{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_69531/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_69531","id":"gutenberg_69531","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69531","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Parenthood & Family Relations","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Teaching & Education","Conduct of life","Girard College"],"text":"ADVICE\n                                  TO\n                          YOUNG MEN AND BOYS\n\n\n\n\n                   [Illustration: _Stephen Girard._]\n\n\n\n\n                                ADVICE\n                                  TO\n                          YOUNG MEN AND BOYS\n\n                        _A SERIES OF ADDRESSES_\n\n\n                      DELIVERED BY B. B. COMEGYS\n          MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF CITY TRUSTS OF PHILADELPHIA\n\n                  TO THE PUPILS OF THE GIRARD COLLEGE\n\n\n                           ILLUSTRATED WITH\n                  Six Photogravure Portraits on Steel\n\n\n                             PHILADELPHIA\n                       GEBBIE & CO., Publishers\n                                 1890\n\n\n\n\n                        Copyright by\n                             GEBBIE & CO.,\n                                 1889.\n\n\n\n\n                               PREFACE.\n\n\nIn January, 1882, I was appointed by the Judges of the Courts of Common\nPleas of Philadelphia to the Board of Directors of City Trusts, which\nhas charge of Girard College, having for some years previously, by the\nkind partiality of President Allen, been on the staff of speakers in\nthe Chapel on Sundays. My interest in the Pupils was of course at once\nincreased, and ever since I have given much time and thought to the\nmoral instruction of the boys.\n\nFrom the many Addresses made to them I have selected the following\nas fair specimens of the instruction I have sought to impart. Some\nrepetitions of thought and language may be accounted for by the lapse\nof time between the giving of the Addresses, not forgetting the\nwell-known Hebrew proverb, \u201cLine upon line\u2015\u2015precept upon precept\u2015\u2015here\na little\u2015\u2015there a little.\u201d\n\nThe word \u201cOrphans\u201d as used in the will of Mr. Girard has been defined\nby the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to mean boys who are fatherless.\n\nThe book is published in the hope that it may be the means of helping\nsome boys and young men other than those to whom the Addresses were\nmade.\n\n    4205 WALNUT ST.,\n        _November, 1889._\n\n\n\n\n                         CONTENTS.\n\n\n STEPHEN GIRARD AND HIS COLLEGE. (Introductory)     PAGE  9\n\n HOW TO WIN SUCCESS                                   \u201c  25\n\n LIFE\u2015\u2015ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND TEMPTATIONS              \u201c  39\n\n ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM WELSH                        \u201c  51\n\n BAD ASSOCIATES                                       \u201c  59\n\n ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD                   \u201c  69\n\n THE CASE OF THE UNEDUCATED EMPLOYED                  \u201c  79\n\n WILLIAM PENN                                         \u201c  99\n\n OUR CONSTITUTION                                     \u201c 113\n\n JAMES LAWRENCE CLAGHORN                              \u201c 129\n\n THE LEAF TURNED OVER                                 \u201c 143\n\n THANKSGIVING DAY. (November 29, 1888)                \u201c 155\n\n ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT ALLEN                      \u201c 169\n\n A YOUNG MAN\u2019S MESSAGE TO BOYS                        \u201c 179\n\n A TRUTHFUL CHARACTER                                 \u201c 188\n\n\n\n\n   LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n STEPHEN GIRARD      _Frontispiece._\n\n B. B. COMEGYS                  PAGE 25\n\n WILLIAM WELSH                    \u201c  51\n\n JAMES A. GARFIELD                \u201c  69\n\n JAMES LAWRENCE CLAGHORN          \u201c 129\n\n PROFESSOR W. H. ALLEN            \u201c 169\n\n\n\n\n                  STEPHEN GIRARD AND HIS COLLEGE.[A]\n\n                             INTRODUCTORY.\n\n[A] This introduction is taken by permission from \u201cThe Life and\nCharacter of Stephen Girard, by Henry Atlee Ingram, LL. B.\u201d\n\n\nStephen Girard, who calls himself in his will \u201cmariner and merchant,\u201d\nwas born near the city of Bordeaux, France, on May 20, 1750. At the age\nof twenty-six he settled in Philadelphia, having his counting-house\non Water street, above Market. He was a man of great industry and\nfrugality, and lived comfortably, as the merchants of that day lived,\nin the dwelling of which his counting-house formed a part. He was\nmarried and had one child, but the death of his wife was followed\nsoon by the death of his child, and he never married again. He lived\nto the age of eighty-one and accumulated what was considered at the\ntime of his death a vast estate, more than seven millions of dollars.\nOne hundred and forty thousand dollars of this was bequeathed to\nmembers of his family, sixty-five thousand as a principal sum for\nthe payment of annuities to certain friends and former employ\u00e9s, one\nhundred and sixteen thousand to various Philadelphia charities, five\nhundred thousand to the city of Philadelphia for the improvement of\nits water front on the Delaware, three hundred thousand to the State\nof Pennsylvania for the prosecution of internal improvements, and an\nindefinite sum in various legacies to his apprentices, to sea-captains\nwho should bring his vessels in their charge safely to port, and to his\nhouse servants. The remainder of his estate he devised in trust to the\ncity of Philadelphia for the following purposes: (1) To erect, improve\nand maintain a college for poor white orphan boys; (2) to establish a\nbetter police system, and (3) to improve the city of Philadelphia and\ndiminish taxation.\n\nThe sum of two millions of dollars was set apart by his will for\nthe construction of the college, and as soon as was practicable the\nexecutors appropriated certain securities for the purpose, the actual\noutlay for erection and finishing of the edifice being one million nine\nhundred and thirty-three thousand eight hundred and twenty-one dollars\nand seventy-eight cents ($1,933,821.78). Excavation was commenced May\n6, 1833, the corner-stone being laid with ceremonies on the Fourth\nof July following, and the completed buildings were transferred to\nthe Board of Directors on the 13th of November, 1847. There was thus\noccupied in construction a period of fourteen years and six months, the\nwork being somewhat delayed by reason of suits brought by the heirs of\nGirard against the city of Philadelphia to recover the estate. The\ndesign adopted was substantially that furnished by Thomas U. Walters,\nan architect elected by the Board of Directors. Some modifications were\nrendered advisable by the change of site directed in the second codicil\nof Girard\u2019s will, the original purpose having been to occupy the square\nbounded by Eleventh, Chestnut, Twelfth and Market streets, in the heart\nof the city of Philadelphia. But Girard having, subsequently to the\nfirst draft of his will, purchased for thirty-five thousand dollars the\nWilliam Parker farm of forty-five acres, on the Ridge Road, known as\nthe \u201cPeel Hall Estate,\u201d he directed that the site of his college should\nbe transferred to that place, and commenced the erection of stores and\ndwellings upon the former plot of ground, which dwellings and stores\nform part of his residuary estate.\n\nThe college proper closely resembles in design a Greek temple. It is\nbuilt of marble, which was chiefly obtained from quarries in Montgomery\nand Chester counties, Pennsylvania, and at Egremont, Massachusetts.\n\nThe building is three stories in height, the first and second being\ntwenty-five feet from floor to floor, and the third thirty feet in the\nclear to the eye of the dome, the doors of entrance being in the north\nand south fronts and measuring sixteen feet in width and thirty-two\nin height. The walls of the cella are four feet in thickness, and are\npierced on each flank by twenty windows. At each end of the building\nis a vestibule, extending across the whole width of the cella, the\nceilings of which are supported on each floor by eight columns, whose\nshafts are composed of a single stone. Those on the first floor are\nIonic, after the temple on the Ilissus, at Athens; on the second, a\nmodified Corinthian, after the Tower of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, also at\nAthens; and on the third, a similar modification of the Corinthian,\nsomewhat lighter and more ornate.\n\nThe auxiliary buildings include a chapel of white marble, dormitories,\noffices and laundries. A new refectory, containing improved ranges\nand steam cooking apparatus, has recently been added, the dining-hall\nof which will seat with ease more than one thousand persons. Two\nbathing-pools are in the western portion of the grounds, and others\nin basements of buildings. The houses are heated by steam and lighted\nby gas obtained from the city works. Thirty-five electric lights from\nseven towers one hundred and twenty-five feet high illuminate the\ngrounds and the neighboring streets. A wall sixteen inches in thickness\nand ten feet in height, strengthened by spur piers on the inside and\ncapped with marble coping, surrounds the whole estate, its length\nbeing six thousand eight hundred and forty-three feet, or somewhat\nmore than one and one-quarter miles. It is pierced on the southern\nside, immediately facing the south front of the main building, for the\nchief entrance, this last being flanked by two octagonal white marble\nlodges, between which stretches an ornamental wrought-iron grille, with\nwrought-iron gates, the whole forming an approach in keeping with the\nlarge simplicity of the college itself.\n\nThe site upon which the college is erected corresponds well with\nits splendor and importance. It is elevated considerably above the\ngeneral level of the surrounding buildings and forms a conspicuous\nobject, not only from the higher windows and roofs in every part of\nPhiladelphia, but from the Delaware river many miles below the city and\nfrom eminences far out in the country. From the lofty marble roof the\nview is also exceedingly beautiful, embracing the city and its environs\nfor many miles around and the course, to their confluence, eight miles\nbelow, of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers.\n\nThe history of the institution commences shortly after the decease of\nGirard, when the Councils of Philadelphia, acting as his trustees,\nelected a Board of Directors, which organized on the 18th of February,\n1833, with Nicholas Biddle as chairman. A Building Committee was also\nappointed by the City Councils on the 21st of the following March, in\nwhom was vested the immediate supervision of the construction of the\ncollege, an office in which they continued without intermission until\nthe final completion of the structure.\n\nOn the 19th of July, 1836, the former body, having previously been\nauthorized by the Councils so to do, proceeded to elect Alexander\nDallas Bache president of the college, and instructed him to visit\nvarious similar institutions in Europe, and purchase the necessary\nbooks and apparatus for the school, both of which he did, making an\nexhaustive report upon his return in 1838. It was then attempted to\nestablish schools without awaiting the completion of the main building,\nbut competent legal advice being unfavorable to the organization\nof the institution prior to that time, the idea was abandoned, and\ndifficulties having meanwhile arisen between the Councils and the Board\nof Directors, the ordinances creating the board and authorizing the\nelection of the president were repealed.\n\nIn June, 1847, a new board was appointed, to whom the building was\ntransferred, and on December 15, 1847, the officers of the institution\nwere elected, the Hon. Joel Jones, President Judge of the District\nCourt for the City and County of Philadelphia, being chosen as\npresident. On January 1, 1848, the college was opened with a class of\none hundred orphans, previously admitted, the occasion being signalized\nby appropriate ceremonies. On October 1 of the same year one hundred\nmore were admitted, and on April 1, 1849, an additional one hundred,\nsince when others have been admitted as vacancies have occurred or to\nswell the number as facilities have increased. The college now (1889)\ncontains thirteen hundred and seventy-five pupils.