 each case alike, essential to the completeness of our conceptions and judg- 
 ments. And again, as our thoughts fasten chiefly upon the intellectual and 
 moral attributes, and subordinately upon the physical and outward, in forming 
 our estimates of men, so also is it in our notions and estimates of colleges. 
 
 We think of Washington, and while the calm dignity and majesty of his 
 mien and presence may come first into the field of vision, the mind passes 
 quickly from these to dwell upon the matchless virtues which made him the 
 hero of the Revolution, the Father of his Country, and the ornament of 
 history. We think of Lincoln, and although it is hardly possible not to see 
 first the outline of his gaunt figure, and the expression of his sad, homely 
 face, how swiftly the eye turns from these to those great qualities of mind 
 and soul which made him the Preserver of his country, the Emancipator of a 
 race, and the Martyr of Liberty. And so, as we think of Harvard or Yale, 
 of Princeton or Dartmouth, all that is outward and material about them, 
 though entering into and lending a certain coloring to each picture, is soon 
 lost sight of in the effulgence of their literary history, and in the far-reaching 
 influence of the moral, religious and philosophical ideas which they severally 
 represent. 
 
 Again : as, in an analysis of the true strength and character of a man, we 
 take notice of his physical organization and powers, of his intellectual capaci- 
 ties and culture, and of the moral and spiritual plane in which he lives and 
 acts, thereby making up our estimate of his true place in the world and 
 among men ; so must the same elements be considered in determining the 
 true life, strength, influence and dignity of a college. For in each case those 
 elements are the prime factors in the finished products of life, the excellence 
 and beauty of which depend upon the fullness and harmony with which all 
 the factors have been in co-operation. 
 
 Thus, however rich his intellectual gifts and lofty his moral purposes, he 
 is not the ideal man, either of reason or of Scripture, who disregards the 
 well-being of his physical nature, for it is our heavenly Father’s will that his 
 children should be healthy, as well as wise and holy ; again, however sound in 
 body and sanctified in heart, he is not a whole man whose intellect is unstored 
 with the treasures of knowledge — unadorned with the jewels of culture; and 
 finally, however polished the intellect and stalwart the physical frame, he has 
 yet to lay the very foundations of a worthy manhood, who neglects his 
 spiritual nature, and is deaf to the sweet pleadings of the heart and conscience. 
 All this, without extravagance, may be said of a college. Its external and 
 material interests answer to the body ; its standard methods and means of 
 culture, to the intellect ; and its moral and religious animus, ideas and aims, 
 to the heart and soul. 
 
 In the spirit, and somewhat in the direction of these analogies, I shall 
 briefly continue my remarks on this occasion. 
 
 The financial and business interests of a college should be conducted upon 
 the same principles of integrity, economy, prudence and common sense, as 
 obtain in the affairs of every well-regulated commercial or other strictly 
 business corporation. Scrupulous honor and fidelity should characterize all 
 its transactions, and stainless integrity all its officers and agents. Order and 
 system should mark all its business proceedings. Every transaction should 
 fully and clearly appear on the records. Nothing should be left to uncertainty 
 or guess-work, or be allowed to drag along at “loose ends.” Stated reports, 
 with vouchers, should be required of all financial officers and agents of the 
 
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 5 
 
 corporation ; and these reports should not be assumed to be correct, and 
 approved without due examination, but referred to an auditing or finance 
 committee, for careful scrutiny, and subsequent report thereon. All com- 
 mittees should be composed of the best available material with reference to 
 the particular work to be done, or the particular interests to be guarded or 
 subserved ; and no man should be assigned a place upon any committee for 
 any other reason than his supposed fitness for the duties to be performed. 
 Many a corporation has been financially disgraced, or ruined, or both, by the 
 incompetency, indifference or neglect of important committees ; and college 
 corporations have not been wholly exempt from such catastrophes. 
 
 Evils of this nature creep in gradually and unawares. It takes time and 
 care, often much time and perplexing care, properly to examine a complicated 
 business transaction or financial statement. Most men shrink from such 
 painstaking labor, and are tempted to put it off, or to perform it unthoroughly. 
 The person making the report or statement is known to be perfectly honest 
 and upright, and so, by degrees, reference to the appropriate committee 
 becomes a mere matter of form ; no examination or verification deserving the 
 name, is had, and the report comes back approved. For a time all goes well. 
 But some fine morning the corporation is startled to find one of its buildings 
 destroyed by fire, the policy of insurance on which had been suffered to lapse, 
 or had been taken in some insolvent company ; or that some note had become 
 depreciated or worthless, by the unnoticed failure, removal, flight or death of 
 the securities ; or that the funds are locked up in some bank of mythical 
 assets; or that a cloud has been permitted to settle upon the title to some of 
 its lands, involving a law suit, with its vexations and costs. In these and 
 many other ways the interests of college corporations may suffer, and have 
 suffered, and their sacred funds may be imperiled, reduced or lost, by a 
 disregard of the plain and necessary precautions referred to. 
 
 The homely truism that “business is business” must be held in honor by 
 college corporations, precisely as by others. It is the only safe and right 
 way. Moreover, no faithful, competent and thorough-going business man, 
 officer or agent, will object to a watchful scrutiny and rigid supervision of his 
 acts, but on the contrary he will desire and solicit investigation ; both because 
 he knows that it is right and proper, and because by such stated examinations 
 into and approvals of his conduct, his personal responsibility is, in a sense, 
 divided and lessened. 
 
 Practical wisdom should govern in the selection of college agents, especially 
 of those who are to undertake the necessary but ungracious and difficult task 
 of increasing the funds and endowments of the institution. It is hardly to 
 be doubted that persons have been assigned to this delicate work whom the 
 respective corporations could better have afforded to pay for inaction, than for 
 actual service. Not for any lack of zeal, nor even of intellectual ability, but 
 only for their conspicuous lack of that combination of practical qualities which, 
 for want of a better term, we call common sense. There are those who seem to 
 have no proper discernment of the fitness of things ; who speak when silence 
 were better, and are dumb, when the fitly spoken word is needed ; who take 
 an hour’s set speech to say what were better said in a few moment’s quiet 
 conversation. Poor students of human nature, and non-observant of the 
 mental habits and idiosyncrasies belonging to different pursuits and circum- 
 stances, they address all classes and conditions of people in about the same 
 manner; are concise and logical when they should illustrate and amplify, 
 
6 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 argumentative when exhortation only is the right thing, profound and learned 
 where the utmost simplicity of speech is required ; appealing to the under 
 standing and judgment when only the heart and conscience need to be touched ; 
 speaking to merchants, bankers and railroad men as to theologians and scholars ; 
 hindering, not helping the very interests which they most sincerely desire to 
 promote. 
 
