10
THE BATTALION.
him that is being taught and him that teacheth.
What is, then, that aim, so lofty, so dignified, so im
portant, so unselfish, that you students, your president,
that faculty, all here, can alike strive for it and mutually
help each other to attain it? I will tell you. “You are
building higher than you know.” You represent possibili
ties and hopes and futures that no man can measure or even
grasp. You and I, my colleagues, might well sink to our
knees did we catch a glimpse of the immortal energies here
before us, “in the rough,” awaiting our constructive pro
cesses. You young men are the soul of the next- genera
tion! You are the spirit in lmbryo of the twentieth cen
tury! You are the hrirs of mental achievements at which
a Socrates or a Solomon would go wild. You have, laid in
your hands, the control of physical forces which heretofore
only giants in intellect have wielded, and which your fore
fathers regarded with superstitious awe. Electricity, ex
plosive gases, poisonous compounds, the waste materials
from nature’s laboratory, the earths, the metals, coal, you
are to use them as though stowed away for your special
benefit. Phoebus hands over to you, his Phaethon off
spring without a protest, the reins of his fiery sun-steeds.
You are on the way to gather up again and re-confine the
evils that escaped from Pandora’s box. You are to see the
nations assemble again in the Mesopotamian valle\' and
finish the tower of Babel under holier auspices.
You have an interpretation of this sacred Book which
has broken down national, racial, all partisan barriers, and
extended its jurisdiction over the world. Under sanction
of this Book’s enlightening influences no American need