\n\nOn June 1, 1849, Judge Jones resigned the office of president of the\ncollege, and on the 23d of the following November William H. Allen, LL.\nD., Professor of Mental Philosophy and English Literature in Dickinson\nCollege, was elected to fill the vacancy. He was installed January 1,\n1850, but resigned December 1, 1862, and Major Richard Somers Smith, of\nthe United States army, was chosen to fill his place. Major Smith was\ninaugurated June 24, 1863, and resigned in September, 1867, Dr. Allen\nbeing immediately re-elected and continuing in office until his death,\non the 29th of August, 1882.\n\nThe present incumbent, Adam H. Fetterolf, Ph.D., LL. D., was elected\nDecember 27, 1882, by the Board of City Trusts. This Board is composed\nof fifteen members, three of whom\u2015\u2015the Mayor and the Presidents of\nCouncils\u2015\u2015are _ex officio_, and twelve are appointed by the Judges\nof the Court of Common Pleas. Its meetings are held on the second\nWednesday of each month.\n\nIt has been determined by the courts of Pennsylvania that any child\nhaving lost its father is properly denominated an orphan, irrespective\nof whether the mother be living or not. This construction has been\nadopted by the college, the requirements for admission to the\ninstitution being prescribed by Mr. Girard\u2019s will as follows: (1) The\norphan must be a poor white boy, between six and ten years of age, no\napplication for admission being received before the former age, nor\ncan he be admitted into the college after passing his tenth birthday,\neven though the application has been made previously; (2) the mother\nor next friend is required to produce the marriage certificate of the\nchild\u2019s parents (or, in its absence, some other satisfactory evidence\nof such marriage), and also the certificate of the physician setting\nforth the time and place of birth; (3) a form of application looking to\nthe establishment of the child\u2019s identity, physical condition, morals,\nprevious education and means of support, must be filled in, signed\nand vouched for by respectable citizens. Applications are made at the\noffice, No. 19 South Twelfth street, Philadelphia.\n\nA preference is given under Girard\u2019s will to (_a_) orphans born in\nthe city of Philadelphia; (_b_) those born in any other part of\nPennsylvania; (_c_) those born in the city of New York; (_d_) those\nborn in the city of New Orleans. The preference to the orphans born\nin the city of Philadelphia is defined to be strictly limited to the\nold city proper, the districts subsequently consolidated into the city\nhaving no rights in this respect over any other portion of the State.\n\nOrphans are admitted, in the above order, strictly according to\npriority of application, the mother or next friend executing an\nindenture binding the orphan to the city of Philadelphia, as trustee\nunder Girard\u2019s will, as an orphan to be educated and provided for by\nthe college. The seventh item of the will reads as follows:\n\n\u201cThe orphans admitted into the college shall be there fed with\nplain but wholesome food, clothed with plain but decent apparel (no\ndistinctive dress ever to be worn), and lodged in a plain but safe\nmanner. Due regard shall be paid to their health, and to this end their\npersons and clothes shall be kept clean, and they shall have suitable\nand rational exercise and recreation. They shall be instructed in the\nvarious branches of a sound education, comprehending reading, writing,\ngrammar, arithmetic, geography, navigation, surveying, practical\nmathematics, astronomy, natural, chemical, and experimental philosophy,\nthe French and Spanish languages (I do not forbid, but I do not\nrecommend the Greek and Latin languages), and such other learning and\nscience as the capacities of the several scholars may merit or warrant.\nI would have them taught facts and things, rather than words or signs.\nAnd especially, I desire, that by every proper means a pure attachment\nto our republican institutions, and to the sacred rights of conscience,\nas guaranteed by our happy constitutions, shall be formed and fostered\nin the minds of the scholars.\u201d\n\nAlthough the orphans reside permanently in the college, they are, at\nstated times, allowed to visit their friends at their houses and\nto receive visits from their friends at the college. The household\nis under the care of a matron, an assistant matron, prefects and\ngovernesses, who superintend the moral and social training of the\norphans and administer the discipline of the institution when the\nscholars are not in the school-rooms. The pupils are divided into\nsections, for the purposes of discipline, having distinct officers,\nbuildings and playgrounds.\n\nThe schools are taught chiefly in the main college building, five\nprofessors and forty eight teachers being employed in the duties of\ninstruction; and the course comprises a thorough English commercial\neducation, to which has been latterly added special schools of\ntechnical instruction in the mechanical arts. As a large proportion of\nthe orphans admitted into the college have had little or no preparatory\neducation, the instruction commences with the alphabet.\n\nThe order of daily exercises is as follows: the pupils rise at six\no\u2019clock; take breakfast at half-past six. Recreation until half-past\nseven; then assemble in the section rooms at that hour and proceed to\nthe chapel for morning worship at eight. The chapel exercises consist\nof singing a hymn, reading a chapter from the Old or New Testament, and\nprayer, after the conclusion of which the pupils proceed to the various\nschool-rooms, where they remain, with a recess of fifteen minutes,\nuntil twelve. From twelve until the dinner-hour, which is half-past\ntwelve, they are on the play-ground, returning there after finishing\nthat meal until two o\u2019clock, the afternoon school-hour, when they\nresume the school exercises, remaining without intermission until four\no\u2019clock. At four the afternoon service in the chapel is held, after\nwhich they are on the play-ground until six, at which hour supper is\nserved. The evening study hour lasts from seven to eight, or half-past\neight, varying with the age of the pupils, the same difference being\nobserved in their bedtimes, which are from half-past seven for the\nyoungest until a quarter before nine for the older boys.\n\nOn Sunday the pupils assemble in their section rooms at nine o\u2019clock\nin the morning and at two in the afternoon for reading and religious\ninstruction, and at half-past ten o\u2019clock in the morning and at three\nin the afternoon they attend divine worship in the chapel. Here the\nexercises are similar to those held on week days, with the important\naddition of an appropriate discourse adapted to the comprehension\nof the pupils. The services in the chapel, whether on Sundays or on\nweek days, are invariably conducted by the president or other layman,\nthe will of the founder forbidding the entrance of clergymen of any\ndenomination whatsoever within the boundaries of the institution.\n\nThe discipline of the college is administered through admonition,\ndeprivation of recreation, and seclusion; but in extreme cases corporal\npunishment may be inflicted by order of the president and in his\npresence. If by reason of misconduct a pupil becomes an unfit companion\nfor the rest, the Will says he shall not be permitted to remain in the\ncollege.\n\nThe annual cost per capita of maintaining, clothing and educating each\npupil, including current repairs to buildings and furniture and the\nmaintenance of the grounds, is about three hundred dollars. Between the\nage of fourteen and eighteen years the scholars may be indentured by\nthe institution, on behalf of \u201cthe city of Philadelphia,\u201d to learn some\n\u201cart, trade, or mystery,\u201d until their twenty-first year, consulting,\nas far as is judicious, the inclination and preference of the scholar.\nThe master to whom an apprentice is bound agrees to furnish him with\nsufficient meat, drink, apparel, washing and lodging at his own\nplace of residence (unless otherwise agreed to by the parties to the\nindenture and so indorsed upon it); to use his best endeavors to teach\nand instruct the apprentice in his \u201cart, trade, or mystery,\u201d and at\nthe expiration of the apprenticeship to furnish him with at least two\ncomplete suits of clothes, one of which shall be new. Should, however,\na scholar not be apprenticed by the institution, he must leave the\ncollege upon attaining the age of eighteen years. In case of death\nhis friends have the privilege of removing his body for interment,\notherwise his remains are placed in the college burial lot at Laurel\nHill Cemetery, near Philadelphia.\n\nCitizens and strangers provided with a permit are allowed to visit the\ncollege on the afternoon of every week day. Permits can be obtained\nfrom the Mayor of Philadelphia, at his office; from a Director; at\nthe office of the Board of City Trusts, No. 19 South Twelfth street,\nPhiladelphia, or at the office of the _Public Ledger_ newspaper.\nEspecial courtesy is shown all foreign visitors, and particularly those\ninterested in educational matters.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn December, 1831, Mr. Girard was attacked by influenza, which was then\nepidemic in the city. The violence of the disease greatly prostrated\nhim, and, pneumonia supervening, it became at once apparent that he\ncould not live. He had no fear of death. About a month before this\nattack he had said: \u201cWhen Death comes for me he will find me busy,\nunless I am asleep in bed. If I thought I was going to die to-morrow I\nshould plant a tree, nevertheless, to-day.\u201d\n\nHe died in the back room of his Water street mansion on December 26th,\naged eighty-one years (or nearly), and four days after he was buried in\nthe churchyard at the northwest corner of Sixth and Spruce streets.\n\nFor twenty years the remains reposed undisturbed where they had been\nlaid in the churchyard of the Holy Trinity Church; when, the Girard\nCollege having been completed, it was resolved that the remains of the\ndonor should be transferred to the marble sarcophagus provided in its\nvestibule. This was done with appropriate ceremonies on September 30,\n1851.\n\nGirard\u2019s great ambition was, first, success; and this attained, the\nlonging of mankind to leave a shining memory merged his purpose in the\nestablishment of what was to him that fairest of Utopias\u2015\u2015the simple\ntradition of a citizen. A citizen whose public duties ended not with\nthe State, and whose benefactions were not limited to the rescue or\nadvancement of its interests alone, but whose charities broadened\nbeyond the limits of duty or the boundaries of an individual life, to\nstretch over long reaches of the future, enriching thousands of poor\nchildren in his beloved city yet unborn. His life shows clearly why he\nworked, as his death showed clearly the fixed object of his labor in\nacquisition. While he was forward with an apparent disregard of self,\nto expose his life in behalf of others in the midst of pestilence,\nto aid the internal improvements of the country, and to promote its\ncommercial prosperity by all the means within his power, he yet had\nmore ambitious designs. He wished to hand himself down to immortality\nby the only mode that was practicable for a man in his position, and\nhe accomplished precisely that which was the grand aim of his life. He\nwrote his epitaph in those extensive and magnificent blocks and squares\nwhich adorn the streets of his adopted city, in the public works and\neleemosynary establishments of his adopted State, and erected his own\nmonument and embodied his own principles in a marble-roofed palace.\nYet, splendid as is the structure which stands above his remains, the\nmost perfect model of architecture in the New World, it yields in\nbeauty to the moral monument. The benefactor sleeps among the orphan\npoor whom his bounty is constantly educating.