 The claims of colleges to the respectful regard and generous support of all 
 classes of the community, are so obvious and clear, so high and strong, and 
 they may be presented in a manner so simple and yet so unanswerable, that it 
 is always a pity when the wrong men are chosen to do it. The time may come 
 when institutions so beneficient, so freighted with grace and blessing for all 
 the people, shall no more need thus to plead in behalf of their unfilled 
 treasuries, (I would it were already come), but that glad day seems yet distant, 
 and till it comes the need will remain of much practical wisdom in the 
 direction indicated. 
 
 College corporations no less than others, should “pay as they go.” Debts 
 should not be contracted, or obligations assumed, for the prompt and honorable 
 liquidation of which, the means are not either in hand or in sight. Subject 
 only to special emergencies, which do not affect the principle, this rule should 
 be adhered to at all hazards, and with uncompromising firmness, Deliberate 
 deviation from it is not only a palpable infraction of the primary maxims of 
 commercial prudence and honor, but an equally palpable violation of the 
 plainest precepts of the moral code — the direct road not only to inevitable 
 bankruptcy, but, which is infinitely worse, to dishonor and shame. 
 
 It is vain to plead extenuating circumstances. There is but one beaten 
 path of right and of safety in this matter — but one inexorable financial code, 
 from the grasp and power of which none can escape — none ought to escape. 
 The man whose deliberately planned scale of expenditures is in known excess 
 of his income, must stop, and face the other way. No matter what cherished 
 thing has to be given up, or what retrenchment has to be submitted to, in 
 order to balance the account — it must be done, or insolvency and disgrace will 
 soon be at his doors. Just so, precisely, is it with college corporations ; the 
 debit and credit sides of their books must be made to balance, be the 
 consequences what they may. Nothing can extirpate from the public mind 
 the conviction that men who cannot or will not manage the business affairs of 
 an institution of learning, as all prudent and honorable men manage their 
 private affairs, in this respect, are unfitted for the trust reposed in them ; and 
 it is not possible that such a sentiment should not injuriously affect the college 
 itself, in all its work and interests. On the other hand, well-earned reputation 
 for prudent financial management, is a credit to an institution, the good effects 
 of which can scarcely be overestimated. It begets respect and confidence. It 
 is the best and with not a few, the only effective argument that can be used 
 where the question of funds and endowments is involved ; for prudent men 
 will not entrust more money to those who have shown improvidence or 
 incapacity in handling what they already have. And it removes the reproach 
 to which the history of educational institutions in this country has given too 
 much color of truth, that literary corporations, men of letters and culture, are 
 poor business men and worse financiers. 
 
 To secure the benefits and avoid the evils just adverted to, a wise economy 
 is indispensable. There is an economy that is the reverse of wise. Some 
 things are essential to the very existence of a college ; as much so as air and 
 
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 7 
 
 food to the maintenance of animal life. If these cannot be had, the case is 
 already settled — a college is simply impossible. There is a point, therefore, 
 below which college expenditures cannot by any possibility be carried. If the 
 resources of the institution fall below this point in spite of all that can be 
 done, suspension, temporary or permanent, is the only honorable alternative. 
 A corporation that, after courageously struggling for life, succumbs to the 
 inevitable, rather than go on, sinking deeper and deeper in debt, will at least 
 be able to include among its assets the undiminished respect of the public. 
 A notable instance of this kind will recur to many, an important institution 
 being now about to resume its work after one or two years of suspended 
 animation, during which its finances have been placed upon a sound and 
 substantial basis. But the instances are rare indeed where an institution, 
 otherwise prudently managed, is, or will be, obliged to close its doors for lack 
 of the essential bread and water of life ; though it must be admitted that now 
 and then there is an uncomfortable short allowance even of that. 
 
 It is in unessentials, in things not absolutely necessary to the true work of 
 the institution, that economy is demanded. Improvident expenditures of this 
 kind have been the road to insolvency, down whose steps many an institution 
 has gone, and many more, it is to be feared, will yet go despite the warning 
 wrecks that strew the way. 
 
 How many colleges now gasping for breath and faint with hunger, might 
 have bread enough and to spare but for the thousands of dollars imbedded in 
 superfluous brick and stone, or lavished upon architectural embellishments and 
 other luxuries of art and taste. How many have come to want and grief by 
 attempting to rival the sumptuous outfit and elegant surroundings and costlv 
 decorations, of older and richer institutions. 
 
 No reasonable man appreciates such aesthetic harmonies and congruities 
 more than I do. If there is a spot on earth over which it were meet to fling 
 the draperies of Attic taste and classic beauty, and around which to gather 
 the symmetries and inspirations of high art, it is the spot consecrated to 
 learning and culture — the buildings and grounds of the Christian college. 
 But “ the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment.” While the 
 shelves of the library are unfilled with needful books, the walls must wait for 
 their pictures ; so long as the laboratory and apparatus rooms are but scantily 
 supplied, the niches and pedestals must wait for their busts and statues ; if 
 the class rooms are not comfortably furnished, the floors must wait for their 
 carpets, and the ceilings for their frescoes ; till pleasant and attractive dormi- 
 tories are in good supply, the Campus must do without the landscape gardener 
 and the rural engineer. Till all the essential means and appliances required 
 to build, equip, instruct and polish the intellect of the students, to mature, 
 ennoble and glorify his character, and send him forth in mental and moral 
 strength, are well in hand, the college must forego the pleasure of putting on 
 hgr garments of outward grace and beauty. The body may go in homespun, 
 but there must be fine linen for the soul. 
 
 Colleges are a growth, not a creation. If the great elm on Boston 
 Common were destroyed to-day, It would be as possible to duplicate it to-mor- 
 row, by artificial means, as to build, to order, here or elsewhere, a Yale or a 
 1 1 arvard. W ere the means at hand to re-produce on these prairies a fac-simile 
 of every structure in the college Campus of New Haven or Cambridge, to 
 duplicate all their equipments and embellishments within and without, and to 
 secure an equally numerous and distinguished faculty — we should not have 
 
£ 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 another Yale or Harvard. The living soul would be wanting; the fiery 
 baptisms of trial and suffering would be wanting ; the long line of historical 
 traditions would be wanting ; the spirit and presence of vanished generations 
 would not haunt and hallow the place ; no holy memories would gather about 
 it ; no august and shadowy forms would seem to hover near, to move along the 
 halls or through the grounds whispering of the dead ages and men ; no 
 centenary ivy would cling to the walls ; no moss-covered memorials of a dim 
 old past would anywhere meet the eye or touch the heart. It would be a 
 deception and a mockery. 
 
