THE BATTALION.
9
your fellow student and by your discussions to keep in touch
.and gain familiarity with the affairs of the day. Good so
cieties add prestige to an institution, and not only give to
•the members refinement and elegance of manners but aid in
the cultivation of the powers of mental perception and dis
cernment, those indispensable requisites of a thoroughly edu
cated mind. Life at college ends all too soon—month follows
month, year follows year, and you, almost unconscious of the
flight of time, at last realize your college career has ended.
Commencement is at hand and even now, that diploma which
you have so earnestly sought is almost within jour grasp.
Commencement ! What a diversity of meaning that one word
has. To the undergraduate it means the beginning of a
season of gayety and pleasure—he is to return to home, fam
ily and friends—perhaps a sweet-heart with flushed cheeks
and loving eyes will greet him ; not a care, not a single re
sponsibility to mar the brief vacation. Not yet are you to
enter the vast arena where millions are struggling for exist
ence. Enjoy well your brief respite. Treasure every hour,
every minute that you spend under guidance of devote I par
ents. It is the spring time of your existence. The soft
zejjhyrs sweeping over the verdant fields; the warm sun
spreading its genial and life-giving rays over the land, bear
not the semblance of a warning of the hot winds and scorch-
ang heat that is to come.
To the graduate, commencement has a far different mean
ing. Tne diploma which he receives with swelling heart and
mingled feelings of exultation and pride, seems like some
magic instrument which will waft him to fame or under
whose mysterious guidance he may enter the portals of suc
cess. Too soon you will find that this diploma merely bears
evidence that you have gone through a process of mental
training; that your capacity for original thought and inves-
ligation has been tested , that you are in a condition to cope
with others in your chosen pursuits, and furthermore, if you
accomplish anything it will be by the exercise of these pow
ers. It is the commencement of life in earnest. You go
rforth as an independent agent and by knowledge acquired