\n\n\u201cThus, forever present, unseen but felt, he daily stretches forth\nhis invisible hands to lead some friendless child from ignorance to\nusefulness. And when, in the fullness of time, many homes have been\nmade happy, many orphans have been fed, clothed and educated, and many\nmen made useful to their country and themselves, each happy home or\nrescued child or useful citizen will be a living monument to perpetuate\nthe name and embalm the memory of the \u2018Mariner and Merchant.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                          BOARD OF DIRECTORS\n                                  OF\n                             CITY TRUSTS,\n                                 1889.\n\n\n                    W. HEYWARD DRAYTON, _President,\n            Ex-Officio Member of all Standing Committees_.\n\n                    LOUIS WAGNER, _Vice-President_.\n\n                         ALEXANDER BIDDLE,\n                         JAMES CAMPBELL,\n                         JOSEPH L. CAVEN,\n                         BENJAMIN B. COMEGYS,\n                         JOHN H. CONVERSE,\n                         WILLIAM L. ELKINS,\n                         WILLIAM B. MANN,\n                         JOHN H. MICHENER,\n                         GEORGE H. STUART,\n                         RICHARD VAUX.\n\n\n                  MEMBERS OF THE BOARD \u201cEX OFFICIO:\u201d\n\n                       EDWIN H. FITLER, _Mayor_.\n              JAMES R. GATES, _President Select Council_.\n             WILLIAM M. SMITH, _President Common Council_.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n    F. CARROLL BREWSTER, _Solicitor_.\n        FRANK M. HIGHLEY, _Secretary_.\n            JOHN S. BOYD, M.D., _Supt. Admission and Indentures_.\n\n\n\n\n                   [Illustration: _B. B. Comegys._]\n\n\n\n\n                          HOW TO WIN SUCCESS.\n\n                             May 27, 1888.\n\n\nI wish to speak to you to-day about some of the plainest duties of\nlife\u2015\u2015of what you must be, of what you must do, if you would be good\nmen and succeed.\n\nIt would be strange if one who has lived as long as I have should not\nhave learned something worth knowing and worth telling to those who are\nyounger and less experienced. I have had much to do with young people\nhere and elsewhere, and I have seen many failures, much disappointment,\nmany wrecks of character, and have learned many things; and I speak to\nyou to-day in the hope that I may say such things as will help some\nboy, at least one, to determine, while he is here this morning, to do\nthe best he can, each for himself, as well as for others. My remarks\nare particularly appropriate to those just about to leave the college.\n\nIt is convenient for me to consider the whole subject\u2015\u2015\n\n    1. As to health.\n    2. As to improvement of the mind.\n    3. As to business or work of any kind.\n    4. As to your duties to other people.\n    5. As to your duty to God.\n\nAs to health. You cannot be happy without good health, and\nyou cannot expect to have good health unless you observe certain\nconditions. You must keep your person cleanly by bathing, when that is\nwithin reach, or by other simple methods (such as a common brush) which\nare always within your reach. Be as much in the open air as possible.\nThis is, of course, to those whose work is within doors and sedentary,\nsuch as that of a clerk in any shop or office. Pure, fresh air is\nNature\u2019s own provision for the well-being of all her creatures, and is\nthe best of all tonics.\n\nBe careful of your diet; for it is not good to eat food that is too\nhighly seasoned or too rich. Don\u2019t be afraid of fruit in season and\nwhen it is ripe. But don\u2019t eat much late at night. Late hot suppers are\napt to do great harm. The plain, wholesome food provided here, accounts\nfor the extraordinarily good health which almost all of you enjoy.\n\nHave nothing whatever to do with intoxicating drinks. And the only\nway to be absolutely safe is not to drink even a little, or once in a\nwhile. Don\u2019t drink at all.\n\nBe sure you get plenty of sleep. Be in bed not later than eleven\no\u2019clock, and, better still, at ten. A young fellow who goes to work\nat seven o\u2019clock in the morning can\u2019t afford to keep late hours.\nYoung people need more sleep than older ones, and you cannot safely\ndisregard this hint. Late hours are always more or less injurious,\nespecially when you are away from home or in the streets. Beware of the\ntemptations of the streets and at the theatres.\n\nAs to public entertainments or recreations in the evening, go to no\nplace of seeing or hearing where you would not be willing to take your\nmother or sister. If you keep to this rule you are not likely to be\nhurt. If you play games, avoid billiard saloons, and gambling houses,\nor parties. You cannot be too careful about your recreations; let them\nbe simple and healthful as to mind and body, and cheap.\n\nHave no personal habits, such as smoking, or chewing, or spitting, or\nswearing, or others that are injurious to yourselves or disagreeable\nto other people. All these are either injurious or disagreeable. Have\nclean hands and clean clothes, not while you are at work\u2015\u2015this is not\nalways possible\u2015\u2015but when going and coming to and from work.\n\nAlways give place to women in the streets, in street-cars, or in\nother places. Do not rush into street-cars first to get seats. A true\ngentleman will wait until women get in before he goes. Do not sit in\nstreet-cars, while women are standing, unless you are very, very tired.\nHere is a temptation before you every day almost in our city. Hardly\nanything is more trying than to see sturdy boys sitting in cars while\nwomen are standing and holding on to straps. And yet I see this every\nday. What is a boy good for, that will not stand for a few minutes, if\nhe can give a woman or an old man a seat?\n\nIf you are so favored as to have a few days or two weeks holiday in\nsummer, go to the country or to the sea-shore, if your means will\nallow. The country air or sea air is better for you than almost any\nother change.\n\nDo not be extravagant in dress; but be well dressed\u2015\u2015not, however, at\nyour tailor\u2019s expense. It is the duty of all to be well dressed, but\ndon\u2019t spend all your money on dress, and especially don\u2019t buy clothing\non credit. It is particularly trying to pay for clothing when it is\nnearly or quite worn out. By all means keep out of debt, for your\npersonal or family expenses, unless you are sure beyond any doubt that\nyou can very soon repay your dealer the money you owe. The difference\nbetween ease and comfort, and distress, in money matters, is whether\nyou spend a little more than you make, or a little less than you make.\nDon\u2019t forget the \u201crainy day\u201d that is pretty sure to come, and you must\nlay up something for that day.\n\nVery much of the crime that is committed every day (and you cannot open\na paper without seeing an account of some one who has gone wrong) is\nbecause people will live beyond their means; will spend more than they\nearn. They hope for an increase of pay, or that they will make money in\nsome way or other, and then when that good time does not come, and as\nthey can\u2019t afford to wait for it, they take something, only borrowing\nit as they say, but they take it and spend it, or pay some pressing\ndebt with it, and then, and then\u2015\u2015they are caught, and sent to court,\nand tried and sent to\u2015\u2015well, you know without my telling you.\n\nAs to the mind.\n\nYou have fine opportunities for education here, but they will soon be\nover, and if you leave this college without having a good knowledge\nof the practical branches of study pursued here, and which Mr.\nGirard especially enjoined should be taught, you will be at a great\ndisadvantage with other boys who are well educated. I had a letter in\nmy pocket a few days ago written by a Girard boy, and dated in the\nMoyamensing Prison, full of bad spelling and bad grammar; and next to\nthe horror of knowing he was in prison, I felt ashamed, that a boy so\nignorant of the very commonest branches of English education should\nhave ever been within the walls of this college.\n\nI think I have told you before of a man who employs a large number of\nmen, whose business amounts to perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars\nin a year, who is entirely ignorant of accounts, and who a few years\nago was robbed and almost ruined by his book-keeper, and who would now\ngive half of what he is worth, and that is a good deal, if he could\nunderstand book-keeping; for he is entirely dependent upon other people\nto keep his accounts.\n\nAs to books, be careful what you read. How it grieves me to see errand\nboys in street-cars, and sometimes as they walk in the streets, reading\nsuch stuff as is found in the dime novels. Not merely a waste of time,\nthough that is bad enough, but a positive injury to the mind, filling\nit with the most improbable stories, and often, also, with that which\nis positively vicious. Read something better than this. Do not confine\nyourselves to newspapers, and do not read police reports. Attractive\nas this class of reading is, it is for the most part hurtful to the\nyoung mind. There is an abundance of cheap and good reading, magazines\nand periodicals; and books and books, good, bad, indifferent; and you\nwill hardly know which to choose unless you ask others who are older\nthan you, and who know books. Most boys read little but novels; and\nthere are many thoroughly good novels, humorous, and pathetic, and\nhistorical. Don\u2019t buy books unless you have plenty of money; for you\ncan get everything you want out of the public libraries; and this was\nnot so, or at least to this extent, when I was a boy.\n\nAs to work or business.\n\nSet out with the determination that you will be faithful in everything.\nOnly last week a Girard boy called on me to help him get employment.\nI asked him some questions, and he told me that he had been out of\nthe college five or six years, and had five or six situations. Do you\nthink he had been faithful in anything? If he had been, he would not\nhave lost place after place. When you get a place, and I hope every\none of you will have a place provided for you before you leave here,\nbe among the first to arrive in the morning, and be among the last to\nleave at the end of the day\u2019s work. Do not let any fascination of base\nball or anything else lead you to forget that your first duty is to\nyour employer. Be quick to answer every call. Don\u2019t say to yourself,\n\u201cIt is not my place to answer that call, it is the other boy\u2019s place,\u201d\nbut go yourself, if the other fellow is slow, and let it be seen that\nyou are ready for any work. And be very prompt to answer. Do whatever\nyou are told. Say \u201cyes, sir,\u201d \u201cno, sir\u201d with hearty good-will, and say\n\u201cgood-morning\u201d as if you meant it. In short, do not be slovenly in\nanything you have to do; be alive, and remember all the time that no\nlabor is degrading.\n\nBe sure to treat your employers with unfailing respect, and your\nfellow-clerks or workers, whether superiors, inferiors or equals, with\nhearty good-will.\n\nDo not tell lies directly or indirectly, for even if your employer do\nso, he will despise you for doing so. No matter if he is untruthful,\nhe will respect you if you tell the truth always. Do not indulge in\nor listen to impure talk. No real gentleman does this, and you can\nbe a real gentleman even if you are poor, for you will be educated.\nMake yourself indispensable to your employer; this, too, is quite\npossible, and it will almost certainly insure success. Be ambitious in\nthe highest sense. Remember, that if not now, you will hereafter have\nothers dependent upon you for support or help. It is a splendid thing\nfor a boy to go out from this college with the determination to support\nhis mother; and some that I know and you know are doing this, and many\nothers will do it.