 One college may be planted in richer soil and under more favorable 
 circumstances than another; may be responsive to a plainer demand and call; 
 may have more and stronger friends in its days of weakness and need ; may 
 be more wisely planned and conducted, and so may advance more rapidly and 
 with fewer vicissitudes and perils, toward maturity and strength. But yet 
 there is an inevitable law of college life and growth and being, from which 
 not one of them can escape — nay, escape itself if possible, would be a calamity. 
 Adjuncts and conditions may vary, but by no human device or power can the 
 acorn become an oak in a night, or the child pass by a step into manhood, or 
 a college be born in a day. Nothing can set aside the essential conditions out 
 of which, in due time only, emerges the college. What these conditions are, 
 may be seen in the twin figures just employed. The seed must be planted, in 
 in a befitting place and soil ; it must germinate ; its roots and rootlets must 
 take hold of and cling to the earth ; showers and sunshine must reach the 
 hidden thing and lift it to life and light ; more warmth and moisture and light 
 must cause it to take on the semblance of its kind, raising it day by day, from 
 the earth towards the skies, supplying all its needs from the divine chemistry 
 of nature, evolving, successively, ramification, leafage, efflorescence and 
 fruitage, till with its myriad roots now anchoring it as with iron chains to the 
 ground, it nods and swings in strength and glory in the blasts and breezes of 
 the upper air, “ a thing of beauty and a joy forever.” 
 
 And what were manhood, without the preparatory stages of infancy, 
 childhood and youth, with their experiences, glad and sad — their struggles and 
 victories — their disappointments and chasteuings — their tears and prayers, and 
 hopes and fears — their precious legacy of many memories. The very 
 conception of a life with such a hiatus of blankness and nothingness yawning 
 between infancy and maturity, filling with memoryless silence and night and 
 void, the sweetest, intensest and most exquisite and prophetic zone of mortal 
 existence, if not indeed impossible, is cold and cheerless and weird — a sort of 
 hideous Frankenstein, rather than a man with beating heart and loving soul. 
 
 In these illustrations may be seen my idea of the laws and conditions 
 under which, alone, a college can be. It is a growth, a development. It has 
 its stages of infancy, youth and maturity. It has its own struggles and 
 conflicts to pass through, its own battles to fight and win, its own character to 
 establish and maintain, its own work to do and its own destiny to accomplish. 
 If it would be respected, it must be respectable ; if it would have the public 
 confidence, it must show itself to be worthy of trust; if it would have 
 endowments, it must deserve them ; if it would have honor and prestige, it 
 must earn them. It must stand in its own lot, do its own work, achieve its 
 own success. If worthy to live, it will not die. If found faithful in little, it 
 will be entrusted with much. If it do its work well, sooner or later it will 
 have work enough to do. 
 
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 9 
 
 By singleness of heart and aim, by patience and faith, in friendship and 
 truth, in good will and charity, with fidelity, with modesty, without envy or 
 jealousy or any such thing, without extravagance, display or ostentation, by 
 a quiet, unassuming deportment, by devotion to duty, by a warm and genuine 
 sympathy with all who are struggling for an education in the face of poverty 
 and discouragements, by steadfast continuance in well-doing through the years 
 of weakness and hard work and scanty endowments — by such a spirit and 
 course of conduct on the part of the officers and faculty of a young college, 
 it will sooner or later strike its roots deep into the soil of popular regard, 
 become intrenched in the affections and hearts of the community, grow 
 stronger and nobler year by year, till the lonely tree, planted in faith and 
 watered with tears, shall lift its head in glory, and “ the fruit thereof shall 
 shake like Lebanon.” 
 
 It has fallen to me to know much of the lives and labors of the founders 
 and faculties of Christian colleges, especially in the West, and you will permit 
 me to say that for courageous endurance in darkness and storm, for multiplied 
 burdens cheerfully borne, for steadfastness of faith and purpose when the 
 heavens seemed brass and the earth iron, for self-abnegation and sacrifice, for 
 the very essence and pathos of moral heroism — some of them were, and are, 
 worthier of apotheosis than many a martyr in the calendar of Saints. 
 Spending the dew of their youth and the meridian strength of their manhood in 
 voluntary obscurity and toil, teaching as many hours in the day as the common 
 district schoolmaster, deprived of books and travel and other helps to perfec* 
 tion and distinction in their several departments ; moral leagues in advance 
 of the average sentiment around them in respect to the nature, methods and 
 uses of culture, and so for the most part, in an uncongenial atmosphere and 
 deprived of the healthful stimulus of sympathy — yet working on and holding 
 on, looking for the dawn that came not, still bearing aloft the banner of light 
 and proclaiming the gospel of culture, till the eye of youth began to grow 
 dim, and threads of gray to appear in the once fair locks, and touches of 
 sadness to tinge the still cheerful tones and smiles, as the shadows of life 
 lengthened, and still the flush of the looked-for and prayed-for morning that 
 should herald the new day of the college, appeared not — I have seen it and 
 know it all. 
 
 But, to every such college the daybreak will surely come at last. To not 
 a few it has already come ; by others, the carol of the lark is even now heard 
 in the brightening firmament above them, and the light comes on apace. 
 And when these colleges, exalted and purified by trial, emerge from the 
 wilderness, put on their robes of 'strength as well as of beauty, and, with songs 
 of victory, gird themselves for the grander future that opens before them, 
 then will the darkness and sorrow of those early years be but the background 
 of the historical canvass, setting in bolder relief the brightness aud glory of 
 the present. • , 
 
 A precious legacy then will be that record of the devotion, fortitude and 
 heroism of those early professors and teachers and friends. It will be spoken 
 of and cherished, as soldiers, when the war is over, cherish mementoes of the 
 weary campaign, the march and the battle. That record, in time, will softly 
 blend with the moral colors that tinge the warp and woof of the inner life of 
 the college; it will pass into all its reminiscences and traditions; it will stand 
 in lieu of the ivied walls and moss-grown memorials which hallow the grounds 
 of the elder universities, binding in closer and tenderer bonds the hearts of 
 
10 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 its alumni. It will be a precious and blessed inheritance — an aureola of light 
 and glory forever. 
 
 Of the proper functions of the college, but little need be said. The 
 ground has been traversed so often and so thoroughly, and such substantial 
 agreement has been reached upon all the main questions involved, that it may 
 suffice merely to re-state the essence of this common judgment. It is held, 
 then, comprehensively, that the distinctive ministry of the college, from the 
 present point of view, is to lay foundations , to unfold principles, to teach the 
 student the true nature and use of his mental and moral powers and laculties, 
 to give him the keys of all knowledge and put him in the right road to 
 success in every department of human learning. 
 
 This, I think, fairly summarizes the views now held by the best thinkers 
 and scholars upon this initial and fundamental point, and it may properly be 
 taken as the substantially concurrent reply of modern thought to the question 
 of function. 
 
 As a logical sequence of this common acceptance of the doctriuc of func- 
 tion, as just stated, the proper conditions of admission to college, have been 
 agreed upon and settled with scarcely less substantial unanimity. True, 
 there are marked diversities of opinion and practice as to particulars, but not 
 as to the aggregate of qualifications to be required of candidates. For all see 
 that no one can be prepared to deal with the subjects of the college course, 
 ideas, laws, principles, generalizations, who has not already mastered the 
 rudiments of knowledge pertaining and leading thereto, and that to about the 
 same degree. 
 