\n\nI pause here to say that, so far, my words have been spoken as to your\nduties to the world, to yourselves. I have supposed that you boys would\nrather be bosses than journeymen, that you would rather own teams than\ndrive them for other people, that you would rather be a contractor than\ncarry the pick and shovel, that you would rather be a bricklayer than\ncarry the hod, that you would rather be a house-builder than a shoveler\nof coal into the house-builder\u2019s cellar. Is it not so?\n\nNow, I say that if you should do everything I tell you, and avoid\neverything I have warned you against, you cannot succeed in the best\nsense, you cannot become true men, such men as the city has a right to\nexpect you to be, unless you seek the blessing of God; for he holds all\nthings in his hands. \u201cThe silver and the gold are mine, and the cattle\nupon a thousand hills.\u201d If God be for us, who can be against us?\n\nIn these closing words, then, I would speak to you as to your duty to\nGod.\n\nWhat shall I say about this? I can hardly tell you anything that you do\nnot already know, so often have you been talked to about this subject.\nBut nothing is so important for you to be reminded of, though I fear\nthat to some of you hardly anything is so uninteresting. Naturally the\nheart is disinclined to think of God and our duty to him. But we cannot\ndo without him, though many people think they can, or they act as if\nthey thought so. Such people are not wise; they are very foolish.\n\nHe made us, he preserves us, he cares for us with infinite love and\ncare, he has appointed the time for our departure from this life, and\nhe has prepared a better life than this for those who love him here. We\ncannot afford to disregard such a being as this, for all things are in\nhis hands. If you will think of it, some of the best men and women you\nknow are believers in God, and are trying to serve him. Do you think\nyou can do without him?\n\nCultivate, then, the companionship, the friendship of those who love\nand fear God, both men and women. You are safe with such; you are not\nquite so sure of safety in the society of those who openly say they\ncan do without God. When I speak of those who fear God, I do not mean\nmerely professors of religion, not merely members of meeting or members\nof church, but I mean people who live such lives as people ought to\nlive, who fear God and keep his commandments. You know there are such,\nyou have met with them, you will meet many more of them, and you will\nmeet also those who call themselves Christians, but whose lives show\nthat they have no true knowledge of God, who are mere formalists, mere\nprofessors.\n\nBecome acquainted with your Bible. I mean, read it, a little of it at\nleast, every day. You need not read much, it is well sometimes that you\nread but a little; but read it with a purpose\u2015\u2015that is, to understand\nit. The literature of the Bible as you grow older will abundantly repay\nyour careful and constant reading even before you reach its spiritual\ntreasuries. In reading a few days ago the argument of Horace Binney,\nEsq., in the Girard will case, I was surprised to see how familiar Mr.\nBinney was with the Bible, and he was one of the ablest lawyers that\nhas ever lived in our own or any other country. Yet Mr. Binney thought\nit quite worth his while to read and study the Bible. Don\u2019t you think\nit is worth your while also?\n\nBe a regular attendant at some church. I do not say what church it\nshall be. That must be left to yourselves to determine, and many\ncircumstances will arise to aid you in your choice. But let it be\nsome church, and, when you become more interested in the subject than\nyou are now, join that church, whatever it may be, and so connect\nyourselves with people who believe in and love God. If there be a\nBible class there, connect yourselves with it, and so learn to study\nthe Scriptures systematically.\n\nDo not be ashamed to kneel at your bedside every night and every\nmorning and pray to God. You are not so likely to be ashamed if you\nhave a room to yourself; but you must not be ashamed to do this even if\nthere are others in the room with you, as will be the case with many of\nyou. This is a severe test, I know, but he who bears it faithfully will\nalready have gained a victory.\n\nCommit to memory the fifteenth verse of the twelfth chapter of the\nGospel according to St. Luke: \u201cTake heed and beware of covetousness,\nfor a man\u2019s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he\npossesseth.\u201d\n\nOn last Monday, Founder\u2019s Day, there were gathered here many men,\na great company, who were trained in this college, and who, after\ngraduation, went out into the world to seek their fortune. It is always\na most interesting time, not only for them but for the teachers and\nofficers who have had charge of them.\n\nSome of them are successful men in the highest and best sense, and have\nmade themselves a name and a place in the world. Bright young lawyers,\nclerks, mechanics, railroad men\u2015\u2015men representing almost all kinds of\nbusiness and occupations\u2015\u2015came here in great numbers to celebrate the\nanniversary of the birth of the Founder of this great school. It was\na grand sight. Hardly anything impresses me more. I do not know their\nnames; for many of them had left before I began to come here; but\nfrom certain expressions that fell from the lips of some of them I am\npersuaded that they, at least, are walking in the truth.\n\nIt would be very interesting if we could know their thoughts, and see\nwith what feelings they look back on their school-life. I wonder if\nany of them regret that they did not make a better use of their time\nwhile here. I wonder if any feel that they would like to become boys\nagain and go to school over again, being sure that, with their present\nexperience of life, they would set a higher value on the education of\nthe schools. I wonder if any feel that they would have reached higher\npositions and secured a larger influence if they had been more diligent\nat school. I wonder if there are any who can trace evil habits of\nthought to the companions they had here. I wonder if any are aware of\nevil impressions which they made on their classmates and so cast a\nstain and a dark shadow on other young lives, stains never obliterated,\nshadows never wholly lifted. I wonder if there are any among them who\nregret that the opportunity of seeking God and finding God in their\nschool-days was neglected, and who have never had so favorable an\nopportunity since. \u201cIf some who come back here on these commemoration\ndays were to tell you all their thoughts on such subjects, they would\nbe eloquent with a peculiar eloquence.\u201d\n\nI wish I could persuade you, especially you larger boys, to give most\nearnest attention to the duties which lie before you every day. You\nwill not misunderstand me, nor be so unjust to me as to suppose that\nI would interfere in the least degree with the pleasures which belong\nto your time of life. I would not lessen them in the least; on the\ncontrary, I would encourage you, and help you in all proper recreation,\nin all sports and plays. The boy who does not enjoy play is not a happy\nboy, and is not very likely to make a happy man, or a useful man. But\nit is quite possible, as some of you know, to enjoy in the highest\ndegree all healthful sports, and at the same time to be industrious\nand conscientious in your studies. I am deeply concerned that the boys\nin this college shall be boys of the best, the highest type; that they\n\u201cshall walk in the truth.\u201d There are, alas, many boys who have gone\nthrough this college, and fully equipped (as well as their teachers\ncould equip them), have been launched out into life and come to naught.\nI do not know their names nor do you, probably, though you do not doubt\nthe fact.\n\nWhatever others say, who speak to you here, I want to discharge my duty\nto you as faithfully as I can. I know some of the difficulties of life,\nfor they have been in my path. I know some of the fierce temptations\nto which boys and young men are exposed, for I have felt these assaults\nin my own person. I know what it is to sin against God, for I am a\nsinner; so, with my sympathies quick towards you, I come with these\nplain, earnest words, and I urge you to look up to God, and ask him to\nhelp you. He can help you, and he will, if you ask him.\n\n\n\n\n               LIFE\u2015\u2015ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND TEMPTATIONS.\n\n                            March 12, 1885.\n\n\nI propose to speak to you now of some plain and practical duties which\nawait you in life; and, as there are many boys here who are anxiously\nlooking for the time when they will leave the college to make their way\nin the world, some of whom will probably have left the college before\nI come again, I speak more especially to them. And my first words are\nwords of congratulation, and for these reasons:\n\n1. _Because you are young._ And this means very much. You have an\nenormous advantage over people that are your seniors. Other things\nbeing equal, you will live longer, and I assume that \u201clife is worth\nliving.\u201d Then you have the advantage of profiting by the mistakes\ncommitted by those who precede you, and if you are not blind, you can\navail yourselves of the successes they have achieved.\n\nYou have the freshness, the zest of youth. You are full of courage and\nendurance. You can grapple with difficult subjects and with a strong\nhand. And if you blunder, you have time to recover yourselves and\nstart anew. In short, life is before you, and you look forward with the\ninspiration of hope, and it may be, also, of determination.\n\n2. I congratulate you also _because you are poor_. You have your own\nway to make in the world. You know already that if you achieve success,\nit must be because you exert yourselves to the very utmost. Indeed, you\nmust depend upon yourselves, and this means that you must do everything\nin your power that is right to do, to help yourselves.\n\nYou must understand that there is no royal road to _success_, any more\nthan there is to _learning_, and that there is no time to trifle.\nIf you were rich men\u2019s sons, these remarks would have no special\npertinence, or importance.\n\nMy congratulations are quite in order also because very many, if not\n_most_ of the high places in our country, are held by those who once\nwere poor lads.\n\nShould you turn upon me and say, \u201cWhy, then, if one is to be\ncongratulated on his poverty, do fathers toil early and late, denying\nthemselves needed recreation, not ceasing when they have accumulated\na good estate, almost selling their souls to become millionaires\u2015\u2015why\ndo they so much dread to leave their sons to struggle for a living?\u201d\nMore than one answer might be given to these questions. Some fathers\nhave so little faith in God\u2019s providence that they forget his goodness,\nwhich _now_ takes care of their families through the instrumentality\nof parents; and who can continue that care through other means, just\nas well, when the parents are gone; but high authority says that \u201cthey\nwho will be rich, fall into temptations and snares,\u201d one of which is\nthat the race for riches unfits the racer for all other pursuits and\namusements, and he can\u2019t stop his course, he can\u2019t change his habits,\nhe has no other mental resources\u2015\u2015he must work or perish.\n\nDo not, then, let the fact that you are _poor_ discourage you in the\nleast\u2015\u2015it is rather an advantage.\n\n3. But again I congratulate you, because _your lot is cast in America_.\nDo not smile at this. I am not on the point of flying the American\neagle, nor of raising the stars and stripes. It _is_, however, a good\nthing to have been born in this country. For in all important respects\nit is the most favored of all lands. It is the fashion with certain\npeople to disparage our government and its institutions; and one must\nadmit that in some particulars there might be improvement, and will\nbe some day; but, notwithstanding these defects, it is unquestionably\ntrue that it is the best government on earth. Is there any country\nwhere a poor young man has opportunities as good as he has here, to\nget on in life? Is there any obstacle or hindrance whatever, outside\nof himself, in the way of his success? If a young man has good health\nof mind and body, and a fair English education and good manners, and\nwill be honest and industrious, is he not much more certain to attain\nsuccess, in one way or another, in this country than anywhere else?\nYou know he is. Why? Because of our equal rights under the law. There\nis no caste here, that curse of monarchies. There is no aristocracy in\nsentiment or in power, no House of Lords, no established church, no law\nof primogeniture. One man is as good as another under the law as long\nas he behaves himself.\n\nIf you want further evidence, only look for a moment at the condition\nof the seething, surging masses of Europe, and the continual\napprehensions of a general war. Before this year 1885 has run its\ncourse the United States may be almost the only country among the great\npowers that is not involved in war.\n\nAnd if still further illustration were needed, let me point to that\nmost extraordinary scene enacted in Washington some weeks ago.\n\nA great political party, which has held control of this government\nnearly a quarter of a century, and which has exercised almost unlimited\npower, yields most quietly and gracefully all high places, all dignity,\nall honor and patronage, to the will of the people who have chosen a\nnew administration. And everybody regards it as a matter of course.\n\nWas such a thing ever known before? And could such a thing occur\nanywhere else among the nations?\n\nOnce more, I congratulate you _because you live in Philadelphia_. Ah,\nnow we come to a most interesting point. Most of you were born here,\nand you come to this by inheritance. This is the best of all large\ncities. More to be desired as a place to live in than Washington, the\nseat of government, the most beautiful of all American cities, or New\nYork, with its vast commerce and enormous wealth, or Boston, with its\nboasted intellectual society.\n\nThey may call us the \u201c_Quaker City_,\u201d or the \u201c_worst paved city_,\u201d or\nthe \u201c_slow city_,\u201d or the \u201ccity of rows of houses exactly alike;\u201d but\nthese houses are the homes of separate families, and in a very large\ndegree are occupied by their owners, and you cannot say as much of any\nother city in the world. Although there are doubtless many instances\nin the oldest part of the city, and among the improvident poor, where\nmore than one family will be found in the same house, yet these are\nthe exceptions and not the rule; and so far as I know there is not one\n\u201ctenement house\u201d in this great city that was built for the purpose of\naccommodating several families at the same time. I need not point you\nto New York and Boston, where the great apartment houses, with their\ntwelve and fourteen stories of flats for rich and well-to-do people\nprevail, utterly destroying that most cherished domestic life of which\nwe have been so proud, and introducing the life of European cities,\nwith its demoralizing associations and results; nor shall I describe\nthe awful tenement houses in those two cities, where the poor are\ncrowded like animals in a cattle-train, suffering as the poor dumb\ncreatures do, for want of air, and water, and space, and everything\nelse that makes life desirable.\n\nOf all cities on the face of the earth, Philadelphia is the most\ndesirable for the young man who must make his own way in the world....\n\nAnd having shown you how favorable are the conditions which are\nabout you, the next point is, What will you do when you set out for\nyourselves?\n\nAll of you are _expecting_ when you leave school to be employed by\nsomebody, or engaged in some business. And I suppose you may be looking\nto me to give you some hints how to take care of yourselves, or how to\nbehave in such relations.\n\nI will try to do so plainly and faithfully.\n\nI cannot absolutely promise you success. Indeed, it would be necessary\nfirst to define the word. And there are several definitions that might\nbe given. One of the shortest and best would be in these words, \u201cA life\nwell spent.\u201d That\u2019s success. And this definition shall be my model.\n\nWork hard, then, at your lessons. Let your ambition be, not to get\nthrough quickly, not to go over much ground in text-books, but to\nmaster thoroughly everything before you. If you knew how little\nthorough instruction there is, you would thank me for this. There are\nso many half-educated people from schools and colleges that one cannot\nhelp believing that the terms of graduation are very easy. There have\nbeen, and are now, graduates of colleges who cannot add up a long\ncolumn of figures correctly, nor do an example in simple proportion,\nnor write a letter of four pages of note paper without mistakes of\ngrammar and spelling and punctuation, to say nothing of perspicuity and\nunity and general good taste.\n\nIt is quite surprising to find how helpless some young men are in the\nsimple matter of writing letters; an art with which, in these days of\ncheap postage and cheap stationery, almost everybody has something\nto do. If you doubt this let me ask you to try to-morrow to write a\nnote of twenty lines on any subject whatever, off-hand, and submit it\nfor criticism to your teacher. Do you wonder, then, that an employer\ncalling one of his young men, and directing him to write a letter to\none of his correspondents, saying such and such things, and bring it to\nhim for his signature, is surprised and grieved to see that the letter\nis in such shape that he cannot sign it and let it go out of his office?\n\nIt is very true that letter-writing is not the chief business of life,\nnot the only thing of importance in a counting-house, but it is an\nelegant accomplishment, and most desirable of attainment.\n\nLet me say some words about shorthand writing. In this day of push and\ndrive and hurry, when so many things must be done at once, there is\nan increasing demand for shorthand writers. In fact, business as now\nconducted cannot afford to do without this help. It often occurs that\na principal in a business house cannot take the time to write long\nletters. Why should he? It does not pay to have one that is occupied in\ngoverning and controlling great interests, or in the receipt of a large\nsalary, tied to a desk writing letters, or reports, or statements of\nany kind. He must _talk off_ these things; and he must be an educated\nman, whose mind is so disciplined to terse and accurate expression\nthat his dictation may almost be taken to be final. He wants a clerk\nwho can take down his words with literal accuracy, and who will be\nable to correct any errors that may have been spoken, and submit the\ncomplete paper to his chief for his signature. The demand for this\nkind of service is increasing every day, and some of you now listening\nto me will be so employed. See that you are ready for it when your\nopportunity comes.\n\nIf you get to be a clerk in a railroad office, or in an insurance\ncompany, or in a store, or in a bank, devote yourself to your\nparticular duties, whatever they may be. And don\u2019t be too particular as\nto what kind of work it is that falls to your lot. It may be work that\nyou think belongs to the porter; no matter if it is, do it, and do it\nas well as the porter can, or even better.\n\nLet none of you, therefore, think that anything you are likely to be\ncalled upon to do is beneath you. Do it, and do it in the best manner,\nand you may not have to do it for a long time.\n\nMake yourself indispensable to your employer. You can do that; it\nis quite within your power, and it may be that you may get to be an\nemployer yourself; indeed it is more than probable; but you must work\nfor it.\n\nIf you get to be a book-keeper in any counting-house or public\ninstitution, remember that you are in a position of trust and\nresponsibility. When you make errors do not erase the error; draw faint\nred or black lines through it and write correct characters over the\nerror. Do not hide your errors of any kind. Do not misstate anything\nin language or figures. Everybody makes errors at some time or other,\nbut everybody does not admit and apologize for them. The honest man is\nhe who _does_ admit and apologize, and does so without waiting to be\ndetected.\n\nThere have been of late some deplorable instances of betrayal of trust\nin our city. I may as well call it by its right name, stealing. The\nculprits are now suffering in prison the penalty for their crimes.\nWhile I am speaking to you there are men, young and _not_ young, in our\ncity who are _now_ stealing, and who are falsifying their books in the\nvain hope that it may be kept secret; who are dreading the day when\nthey will be caught; who cannot afford to take a holiday; who cannot\nafford to be sick, lest absence for a single day may disclose their\nguilt. What a horrible state of mind! They will go to their desks or\ntheir offices to-morrow morning, not knowing but it may be their last\nday in that place.\n\nAnd the day will come, most surely, when _you_ will be tempted as\nthese wretched ones have been tempted. In what shape the temptation\nmay come, or when, no human being knows. The suggestion will be made,\nthat by the use of a little money you may make a good deal; that the\nventure is perfectly safe; some one tells you so, and points to this\none or that one who has tried it and made money. It is only a little\nthing; you can\u2019t lose much; you _may_ make enough to pay for the cost\nof your summer holiday, or for your cigar bill, or your beer bill; or\nyou will be able to smoke better cigars or drink better beer, or buy a\ngold watch, or a diamond ring, or anything else; _you can\u2019t lose much_.\nYou have no money of your own, it is true, but what is needed will not\nbe missed if you take it out of the drawer. Shall you do it? No! Let\nnothing induce you to take the first dollar not your own. It is the\n_first_ step that counts.\n\nBut suppose you don\u2019t care for this warning, or forget it. Suppose the\ntime comes when you find that you _have_ taken something that was not\nyours, and that it is lost, and that you cannot repay it, what then?\nWhy, go at once to your employer; tell him the whole story; keep back\nnothing; throw yourself upon his mercy, and ask forgiveness. Better now\nthan later. You will assuredly be caught. There is no possibility of\ncontinuous concealment. Tell it now before you are detected, and, if\nyou must be disgraced, the sooner the better.\n\nAm I too earnest about this? Am I saying too much? Oh, boys, young\nmen, if you knew the frightful danger that you may be in some day, the\nsubtle temptations that will beset you, the many instances of weakness\nabout you, the shipwrecks of character, the utter ruin that comes to\nsisters and to innocent wives and children by the crimes of brothers,\nhusbands and fathers, as we who are older know, you would not wonder\nthat I speak as I do.\n\nEvery case of breach of trust, every defalcation, weakens confidence\nin human character. For every such instance of wrong-doing is a stab\nat _your_ integrity if you are in a position of trust. Men of the\nfairest reputation, men who are trusted implicitly by their employers,\nmen who are hedged about by the sacredness of domestic ties, on whom\nthe happiness of helpless wives and innocent children depend, men who\nclaim to be religious, go astray, step by step, little by little;\nthey defraud, steal, lie, try to cover up their tracks, cannot do it\nlong, are caught, tried, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned. Then\nthe question may be asked about you or me: \u201cHow do we know that Mr.\nSo-and-So is any better than those who have fallen?\u201d Don\u2019t you see\nthat these culprits are enemies of the public confidence, enemies of\nsociety, _your_ enemies and _mine_?\n\nIf the names of those who are now serving out their sentences in\nthe public prisons for stealing, not petty theft, but stealing and\ndefrauding in larger sums, could be published in to-morrow morning\u2019s\npapers, what a sad record it would be of dishonored names and blighted\nlives and ruined homes, and how the memory would recall some whom we\nknew in early youth, the pride of their parents, or the idol of fond\nwives and lovely children; and we should turn away with sickening\nhorror from the record! But, if there should appear in the same papers\nthe names of those who are _now engaged in stealing and defrauding_\nand _falsifying entries_, who are not yet caught, but who may, before\nthis year is out, be caught and convicted and punished, what a horrible\nrevelation _that_ would be!