 At the college doors, however, disagreement begins. Concurring as to 
 the chief distinctive ends to be attained by the college course, and as to the 
 average preliminary requisites — touching some of the instrumentalities best 
 fitted to secure those ends, there is not entire concurrence. This difference 
 of opinion relates mainly to the relative place and value that should be 
 assigned to the Latin and Greek languages in a scheme of liberal education. 
 Into the merits of this question I shall not enter at all, at this time, but 
 dismiss it with the single remark that after a somewhat careful notice of the 
 progress of the discussion on both sides of the issue, and on both sides of the 
 sea, and a careful study of the facts of experience and observation, my own 
 faith in the superior excellence and effectiveness of those languages as instru- 
 ments of culture, and in their great practical utility in other respects, remains 
 not only unshaken, but increased. 
 
 If my conception of the true functions and sphere of colleges is correct, it 
 seems to follow that the liberty of choice in studies should be granted with 
 much caution and circumspection. We believe and claim that the college 
 course has in view certain well-defined ends and aims, and that to secure the 
 attainment of those ends a certain line of studies, commonly designated as the 
 college curriculum, is the best. We further hold that this system of means 
 and ends is not an arbitrary or ill-digested scheme, but the long tried and 
 carefully matured plan of the ages — that to it has been given the best thought 
 and the ripest judgment of the most eminent teachers and scholars of the 
 world. If this be so, the wisdom of permitting a freedom the exercise of 
 which may imperil or defeat the cardinal purposes of the course, may well be 
 doubted. I am, therefore, unable to avoid the conclusion that ail of those 
 studies which are believed to be essential to the complete realization of the 
 historic idea of liberal culture, as that idea has been elaborated and formulated 
 
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 11 
 
 in the present established college course, should be required , and that all 
 elective or optional studies should be beyond or outside ot‘ those well-defined 
 boundaries. The deliberate wisdom of generations may justly claim respect 
 as to the the best instruments and processes by which to achieve that general 
 training which is a condition precedent to highest success in any pursuit. 
 
 When the student enters a university, or a professional or post-graduate 
 course, the case is wholly changed ; for the supposition then is that the 
 appropriate work of the college has already been performed — that the needf ul 
 foundations have been laid — and it is of course the absolute right of every 
 one to decide for himself what superstructure he will rear upon those foun- 
 dations. 
 
 The relations of colleges to each other should be sincerely fraternal and 
 sympathetic. Engaged in the same ennobling work, drinking from the same 
 clear fountains, and quickened by the same inspirations, they should see, eye 
 to eye, heartily rejoice in each other’s wellfare, and in loving confidence toil 
 on, shoulder to shoulder. Leaving envy and jealousy to the weak and the 
 wicked, they should each be emulous only of the honor of doing its own 
 work the best ; for in such a contest there is no bitterness, and can be no 
 defeat — the very striving for such an end is itself a victory. If earth has a 
 spectacle to amaze and sadden the beholder, it is that of citadels of religion 
 and learning training their artillery upon each other ; and if there is a sight 
 to stir and gladden the soul, it is when with one accord, and with shout 
 answering shout, the great guns of all the moral and literary fortresses in the 
 land, pour their concentrated fire upon the columns of ignorance and sin. 
 
 Colleges should also be in pronounced sympathy and hearty co-operation 
 with all the genuine educational enterprises and movements of our country 
 and our age, especially with public education and common schools. For colleges 
 are the indubitable progenitors of free schools. The idea of which they were 
 born, came from the Christian Colleges of New England. No other fact in 
 our educational history as a nation, is more absolutely and irrefragably true. 
 The old thirteen colonies were not more certainly of British lineage, than are 
 the free schools of the United States' the offspring of the religious ideas, 
 learning and faith of the men who founded and fostered our elder colleges. 
 
 It is not only historically true that the American College System was and 
 is the parent of the American free school system, but it is also morally and 
 logically impossible that the latter could have come into being without the 
 former. Sound learning and a pure faith were the prime factors of which 
 Harvard and Yale and Princeton were at once the products and the exponents, 
 and out of the loins of the same two elements sprang the free schools. All 
 best things come from above. That is the law in the kingdoms of mind and 
 spirit as well as those of matter. The rains descend from the clouds of heaven. 
 The light and warmth that garland the earth with flowers and hang the woods 
 with draperies of green, come down from the sun. So Christian colleges are 
 the fountains gushing from the mountain-side, whence flow down life-giving 
 streams to refresh and beautify all the moral plains and valleys of life. Not 
 more dependent are the rivers upon the melting snows and perennial springs 
 of the far-off summits, or the myriad households of a great city upon the 
 exhaustless supplies of the reservoir, than are the lower forms of education to 
 the higher — the innumerable conduits leading to every district school house, 
 to the. great mains from which they are replenished. Dry up the fountains 
 and springs, or tear down the reservoir, and drouth and desolation will come, 
 sooner or later, in the one case as surely as in the other. 
 
12 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 If these facts are sometimes forgotten, or even denied, by those who as 
 beneficiaries should be most grateful, it is but natural. For, to the multitude, 
 the mountain springs whence the rills come bubbling and sparkling to their 
 doors, are unseen and unknown. But from those who are familiar with these 
 relations of cause and effect, who look down upon these fertilizing streams and 
 smiling landscapes, only anthems of gladness and praise should be heard. 
 These are the relations which I would see all our colleges sustain to the 
 common schools, which, I need not say to this audience, 1 regard as the 
 noblest legacy bequeathed by Christian learning to the nation and the age. If 
 I were seeking the highest welfare and prosperity of the colleges themselves, 
 I would ask for the best possible free school systems, the highest attainable 
 excellence of all the grades of schools, and the largest possible attendance 
 thereat. We are all striving to push back as far as possible the twin forces 
 of ignorance and vice, and to keep them back, and it matters not in what part 
 of the line we are posted, whether in college halls or wayside school-houses, 
 only as we do our work well shall we deserve honor. 
 
 The friends of liberal learning must have observed with concern the steadily 
 increasing cost of a college education. In many of our leading colleges the 
 average expense has more than doubled in the last twenty-five years. True, 
 the facilities and consequent value of the instruction afforded in those institu- 
 tions, have also been much enhanced during the same period. But that the 
 additional benefits have kept pace with the increased expense, I do not 
 believe — some other solution must be sought. 
 
 It is undeniably true that in considering to what college he will go, many 
 a young man is now compelled to omit from the list several very eminent and 
 most excellent institutions, on the ground of expense alone. Young men of 
 scanty means are either excluded, outright, from these colleges, because 
 unable to pay the bills, or if they venture to enter, they are subjected to the 
 torture of a silent but no less cutting ostracism for no other reason than their 
 inability to spend money as freely as others, or the necessity of practising a 
 rigid economy. And so it has come to pass that this pre-eminently desirable 
 class of students has been, to an unfortunate extent, eliminated from the rolls 
 of those institutions. 
 