\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\nI close abruptly, for I cannot keep you longer.\n\nBut do not think that it is for your future in _this_ life only that\nI am concerned. Life does not end here, though it may seem to do so.\nOur life in this world is a mere _beginning_ of existence. It is the\n_future_, the _endless_ life before us, that we should prepare for; and\nno preparation is worth the name except that of a pure, an upright and\nhonorable life, that depends for its support on the love and the fear\nof God. You must accept him as your Father, you must honor him and obey\nhim, and so consecrating your young lives to his service, trust him to\ncare for you with his infinite love and care.\n\n\n\n\n                   [Illustration: _William Welsh._]\n\n\n\n\n                    ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM WELSH,\n            _First President of the Board of City Trusts_.\n\n                          February 22, 1878.\n\n\nWhen I spoke to you last from this desk I tried to persuade you to\nadopt the thought so aptly set forth by one of the old Hebrew kings,\nWhatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. I little\nthought then that Mr. Welsh, who was one of the most conspicuous\nexamples of working with all his might, and so much of whose work was\ndone for you, whom you so often saw standing where I now stand, I\nlittle thought that his work on earth was so nearly done. Last Sunday\nhe addressed you here. One, two, three services he conducted for the\nboys of this college, one in the infirmary, one in the refectory\nfor the new boys, and one in this chapel. I venture to say from my\nknowledge of his method of doing things that these services were all\nconducted in the best manner possible to him; that he did not spare\nhis strength; that there was nothing weak or undecided in his acts or\nspeech, but that he took hold of his subject with a firm grasp, and\ndid not let go until the service was finished. It is very natural\nthat we should desire to know as much as we can about a life that\nhas come so close to us as the life of Mr. Welsh, and to learn, if\nwe may, what it was that made him the man that he was. The thousands\nof people that gathered in and about St. Luke\u2019s Church on the day of\nthe funeral, as many of you saw; the very large number of citizens\nof the highest distinction who united in the solemn services; the\nprofound interest manifested everywhere among all classes of society;\nthe closing of places of business at the hour of these services; the\nflags at half-mast, all these circumstances, so unusual, so impressive,\nassured us that no common man had gone from among us. What was it that\nmade him no common man? What was there in his life and character that\nlifted him above the ordinarily successful merchant? In other places,\nand by those most competent to speak, will the complete picture of\nhis life be drawn, but what was there in his life which particularly\ninterests you college boys? It will surprise you probably when I tell\nyou that his early education\u2015\u2015the education of the schools\u2015\u2015was very\nlimited. He was not a college-bred man. At a very early age (as early\nas fourteen, I believe) he left school and went into his father\u2019s\nstore. You know that he could not have had much education at that age.\nAnd he went into the store, not to be a gentleman clerk to sit in the\ncounting-house and copy letters and invoices, and do the bank business\nand lounge about in fine clothing, but he went to do anything that\ncame to hand, rough and smooth, hard and easy, dirty and clean, for\nin those days the duties of a junior clerk differed from those of a\nporter only in this, that the young clerk\u2019s work was not so heavy as\nthe robust porter\u2019s. And even when he grew older and stronger he would\ngo down into the hold of a vessel and vie with the strong stevedore in\nthe shifting and placing of cargoes. And the days were long then: there\nwere no office hours from nine to three o\u2019clock, but merchants and\ntheir clerks dined near the middle of the day, and were back at their\nstores, their warehouses, in the afternoon and stayed and worked until\nthe day was done. So this young clerk worked all day, and went home at\nnight tired and hungry, to rest, to sleep and to go through the next\nday and the next in the same manner. But not only to rest and sleep.\nThe body was tired enough with the long day\u2019s work, but the mind was\nnot tired. He early knew the importance of mental discipline, of mental\ncultivation. He knew that a half-educated man is no match for one\nthoroughly equipped, and so he set himself to the task of making up,\nas far as he could, for that deficiency of systematic education which\nhis early withdrawal from school made him regret so much. What definite\nmeans or methods he resorted to to accomplish this I cannot tell you,\nfor I have not learned; but the fact that he did very largely overcome\nthis most serious disadvantage is apparent to all who have ever met\nhim. He was a cultivated gentleman, thoroughly at ease in circles where\nmen must be well informed or be very uncomfortable. As the President\nof this Board of Trustees, having for his associates gentlemen of the\nhighest professional and general culture, he was quite equal to any\nexigency which ever arose. All this you must know was the result of\neducation, not that which was imparted to him in the schools, but that\nwhich he acquired himself after his school life. He was careful about\nhis associates. Then, as now, the streets were alive with boys and\nyoung men of more than questionable character. And the thought which\nhas come up in many a boy\u2019s mind after his day\u2019s work was done, must\nhave come up in his mind: \u201cWhy should I not stroll about the streets\nwith companions of my own age and have a good time? Why should I be\nso strict while others have more freedom and enjoy themselves so much\nmore?\u201d I have no doubt that he had his enjoyments, and that he was a\nfree, hearty boy in them all, but I cannot suppose, for his after life\ngave no evidence of it, his general good health, his muscular wiry\nframe forbade the thought, I cannot suppose his youthful pleasures\npassed beyond that line which separates the good from the bad, the pure\nfrom the impure. Few evils are so great as that of evil companions.\n\nWilliam Welsh was not afraid of work. I mean by that he was not lazy.\nA large part of the failures in life are attributable to the love of\nease. We choose the soft things; we turn away from those which are\nhard. We are deterred by the abstruse, the obscure; we are attracted\nby the simple, the plain. A really strong character will grapple\nwith any subject; a weak one shrinks from a struggle. A character\nnaturally weak may be developed by culture and discipline into one of\nreal strength, but the process is very slow and very discouraging. A\nlife that is worth anything at all, that impresses itself on other\nlives, on society, must have these struggles, this training. I do not\nknow minutely the characteristics of Mr. Welsh\u2019s early life in this\nparticular, but I infer most emphatically that his strong character was\nformed by continuous, laborious, exacting self-application.\n\nI would now speak of that quality which is so valuable (I will not say\nso rare), so conspicuously and so immeasurably important, personal\nintegrity. Mr. Welsh possessed this in the highest degree. He was most\nemphatically an honest man. No thought of anything other than this\ncould ever have entered into the mind of any one who knew him. All\nmen knew that public or private trusts committed to him were safe.\nMistakes in judgment all are liable to, but of conscious deflection\nfrom the right path in this respect he was incapable. His high position\nas President of the Board of City Trusts, which includes, among other\nlarge properties, the great estate left by Mr. Girard to the city of\nPhiladelphia, proves the confidence this community had in his personal\ncharacter. His private fortune was used as if he were a trustee. He\nrecognized the hand of God in his grand success as a merchant, and he\nfelt himself accountable to God for a proper expenditure. If he enjoyed\na generous mode of living for himself and his family\u2015\u2015a manner of life\nrequired by his position in the community\u2015\u2015he more than equalized it by\nhis gifts to objects of benevolence. He was conscientious and liberal\n(rare combination) in his benefactions, for he felt that he held his\npersonal property in trust.\n\nSuch are a few of the traits in the character of the man whose life\non earth was so suddenly closed on Monday last. Under Providence, by\nwhich I mean the blessing of God, that blessing which is just as much\nwithin your reach as his, these are some of the conditions of his\nextraordinary success. His self-culture, the choice of his companions\nhis persistent industry, his integrity, his religion, made the man what\nhe was. I cannot here speak of his work in that church which he loved\nso much. I do not speak with absolute certainty, but I have reason to\nbelieve that, next to his own family, his affections were placed on\nyou. He could never look into your faces without having his feelings\nstirred to their profoundest depths. He loved you\u2015\u2015in the best, the\ntruest sense, he loved you. He was willing to give any amount of his\ntime, his thought, his care, to you. The time he spent in the chapel\nwas a very small part of the time he gave to his work for you. You were\nupon his heart constantly. I do not know\u2015\u2015no one can know\u2015\u2015but if it be\npossible for the spirits of just men made perfect to revisit the scenes\nof earth\u2015\u2015to come back and look upon those they loved so much when in\nthe flesh\u2015\u2015I am sure his spirit is here to-day\u2015\u2015this, his first Sabbath\nin Heaven\u2015\u2015looking into your faces, as he often did when he went in and\nout among you, and wishing that all of you may make such use of your\ngrand opportunity here as will insure your success in the life which\nis before you when you leave these college walls, and especially as\nwill insure your entering into the everlasting life. Such was his life,\nfull of activity, generosity, self-denial, eminently religious, in\nthe best sense successful. He was never at rest; his heart was always\nopen to human sympathy; he denied nothing except to himself. He wanted\neverybody to be religious. He died in the harness; no time to take it\noff; no wish to take it off. But in the front, on the advance, not in\nretreat. He never turned his back on anything that was right. His eye\nwas not dim; his natural force was not abated. Death came so swiftly\nthat it seemed only stepping from one room in his Father\u2019s house to\nanother. We are reminded of the beautiful words in which Mr. Thackeray\ndescribes the death of Colonel Newcome in the hospital of the Charter\nHouse School, after a life spent in fighting the enemies of his country\nabroad, and the enemies of the good in society at home. \u201cAt the usual\nevening hour the chapel bell began to toll and Thomas Newcome\u2019s hands\noutside the bed feebly beat time. And just as the last bell struck,\na peculiar sweet smile shone over his face. He lifted up his head a\nlittle and quickly said _Adsum_, and fell back. It was the word they\nused at school when names were called, and lo, he, whose heart was\nas that of a little child, had answered to his name and stood in the\npresence of \u2018The Master.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                            BAD ASSOCIATES.\n\n                          November 11, 1888.\n\n\nI wish to speak to you to-day about the danger of evil company, a\ndanger to which you will necessarily be exposed when you go out from\nthis college to make your way in life.\n\nThe desire for companionship sometimes leads people, and especially\nyoung people, into bad company. A boy finds himself associated with a\nschoolmate, a fellow-apprentice or fellow-clerk, who is attractive in\nmanners, full of fun, but who is not what he ought to be in character.\n\nNo one is entirely bad; almost all persons old or young have some\npoints that are not repulsive, and sometimes the very bad are\nattractive in some respects. A comparatively innocent boy is thrown\ninto such company, and, at first, he sees nothing in the conduct of his\nnew friends which is particularly out of the way. The conversation is\nsomewhat guarded, the jokes and stories are not specially bad, and, for\na time, nothing occurs to shock his feelings; but, after a while, the\nmask is thrown off and the true character is revealed. Then very soon\nthe mind of the pure, innocent boy receives impressions that corrupt\nand defile it. All that is polluting in talk and story and song is\npoured out. Books and papers, so vile that it is a breach of law to\nsell them, are read and quoted without bringing a blush to the cheek,\nand, before his parents are aware of the danger, the mind and heart of\ntheir son are so polluted and depraved that no human power can save him.\n\nI very well remember a boy older than myself who, early in life, gave\nhimself up to vile company and vile books and vile habits, and who,\nlong ago\u2015\u2015almost as soon as he reached an early manhood\u2015\u2015sunk, under\nthe weight of his sinful habits, into a dishonored grave, but not until\nhe had defiled and depraved many a boy who came under his influence.\nBetter would it have been for his companions if their daily walks and\nplaygrounds had been infested with venomous serpents, to bite and sting\ntheir bare feet, than to associate with a boy whose heart was full of\nall uncleanness.\n\nIt is dangerous to make such friendships. Circumstances may throw us\namong them; the providence of God may send us there, but we ought never\nto _seek_ such company, except for good purposes. What I mean is that\nwe ought not to seek such associates, however agreeable they may be in\nother respects, and not to remain among them except for their good.\n\nThere are wicked people in every community, of all ages. We cannot\naltogether avoid contact with them. We find them among our schoolmates\nand in the walks of business.\n\nMany a young man, many a boy, has been forever ruined by evil\ncompanions. A corrupt literature is bad enough, but evil companions are\nmore numerous and, if possible, more fatal. Bad books and papers have\nslain their thousands; bad companions have slain their ten thousands. I\ncan recall the names of many who were led away, step by step, down the\nbroad road that leads to destruction, by companions genial, attractive,\nbut corrupt.\n\nThere are some companions from whom you cannot separate yourselves.\nThey are with you continually; at home and abroad, in school or at\nplay, by day and by night, asleep and awake, they are always with you.\nThere is no solitude so deep that they cannot find you, no crowd so\ngreat that they will ever lose you. No matter who else is with you,\nthey will not\u2015\u2015cannot\u2015\u2015be kept away. I mean _your own thoughts_, your\nbosom companions. Shall they be EVIL companions or GOOD? Ah! you know\nwho, and who only, can answer this question.\n\nI once went through a monastery in the old city of Florence, in Italy.\nIt was a retreat for men who were tired of the world, or who felt so\nunequal to the strife and conflict of life in the world that they\nbelieved peace could be found only in retirement. The house was of the\norder of St. Francis. One of the monks took me into his cell, and I\nsat down and talked with him. It was a very small room\u2015\u2015one door, one\nwindow, bare walls, a small table, two wooden chairs, a few books, a\ncrucifix, a washstand, and some pieces of crockery; and that was all.\nIn this room he lived, never to leave it except to go to the chapel,\njust across the corridor, and to walk in the cloisters for exercise;\nhere he expected to die. It seemed very dreary and lonely to me. But\nI thought, if this were a certain and sure way of escaping from evil\nthoughts, and the only way, men may well submit to the confinement, the\nsolitude, the monotony, the dreariness of this way of life. But, alas!\nit is not so. No close and narrow cell, no iron doors, no bolts and\nbars, can shut out our thoughts, for they are a part of ourselves: they\n_are_ ourselves; for, \u201cas a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.\u201d\n\nSome years ago a country lad left his home to seek his fortune in\nthe city. His mother was dead and his father broken in health and in\nfortune. The boy reached the city full of high hopes, promising his\nfather that he would do his best to succeed in whatever fell to his\nlot to do. He was tall, strong and good-looking. A place was soon\nfound for him, and until he was better able to support himself he\nfound a home with some friends. He was a boy of good mind but with a\nvery imperfect education, and he seemed inclined to make up for this\nin part by reading during his leisure hours. The situation found for\nhim was in a large commercial house, where everything was conducted\nin the best manner and on the highest principles. Here he made rapid\nprogress and was soon able to contribute to the support of those he had\nleft at home in the country. He became interested in serious things,\nunited with the Sunday-school, and after a while made a profession of\nreligion. Everything went well with him for several years, until he\nfell in with some boys near his own age, who had been brought up under\nvery different circumstances. Two or three of these were inclined\ntowards skepticism in religious things, and their reading was quite\nunlike that to which this boy had been accustomed. Some fascination\nof manner about them attracted the lad to their society, and he grew\nless and less fond of his truest and best friends. He became irregular\nin his attendance at the Sunday-school, and when remonstrated with\nby his teacher and friends had no candid and manly answer for them.\nAfter a while he ceased going to church entirely, spending his time\nat his lodgings reading profane and immoral books or in the society\nof his new companions. Then he found his way with these friends (so\nhe called them, but they were really his greatest enemies) to taverns\nand even to worse places, reading a corrupt literature and thinking he\nwas strengthening his mind and broadening his views. A little further\non and his habits grew worse, and became the subject of observation\nand remark. His early friends interposed, talked kindly with him and\nreceived his promise to turn away from his evil associates (who had\nwell-nigh ruined him) and to lead a better life. He promised well,\nand for a time things with him were better. But after a while he fell\naway again into his old ways and with his old tempters, and before his\nfriends were aware of it he disappeared and went abroad. Then letters\nwere received from him. He was without means; he found it hard to get\nemployment; he had no references, and the people among whom he found\nhimself were distrustful of strangers.\n\nOne of his friends to whom he wrote for a letter of recommendation\nreplied something like this:\n\n\u201cIt is impossible for me to give you a letter of recommendation except\nwith qualification. If you are seeking employment it is your duty to\nmake a candid statement of your condition. Make a clean breast of it.\nKeep nothing back. Say that you had a good situation; that you were\ngrowing with the growth of your employers; that your salary had been\nadvanced twice within the year; that one of the partners was your\nfriend; that he had stood by you in your earlier youth; that he had\nextricated you from embarrassment and would have helped you again when\nneeded, and that in an evil hour you forgot this, and your duty to him\nand to the house which sustained you; that you left your place without\nyour father\u2019s knowledge and well-nigh or quite broke his heart, and\nthat all this grew out of your love of bad associates and your love of\ndrink, and that while under this infatuation you went astray with bad\nwomen; and that in very despair of your ability to save yourself, and\nashamed to meet your employers, you sought other scenes in the hope\nthat in a new field and with new associates you could reform.\n\n\u201cIf you say this or something like this to a Christian man, little as\nyou affect to think of Christianity, his heart will open to you and you\ncan then look him frankly in the face, and have no concealments from\nhim. Any other course than this will only prolong your agony, and in\nthe end plunge you in deeper shame and disgrace. If you will take this\nadvice, you may yet make a man of yourself, and no one will be more\nrejoiced than myself or more ready to help you. Read the parable of\nthe prodigal son every day; don\u2019t think so much of your fancied mental\nability; get down off your stilts and be a man, a humble, penitent man,\nand make your father\u2019s last days cheerful, instead of blasting his life.\n\n\u201cYou see that I am in earnest and that I feel a deep interest in you,\nelse I would have thrown your letter to me into the fire.\u201d\n\nI believe that this young man\u2019s fall was due entirely to the influence\nof his foolish, bad companions. And I know that this sad history is the\nrecord of many others; in fact, that the same experience awaits all\nwho think it a light matter what company they keep, and who drift on\nthe current with no purpose except to find pleasure, without regard to\ntheir duty to God. When I see, as I so often do, young men standing at\nthe corners of the streets, or lounging against lamp-posts, and catch a\nword as I pass, very often profane or indecent, I know very well that\na work of ruin is going on there, which, if unchecked, will certainly\nlead to destruction. And I wonder whether these boys and young men\nhave parents or sisters, who love them and who yet allow them to pass\nunwarned down the road that leads to death.\n\nBut there are other companions, foolish, bad companions, besides those\nthat appear to us in bodily form. They confront us in the printed page.\nYou read a book or a pamphlet or paper which is full of dialogue. Such\nbooks are often more attractive than a plain narrative with little\nconversation. You enter fully, even if unconsciously, into the spirit\nof the story. The characters are real to you. You seem to see the forms\nbefore you; you make a picture of each in your mind, so that if you\nwere an artist you could paint the portrait of each one. Sometimes the\ndialogue is full of profanity, and though you make no sound as you\nread, you are really pronouncing each word in your mind. And every time\nyou say a bad word, in your mind, you defile your heart. You are in\neffect listening to bad words not spoken by other people merely, but\nspoken by yourself, and before you are aware of it you will be in the\nhabit of thinking oaths when you are afraid to speak them out. It is\neven worse, if possible, when the language is obscene. Now do you ever\nthink that when you are reading such wretched stuff you are in effect\nassociating with the characters whose talk you are listening to, and\nwithout rebuke? They are thieves, pirates, burglars, dissolute, the\nvery worst of society, even murderers. You may not have the courage to\nrebuke those who are defiling the very air with their foul talk; you\nmay be too cowardly even to turn away from such company lest they sneer\nat you; but what do you say of a boy who deliberately, and after being\nwarned, reads by stealth such stuff as I have described? Is there any\none here who would be guilty of such conduct?\n\nThese evils of which I am speaking, and I do so most reluctantly, for\nthese are not pleasant subjects\u2015\u2015are not mere theories. They are sad\nrealities. It was my ill fortune in my boyhood to know some boys who\nwere essentially corrupt. Their minds were cages of unclean birds.\nThey were inexpressibly vile. And it is this fear of the evil that\none sinner may do among young boys that leads me to say what I do on\nthis most painful subject. Oh, boys, if I can persuade you to turn\naway from foolish company, from bad associates, I shall feel that I am\ndoing indeed a blessed work. For what is the object, the purpose of\nall this that is said to you? It is to make men of you and to give\nyou grace and strength to assert your manhood. It is to build you up\non the foundation of a substantial education, and so prepare you for\nthe life that is before you here and for that life which is beyond.