 College expenses may become practically prohibitive to this class of young 
 men, without any formal action of the authorities, or any change in the fees 
 and term bills. Extravagant social customs may be allowed to grow up 
 among the students ; class and society usages may impose their unwritten but 
 imperative burdens upon the members ; costly peculiarities of dress and other 
 personal habits and accessories, may assume the form of social laws, not to be 
 evaded or infringed ; other elegant and expensive usages and practices may 
 gradually creep in, and become the settled order of college life. True, all 
 these things are wholly outside of college requirements, and, in a sense, 
 matters of class or individual option. But we all know how mandatory and 
 even despotic social customs may become, especially in college communities, 
 in some respects the most unique and peculiar in the world. So intensely 
 true is this, that in some institutions it would scarcely require greater 
 temerity, or involve more serious personal consequences, for a student to defy 
 a written college law, than one of those unwritten but most exacting class or 
 college customs. If these tendencies to lavish expenditures of money are not 
 earnestly discountenanced, instead of being not seldom tacitly encouraged ; 
 and especially if there be that in the tone and spirit, the air and bearing, of 
 
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 13 
 
 the college regime itself, which affords a color of approval — then, not if such 
 costly usages were enjoined by the college ordinances, would the sons of the 
 indigent be more effectually excluded from those institutions. 
 
 Such facts and tendencies cannot be too profoundly regretted or too 
 earnestly deprecated. They are contrary to the genius and intent of the 
 American college. They foster notions and practices at war with the spirit 
 and traditions of our venerated college fathers, and with the simplicity of our 
 republican ideas. They divert the thoughts from college work and duties to 
 an injurious extent. They foster habits of no benefit to any, and to some 
 exceedingly pernicious. But, more than all, they effectually shut out and 
 turn back hundreds of young men who would gladly enter college, but who 
 cannot spend so much money, and will not submit to the inevitable conse- 
 quences of non-compliance with established college customs. 
 
 I cannot easily express my sense of the magnitude of this evil. It is 
 deplorable in $very aspect — in itself and in its effects. While colleges are for 
 all, without distinction, and all are equally welcome ; and while the priceless 
 boon of a true culture is intrinsically the same to rich and poor, there is a 
 sense in which a liberal education is the especial hope and refuge of the 
 indigent. It more than compensates their lack of the gifts of fortune. It 
 breaks down otherwise insurmountable barriers. It builds for them a high- 
 way. It opens to them glad visions of usefulness and honor. It helps to 
 equalize their chances in the race and battle of life. It reduplicates their 
 resources. It lifts them to higher planes of life, to Pisgah-tops whence Yhey 
 may look over into the promised land. It not only multiplies the avenues by 
 which they may achieve success and honor, but, which is far better, opens 
 their eyes to the nature and conditions of a truly worthy and successful life. 
 All this it does, of course, just the same, for the sons of the opulent and the 
 more favored of fortune. But while to the latter, the college course but adds 
 to advantages already possessed, to the former, viewing the case from the 
 personal and material side, it is the sine qua non. 
 
 College halls should be accessible to these young men ; college customs 
 should not repel them ; college practices should not deter them ; lavish 
 expenditures should not keep them away ; exclusiveness should not warn them 
 off; aristocratic notions should not intimidate them; the atmosphere of the 
 place should not chill them. By the simple, quiet, unostentatious and inex- 
 pensive habits and manners of all connected with the institution ; by the 
 modest, cheerful and wholesome tone of the whole college regime ; by the 
 manifest supremacy, in all things, of the true intent and spirit of college life 
 and work, and the subordination of all else — by these means, and others of 
 like nature, so accordant with all the purposes and traditions of Christian 
 colleges in this plain, republican country, the gifted sons of the indigent 
 should be drawn to us, by an irresistible attraction, and made contented and 
 happy when they come and while they stay. If I seem to emphasize this 
 point, it is because I have deep feelings and strong convictions in regard to it. 
 I am in especial sympathy with these young men. I know them — their 
 stuggles, aspirations and hopes. I am of them, and with them, and so long 
 as L am here, I intend, so far as in me lies, that they shall feel at home in 
 Knox College. 
 
 Touching the inner life, the soul and spirit, the heart of a college, its 
 essential attitudes and character in a moral and religious sense — it should, in 
 my judgment, be simply Christian , in the grand, Catholic, gospel acceptation 
 
14 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 of that term — no more, no less. The legend upon its banner should be : 
 Religion and Learning — Christ and Culture. For, in those two words, 
 taken in their comprehensive sense, is enfolded the essence of both the earthly 
 and heavenly life — the elements of man’s present duty and happiness and joy, 
 and of his immortal destiny and glory. The one comprehends all that 
 pertains to his spiritual nature, the other all that concerns him as a rational 
 intelligent being. The one links him in blessed fellowship with the pure in 
 heart, the other with the brotherhood of the wise and cultured. The one 
 anchors the soul, in rest and peace in the haven of faith ; the other gives 
 wings to thought and lifts the mind to mountain summits of knowledge and 
 contemplation. The one leads to knowledge of God through his word, the 
 other to the same knowledge through his works. The one goes down into 
 the still sanctuaries of the heart and conscience, breathing into them a divine 
 love and tenderness, and filling them with joys that are unspeakable and full 
 of glory ; the other takes him to the sublime places whence be may survey 
 the kingdoms of the earth and their glory. The one leads him forth to the 
 fields of earthly lore and art and genius — to the fountains of eloquence, poetry 
 and song — the other into the green pastures and beside the still waters of the 
 River of Life. The one plants his feet upon the immutable principia of the 
 intellectual and physical universe, the other sets them in everlasting security 
 upon the “Rock of Ages.” The one brings the noble delights of mental 
 conflicts and victories ; the other the grander triumph of a renewed life and 
 the ineffable blessedness of a soul at peace with God. The one adds beaut) r 
 and radiance to life, the other brightens the dark valley of the shadow of 
 death. Without culture a man is blind in a world of beauty, deaf in a world 
 of song, insensible in a world of sublimity and pathos ; wit hout religion, he is 
 a “lost pleiad,” a wandering star, out of his spiritual orbit, out of harmony 
 with the rhythmic forces of the moral and spiritual universe, drifting alone in 
 a sunless firmament. With both , he is whole and complete, “m seipso totus 
 teres atque rotundusC in a sense infinitely grander than it even entered into 
 the mind of Horace to conceive. 
 
 Is not this enough? The kingdoms of Christ and of culture are co- 
 extensive and conterminous. The world, from pole to pole and from sea to 
 sea, is their domain. Man, in all his races and conditions, is their subject. 
 The mission of culture is to every darkened intellect among the sons of men ; 
 and for every sinful, burdened soul, from the rivers to the ends of the earth, 
 is the love of Christ. 
 
 Into the life-giving spirit of these truths I would see all our Christian 
 colleges baptized ; upon the living stones of these sure and catholic founda- 
 tions, I would see them established ; along these broad and sunlit highways I 
 would see them all go forward, down the ages, conquering and to conquer. 
 Believing this to be their high commission, I would see them serve under no 
 other ; regarding these as their true marching orders, I would see them obey 
 no others. This is the atmosphere I would have pervade college halls and 
 class-rooms, breathe through chapel and campus, and penetrate all the 
 recesses of college life. This is the moral and religious oxygen that I would 
 see infused into all the work of instruction, and giving tone and character to 
 all the subjects of its training. True to these principles, keeping within the 
 orbit of these gracious aims and purposes, the Christian college owes no other 
 allegiance and should need no other alliances. 
 
 There is no other freedom like that wherewith God in Christ makes his 
 
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 15 
 
 children free ; and like to it is the freedom) wherewith it is the province of 
 culture to enfranchise the soul. The presence and power of this sweet 
 invigorating spirit of liberty, I would have every student feel, from the hour 
 he enters the college precincts, till he quits them for the scenes of active life. 
 Not license, but the glad sense of dwelling in an atmosphere composed only of 
 the original elements of truth, earthly and heavenly ; of being environed by 
 uplifting mental and spiritual forces ; of feeling himself in the best possible 
 conditions for studying the works of God and of men, and for beholding the 
 beauty and glory of the truth, both as it is in nature, and as it is in Jesus — 
 that nothing less supreme than God, or less infallible than his word is to 
 challenge the reverent faith and allegiance of his soul. 
 
 As the child only knows, and only cares to know, that his mother is pure 
 and good, tender, loving and true ; and that his father is wise and just, noble 
 and upright — so in this direction, would I have the student simply know and 
 feel that his teachers are Christian gentlemen, and never have cause to think 
 of them as anything else. While he should have no more doubt on this 
 point than the child has of its mother’s love, it should no more occur to him 
 to think of Prof. A. as of Paul, Prof. B. as of Apollos, and Prof. C. as of 
 Cephas, than to the happy child to think of its father as of English lineage, 
 and its mother as of Scotch. As that father’s and mother’s good, loving 
 heart, is the all in all to the child, so is it enough for the student to know 
 that all his teachers are one in Christ. 
 
 Even so would I have the moral and religious influences of the college 
 sweet and wholesome, pure and bracing ; pronounced and decided, yet without 
 austerity or gloom ; steady and uniform as the procession of the hours, yet 
 bright and cheerful as the light ; a perpetual, though almost unconscious, 
 mental and spiritual tonic ; ubiquitous and pervasive as the atmosphere, and 
 as invisible and free ; redolent of heavenly aromas, and vocal with the 
 minstrelsies of a simple and blessed worship ; lifting the soul, day by day, 
 towards the divine and infinite. In such an atmosphere I should hope to see 
 every student grow up into a noble Christian manhood. If not under such 
 influences, I know not under what other such a result may be expected. 
 
 I am profoundly convinced that this is the true foundation for Christian 
 colleges, in the matter now under consideration — that it is the noblest and 
 worthiest, and that in the future, if not now, it will be the elect and precious 
 corner-stone of them all — the final rock on which shall abide that resplendent 
 fabric of liberal culture, against which the storms and strifes of men shall 
 prevail no more forever. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees : God only knows with what fear and 
 shrinking I have come to this hour. Whoever may doubt my fitness for this 
 work, his doubts cannot equal my own. If even now I might draw back from 
 this great responsibility, and turn away from this place, it would be with a 
 lighter heart than I have known since I have accepted the trust at your hands. 
 Nothing would be so sweet and congenial to me as the retirement and tran- 
 quility of private life. In comparison with that, there is no earthly trust or 
 honor that l would not gladly push aside, if [ could and might. This is the 
 truth, and I say it frankly, standing here upon the threshold of these untried 
 duties. 
 
 I say these things not because 1 lightly esteem the work you have given 
 me to do, or the dignity of the office I am about to assume — just the reverse. 
 That work, in my conception of it, towers before me in magnitude and grandeur, 
 
16 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 and I know that upon him to whom it shall be given to do it well, will descend 
 benedictions more precious than praise, a reward brighter than coronal of glory. 
 But who is sufficient for these things ? Not light nor few have been my labors 
 in the past, but none of them were undertaken with the diffidence that now 
 oppresses me. 
 
 It seems almost like an intrusion to stand in this place. Other men for 
 weary years, have labored, and I am to enter into their labors. The founda- 
 tions of Knox College were laid, long ago, by men of faith and prayer, of 
 culture and power. Some of them remain, others have entered into rest ; one 
 so recently that it is hard to realize that his familiar form will not again be 
 seen, and his -voice heard, in our assemblies and councils. I had counted 
 much upon his wisdom and experience, his ripened judgment, his loving fidelity 
 to the college and his intimate acquaintance with all its history. The greatness 
 of the loss we have sustained, you who knew him so long and well, can best 
 appreciate. 
 
 Within the sound of my voice are doubtless some who have been identified 
 with the whole eventful history of this college, from the first conference of its 
 founders, at Whitesboro’, New York, in 1836, until now. For nearly four 
 decades, they have watched, and waited, and prayed for the prosperity of this 
 institution. They have witnessed its struggles and conquests, its triumphs 
 and defeats. Every ordeal through which it has passed has but endeared it to 
 their hearts — every trial has but linked them the more closely to its fortunes. 
 With all my honored predecessors they have taken counsel, and in the galleries 
 of their memory hang sacred portraits of good and honorable men, who, with 
 them, bore the heat and burden of the day, and now rest from their labors. 
 With these visions of the past, what wonder if these veterans of Knox, seeing 
 a stranger about to stand in this consecrated place, should be tempted to say : 
 “ We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from 
 whence he is.” Whether the thoughts of any take on this shape and form or 
 not, it is hut natural that some such feelings should arise, and I have no doubt 
 they do. 
 
 And the men and women of this beautiful little city, which owes its very 
 birth and name and life and prestige to the College, how can they be indiffer 
 ent observers of this day’s transactions. If not so directly in the future as in 
 the past, still, in years to come as well as those that are gone, Knox College 
 and Galesburg will be closely allied in interest, association and destiny. The 
 name of one will continue to suggest that of the other — the prosperity of one 
 will affect that of the other. 
 
 Then there are the citizens of the surrounding communities, the numerous 
 families which came hither from Eastern homes, accompanying or following 
 the college band — coming because the college was to be here established. To 
 all these, and their descendants, the welfare of Knox college cannot be a 
 matter of indifference. 
 
 A still wider circle will be affected, in some faint degree, at least, for better 
 or worse, by the act of the trustees, to consumate which we are now convened. 
 
 A seat of learning like this cannot abide in obscurity and isolation. It 
 has an individuality and character of its own, a kind of personality, the 
 diffusive influence and force of which will be felt, more or less, and for good 
 or evil, in all the region around — just as the personality and character of 
 many a citizen of Galesburg are felt to the limits of Knox County, and far 
 beyond. The unconscious influence of a strong and good man, is wonderfully 
 
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 17 
 
 pervasive and potential. Multitudes feel it, are affected by it, are even shaped 
 in material or moral destiny by it, who have never seen the face of the man — 
 possibly have never even heard his name. So is it, in greatly enhanced meas- 
 ure, with an earnest, vigorous, high-toned institution of learning. The 
 concentric circles of its influence will inevitably reach far beyond the spot 
 where it stands, as the wavelets stirred by the falling pebble, roll outward and 
 onward till they break in murmurs on remotest shores. In this sense, if in 
 no other Knox County, and this entire region of country, in some respects 
 the very finest in the whole State, are interested in what we do to-day. 
 
 The Sisterhood of American Colleges, too, cannot be indifferent to anything 
 that affects the welfare and honor of one of their number. Linked in love 
 and friendship, clasping hands in unity of purpose, these Christian colleges 
 call to each other across the continent, from State to State, and from sea to 
 sea: “Watchman what of the night?” However humble and insignificant in 
 themselves these proceedings of ours may be, therefore, they yet touch cords 
 which vibrate along the whole line — however modest the proportions of this 
 goodly tree of ours, its branches interlace with those of others of like nature, 
 and these again with others, so that the force which stirs the foliage of one is 
 communicated to all. 
 
 And then there is the cause of Christian learning and culture, universal, — 
 it too has a right to interrogate the guardians of Knox College, this day, 
 saying, men and brethren what do ye? 
 
 In presence so august, at the bar of a tribunal so impressive, in full view 
 of interests so far reaching and solemn, who would not stand abashed and 
 trembling? Who would not feel his own littleness and nothingness? 
 
 But, gentlemen, wisely or unwisely, I have accepted the trust which you 
 have committed to my hands, and until that trust is recalled or surrendered, 
 the honor, enlargement and prosperity of Knox College shall be the one 
 paramount thought and concern of my life. I believe that there are here in 
 abundance, in rich profusion, all the essential elements and resources of a 
 strong and vigorous institution. I do not allow myself to doubt that these 
 resources can be utilized to that end. If Knox College is to rise in streng th 
 and beauty and power, the city of Galesburg and the county of Knox, must 
 take the initiative — this done, other help will not be wanting. I have outlined 
 my conception of the true life and strength of a college, and of the attitude 
 it should assume as a moral and religious force. If the friends of this 
 institution believe, with me, that these views are sound, and will cordially 
 unite in a determined, fraternal, whole-souled effort to carry them out, I 
 believe that all will be astonished at the ease and quickness with which our 
 best hopes will be realized. 
 
 I have no pledges or promises to make, great or small, except these two: 
 that with all my might, and with singleness of heart and steadfastness of 
 purpose I will try to be of some service to this college : and that when it shall 
 be either your judgment or mine, that, in that endeavor, from whatsoever 
 cause, I have not been successful, I will quietly, promptly and peaceably 
 withdraw from the Presidency and from the college. I come among you to 
 help in this grand enterprise, if I can. If that may not be, I at least do not 
 mean to be a hindrance. The world is large, and fields of labor abundant. 
 No arm that is able and willing to pull, need long lack for an oar. 
 
 These are my views and purposes touching these matters. It has seemed 
 fit to utter them here, in this frank and simple way, to the end that we may 
 
18 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 all be at one, from the very outset. An open, straightforward course, I 
 think, is always the best for all parties — it is, at any rate, the one that I shall 
 endeavor to pursue. It is the only “policy’' in which I believe. 
 
 And now, honored gentlemen of the Board of Trustees, I will do my best 
 to carry out all your instructions and suggestions with reference to the 
 welfare of Knox College, according to my best discernment of their letter and 
 spirit ; and I do most earnestly and sincerely bespeak your constant aid and 
 counsel, and your patient consideration of the errors of judgment into which, 
 through inexperience, I shall be so likely to fall. 
 
 To you, dear brethren of the Faculty, I come as an associate and co- 
 laborer. I know your devotion, your fidelity, your ability, your solicitudes 
 and your abounding labors and toils. I would share in those labors and help 
 to carry those burdens, and that will I do, as God shall give me wisdom and 
 strength. Upon you has rested the responsibility of sustaining Knox College, 
 and most faithfully have you fulfilled the trust. With quiet courage you 
 have sept right on. When others have been ready to falter and faint, you 
 have not desponded. But for your cheerful fortitude, unselfish devotion, 
 and willing sacrifices, I know not what would have become of Knox College. 
 I believe the dawn is not distant — I think I can see the flush of a new day 
 already deepening in the East. If it come, to you, and your associates of the 
 past, will the honor be due ; and when it comes, I shall almost envy you the 
 glad and grateful reflections that will be yours. 
 
 Alumni of Knox College — you who knew her in the beauty of her fresh 
 and ardent prime, and you who are her younger children, do not cease to love 
 and cherish your Literary Mother. Make her cause your own — be very 
 jealous of her honor — speak for, defend, stand by her. Come from far and 
 near to her anniversaries, as company after company of her sons and daughters 
 attain their literary majority, and go forth with her benediction. She needs 
 your sympathy, your influence, your co-operation. She is still young and 
 fair — no wrinkle lines her face — no silver threads her hair. Distant be the 
 day when her queenly head shall be bowed by that bitterest of all sorrows : 
 filial ingratitude. Other burdens she will try to bear — spare her that. God 
 helping me, she shall know no grief that I can turn away, and she shall still 
 smile, even though it be through tears. 
 
 Students of Knox College — The relation I now assume toward you is 
 almost parental in character. I would have it become more and more so, as 
 the years come and go, and we know each other better. It is my cherished 
 conception of the true type of the office I am to bear. You can make that 
 office a crown of thorns, or a coronal of joy. You can give me courage by 
 •day and songs in the night, how great soever my labors, or you can send me 
 with a heavy heart, to a sleepless pillow. Not till I must, will I doubt which 
 you will do. It will be impossible that I should not always and in all things, 
 seek your truest welfare and happiness, as young men and women, and as 
 students. Will it not be impossible for you, knowingly and wantonly, to 
 tear the heart that yearns for you, or to cloud the life that will be devoted 
 to you ? I do so believe. I shall not forget that you are young, full of 
 impulses and enthusiasms of youth — only do not you forget that to all the 
 sports and pleasures and intensities of youthful blood and spirit, there is a 
 golden boundary, within which is room for all the fullness of innocent delights 
 and joys — beyond which is moral night, and sin and death. Only keep on 
 the hither side of that moral dead-line , drawn by the finger of God, so legibly 
 
INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 19 
 
 in his word, in the heart and conscience, and across all the fields of life, and 
 you will be safe and happy, and my joy will be full. 
 
 Citizens of Galesburg — May not this stranger within your gates, ask for 
 himself your just and kindly judgment, and for his work your generous 
 interest and sympathy. He will sorely need it all. He comes to your 
 beautiful city with the one absorbing desire to do something for Knox College. 
 Do not your interests lie in the same direction ? If success is to crown our 
 efforts and gladden our hearts, more will depend upon you, at last, than upon 
 him. The hour that you shall say, out of the depths of conviction and 
 feeling; Knox College shall live — from that hour her resurrection unto new 
 life and glory, is sure. Ought it not be said? Will you not say it? 
 
 Friends of Knox College, everywhere — In the precious name of that sound 
 Christian culture, to which this institution was set apart and consecrated nearly 
 forty years ago, and the need of which, in all the arts and industries, and 
 through all the arteries of private, social and public life, was surely never 
 more apparent than now — I ask you to give us your aid and confidence and 
 sympathy. Without these, we cannot succeed — with these, and the blessing 
 of God, we cannot and shall not fail. 
 
 o 
 
 ADDRESS TO GRADUATING CLASS. 
 
 After conferring the Degrees upon the graduating class, Dr. Bateman 
 addressed the class as follows : 
 
 It hardly seems meet that these parting words should be spoken by me. 
 Fitter were it that they should be uttered by some one of those toward whom 
 you have so long sustained the close and tender relation of pupils. 
 
 And yet I am not sorry for this one opportunity to speak to you, though 
 it be only to say God bless you, and good-bye. 
 
 You have successfully and honorably completed the courses of study 
 prescribed in Knox College, and have received the customary testimonials of 
 diligence, good conduct and scholarship. 
 
 Your college days are ended. This day divides, as no other day has done, 
 the past from the future of your lives. You linger here a few moments, in 
 the blended light of memory and hope, ere you gird yourselves for the toils 
 and conflicts that remain. 
 
 One narrow sea you have already safely crossed. The voyage you are 
 soon to begin, will only end when the heaving sea of life itself shall have been 
 traversed, and the anchor falls upon the solemn shores of the Silent Land. 
 
 What that voyage shall be — whether prosperous or disastrous — whether 
 as one by one you near those outer shores, the light of heaven shall fall upon 
 your faces, the music of heaven upon your ears, and the peace and joy of 
 heaven upon your hearts, or darkness and fear shall be round about you, — 
 none of these friends, no, not the tenderest and dearest, can tell. God 
 knoweth. 
 
 But this we know : It will depend upon yourselves — upon the use you 
 make of the gifts and powers you possess — upon the ends you choose and 
 towards which you work — upon the worthiness of your aims and purposes in 
 
20 
 
 INAUGURAL CEREMONIES. 
 
 life — upon your fidelity to the immutable principles of rectitude — upon your 
 wakeful attention and loyalty to the voice and regency of conscience, as 
 enlightened and quickened by the word and spirit of God — upon your cordial 
 love, belief and practice of the truth, as it is in Jesus. 
 
 I am persuaded that you need not that I should admonish you touching 
 any of these things. Again and again have they, I am sure, been impressed 
 upon you by these faithful teachers, more forcibly and tenderly than any 
 words of mine can do. 
 
 You have laid a few foundations in science and learning — only that. But 
 I am sure they are good foundations, and well laid. The superstructure is 
 yet to be reared thereon, and it doth not yet appear what that shall be. It 
 will depend upon you. You can make it strong and beautiful. Let me 
 entreat you to build thereon a goodly temple, even the fabric of a manly, 
 symmetrical, Christian character — the fairest, most precious and enduring 
 moral structure beneath the stars. 
 
 The world is waiting for you. It has need of you — sore need of you,, 
 every one, and for all your gifts and culture and power. It has a place, too, 
 for each of you. It may not be an exalted or a conspicuous -place ; tjie 
 acclaim and plaudits of men may not await you ; not a name in this dear 
 class of ’75 may ever be known to fame, or live on the historic page ; not one 
 of you may ever achieve what men call greatness. 
 
 But in the sight of God, of angels and of all good fnen, there is a 
 greatness which you, and each of you, may surely attain ; there are honors 
 which you may win, the lustre of which will remain when coronets and crowns 
 and the heads that wear them are alike in the dust, and the sheen of their 
 jewels is extinguished forever; there are garlands for you that will abide in 
 perennial freshness and beauty when the academic laurel shall ’ihave withered, 
 and the amaranth shall have lost its fabled immortality — there are songs for 
 you, the melody of which will linger in tremulous sweetness and pathos in 
 your hearts, when all mortal minstrelsy shall cease to ravish the ear. 
 
 Is this fancy? Say I too much? Not so. 
 
 It is simply the greatness of a good and true life — a life that the poorest 
 and humblest may live ; a life that bravely and patiently stands in its lot, be 
 it lofty or lowly ; that gratefully accepts and wisely uses whatever of earthly 
 good providence bestows ; that makes the most and the best of passing 
 opportunities, and finds its sure and sufficient ^reward in the consciousness of 
 useful burdens cheerfully borne, and daily duties faithfully performed — they 
 are the honors that crown and glorify the memory of him who has helped to 
 make the world sweeter and purer and better ; they are the garlands which 
 encircle with immortal green the head of him who has remembered the poor, 
 lifted up the fallen, and borne the cup of cold water to the little ones who 
 were ready to perish ; and the songs are they that are heard floating out from 
 the walls and gates of the city of God, as the good man nears the dark river, 
 and goes down into the valley of the shadow of death. 
 
 Millions have achieved that greatness, earned those honors, worn those 
 garlands, heard those songs, and died like conquerors, whose lives were as 
 modest as the daisies and buttercups of the lowly vales in which they dwelt. 
 
 Be, then, true to yourselves, to your age and country and to your God ; 
 true to the college wherein you have been nurtured, and to the obligations 
 imposed by the intellectual and moral culture and power that you have here 
 received. 
 
Fall Term opens Thursday, September 2d. 
 
 Winter Term opens Thursday, January 6th. 
 
 Summer Term opens Thursday, April 6th. 
 
 FACULTY. 
 
 Hon. NEWTON BATEMAN, A.M. LL.D., President, 
 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy and Political Economy. 
 
 * Rev. ALEX. F. KEMP, A.M. LL.D., 
 
 Professor of Mental Philosophy and English Literature. 
 
 ALBERT HURD, A.M., 
 
 Professor of Chemistry and Natural Science. 
 
 GEORGE CHURCHILL, A.M., 
 
 Principal of the Academy. 
 
 MILTON L. COMSTOCK, A.M., 
 
 Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy. 
 
 Rev. THOMAS R, WILLARD, A.M., 
 
 Professor of Ancient Languages. 
 
 W. P. NORTHRUP, A.B., 
 
 Instructor in Elocution, and Classical Tutor. 
 
 Mrs. AMELIA F. BANGS, 
 
 Principal of the Ladies’ Seminary. 
 
 Mrs. C. MAUD BROWN, 
 
 Teacher in the Academy. 
 
 Miss CORNELIA L. JONES, 
 
 Instructor in Drawing and Painting. 
 
 JOHN S. FULLER, 
 
 Professor of Music, Yocal and Instrumental. 
 
 For further information address the President or any 
 member of the Faculty, or 
 
 GEORGE DAVIS, Treasurer.