\nBut the education of text-books illustrated by the best instructors is\nnot enough; it is not all you need for the great work of your lives.\nYou must be ready when you are equipped not only to take care of\nyourselves, but to help those who may be dependent upon you, for you\nare not to live for yourselves. And you cannot be fully equipped unless\nyou have the blessing of Almighty God on your work and on your life.\n\nI want you to be successful men, and no man can be a successful man,\nin the highest and best sense, unless he is a religious man. How can\none expect to make his way in life as he ought, without the blessing of\nGod? And how can one expect the blessing of God who does not ask God\nfor his blessing? Prayers in the church are not enough; the reading\nof the Scriptures in the church is not enough; you must read the\nScriptures for yourselves; you must pray for yourselves and each one\nfor himself, as well as for others.\n\n\n\n\n                 [Illustration: _James A. Garfield._]\n\n\n\n\n                  ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.\n\n                          September 25, 1881.\n\n\nI wish to lead your thoughts to one of the strangest things\u2015\u2015one of\nthe most difficult things to understand, which has ever occurred. On\nthe second day of July last the President of the United States, when\nabout to step into a railway train which was to carry him North, where\nhe was to attend a college commencement, at the college where he was\ngraduated, was shot down by an assassin.\n\nI say it is one of the strangest things, because the President did not\nknow the assassin, and had never injured him nor any of his friends.\nThere was absolutely no motive for the hideous deed.\n\nI say it is most difficult to understand, because we believe that\nDivine Providence overrules all events, holds all power, and we wonder\nwhy He permitted the wretch to do so deplorable a deed.\n\nPresident Garfield was no ordinary man. He was emphatically a man of\nthe people. He was born in a log-cabin which his father had built with\nhis own hands. It was a very small house, twenty feet by thirty. When\nJames was two years old, his father died, late in the autumn, and this\nboy with three other children were all dependent upon their mother for\na support. How the lone widow passed that winter we do not know; but\nwhen the spring came there was a debt to be paid, and part of the farm\nhad to go to pay it. About thirty acres of the clearing were left, and\nthis little farm was worked by the mother and her oldest son. Only\nthose who have lived on a farm in the country know how hard the work\nis. When James was five years old he was sent to school, a mile and a\nhalf away, and as this was a very long walk for so young a boy, his\nsister often carried the little boy on her back.\n\nAfter a while the boy tried to learn the carpenter\u2019s trade, and in\nthis effort he spent two years or so, going to school at intervals and\nstudying at spare hours at home. So he mastered grammar, arithmetic and\ngeography. After that he became a sort of general help and book-keeper\nfor a manufacturer in the neighborhood at $14 per month \u201cand found,\u201d\nand this was to him a very great advance. But not being well treated\nthere, he soon left and took to chopping wood\u2015\u2015at one time cutting\nabout twenty-five cords for some $7. Then having read some tales of\nthe sea, sailors\u2019 stories, such as you have often read, he wanted to\nbe a sailor; but when he applied for a place on the great lake, he\nlooked so like a landsman from the country that no captain would engage\nhim. So he went to the canal, and found employment in leading or\ndriving horses or mules on the tow-path. But he was soon promoted to\nbe a deck-hand and steersman, and often falling into the water (once\nalmost being drowned) and meeting some other mishaps, he concluded that\n\u201cfollowing the water\u201d was not his forte, and he abandoned it. By this\ntime he had saved some money, and his brother Thomas lent him some\nmore, and with another young man and a cousin he went to a neighboring\ntown to the academy. These young fellows rented a room, borrowed some\nsimple cooking utensils, a table and some chairs, made beds and filled\nthem with straw, and set up house-keeping, and went to the academy.\n\nYoung Garfield spent three years at this academy, doing odd jobs of\ncarpenter work when he could, and so eking out a living. Then he\nwent to an eclectic institute, and paid his way in part by doing\nthe janitor\u2019s work of sweeping the floor and making the fires. Here\nhe prepared himself to enter the junior class in a higher college,\nand, after some delay, he entered that class in Williams College,\nMassachusetts.\n\nWhile pursuing his college course at Williams he filled his vacations\nby teaching in district schools in the neighborhood until his\ngraduation, in 1856, at twenty-five years of age\u2015\u2015quite advanced, you\nsee, in years for a college graduate.\n\nThen he went back as a teacher to his eclectic institute, became a\nprofessor of Greek and Latin, and then at twenty-eight years of age\nbecame a Senator in the Ohio Legislature. When the war broke out\nin 1861, while still a member of the State Senate, the Government\ncommissioned him as colonel of a regiment, and he did good service in\nthe State of Kentucky in driving out the rebels. In a few months he was\npromoted to be brigadier-general. So he went on distinguishing himself\nwherever he was placed, and, having been assigned for duty to the\nArmy of the Cumberland, fighting his last battle at Chickamauga, his\ngallantry was so conspicuous and so successful that within a fortnight\nhe was made a major-general.\n\nWhile in the army he was elected representative to Congress, and on\nDecember 5, 1863, he took his seat in the House, the youngest member of\nCongress.\n\nSome time after this, the war still going on, he wished to rejoin the\narmy, but President Lincoln would not permit it, on the ground that his\nmilitary knowledge would be invaluable to the government. After serving\nseventeen years in the House of Representatives, at times Chairman of\nmost important committees, he was elected to the Senate, but before he\ntook his seat he was nominated for the Presidency, and last November\nwas elected by a large majority to that high office.\n\nOn the 4th of March last he was inaugurated, and four months\nafterwards (July 2d) he fell by the hand of an assassin.\n\nYou know how during this long, dry, hot summer he has been lying in\nWashington until the last two weeks, hanging between life and death;\nand you know how tenderly and lovingly he has been nursed; how gently\nhe was removed to the sea, in the hope that a change of air and scene\nwould do what the best surgical and medical skill had failed to do;\nand you know how last Monday night, while you were sleeping soundly in\nyour beds, the bells of our city and all over the land were tolling the\ntidings of his death.\n\nHe was a good man\u2015\u2015in many respects as well qualified to fill the\nPresidential chair as any man who has ever sat in it. So I say it is\nmost difficult to understand why he was taken away.\n\nLike all of you he lost his father by death at an early age; as is the\ncase with all of you his mother was poor. He struggled hard for an\neducation, and he acquired it, who knows at what a cost! He was never\nsatisfied with present attainments; he was always on the advance. At\nan early age he gave himself to the Lord, joining the church; and\nas that branch of the church does not believe in the necessity of\nordination for the ministry he preached the Gospel as a layman, as the\ngreat Faraday preached in London and as Christian laymen preach the\nsame truths to you, and it was my purpose, formed when he was elected\nin November last, to persuade him, some time when he might be passing\nthrough Philadelphia, to come to this chapel and address you boys.\nThis, alas, now can never be.\n\nPresident Garfield loved his mother. No more touching incident was ever\nwitnessed than that which hundreds of people saw on inauguration day,\nwhen, after taking the oath of his high office, he turned immediately\nto his dear old mother and kissed her.\n\nOur great sorrow is not felt by us alone. All nations mourn with us.\nThe Queen of Great Britain with her own hand sends messages of the\nsweetest, the most touching sympathy. She, too, is a widow and her\nchildren are fatherless. She sends flowers for Mrs. Garfield and puts\nher court in mourning, a compliment never extended before except in the\ncase of death in a royal family. Other European and Asiatic and African\ngovernments send their sympathy\u2015\u2015they all feel it\u2015\u2015they all deplore\nit. Emblems of mourning are displayed in every street in our city, and\nevery heart is sad. The people mourn.\n\nBoys, you may not be Presidents\u2015\u2015probably not one here will ever be at\nthe head of this nation; nor is this of any moment; but remember it\nwas not only as President of the United States that General Garfield\nwas wise and good\u2015\u2015it was in every place where he was put; whether\nin school, in college, in teaching, in the army, in Congress, in the\nPresident\u2019s chair, in his family and on his sick and dying bed,\nlanguishing and suffering, wasting and burning with fever, exhausted by\nwounds cruel and undeserved, he was always the same brave, true, real\nman.\n\nSome of you know with what profound and tender interest people gathered\nin places of prayer that Tuesday morning to ask that the journey from\nWashington to Long Branch might be safe and prosperous, and how the\nhope was expressed, almost to assurance, that the Saviour would meet\nhis disciple by the sea. The prayer was granted. The Lord did meet his\ndisciple, not, as was so much desired, with gifts of healing; nothing\nshort of a miracle could do that, but by a more complete preparation\nof the people for the final issue. It came at last. And while many of\nus were sleeping quietly, telegraphic messages were flashing the sad\nintelligence everywhere that, at last, he was at rest.\n\nNow that we know that he is taken away, we stand in awe and amazement.\nWe cannot yet understand it.\n\nShall we gather a few lessons from his life? Some of the most apparent\nmay be mentioned very briefly.\n\nThe simplicity of his character is most interesting. Conscious as he\nmust have been of the possession of no ordinary mental force, he was\nnever obtrusive nor self-assertive. What seemed to be his duty he did,\nwith purpose and completeness. And his associates often placed him in\npositions of high trust and responsibility.\n\nHe was an accomplished scholar. Even while engrossed in Congressional\nduties, to a degree which left him little or no time for recreation,\nhe did not fail to keep himself fresh in classic literature. It is\nsaid that a friend returning from Europe, and desiring to bring him\nsome little present, could think of nothing more acceptable than a few\nvolumes of the Latin poets.\n\nWhen his life comes to be written by impartial hands, it will be\nfound that along with his great simplicity and his high culture there\nwill be most prominent his devotion to principle. This was his great\ncharacteristic. I have no time, and this is not the place, to speak of\nhis adherence, under strong adverse influences, to his sound views on\nthe great currency question which has occupied so much the attention of\nCongress.\n\nIn a not very remote sense his death is to be attributed to his\ndevotion to principle. That great and most discreditable contest at\nAlbany might have been settled weeks before it was, although in a very\ndifferent manner, if the President could have yielded his convictions.\nHe did not yield, and he was slain.\n\nThe funeral services in the capitol are over and the men whom Mrs.\nGarfield chose as the bearers of her husband\u2019s coffin were not members\nof the cabinet, nor senators, nor judges of the Supreme Court, any of\nwhom would have been honored by such a service, but they were plain\nmen, of names unknown to us, members of his own little church.\n\nThey are gone. They have taken his worn and wasted and mutilated form,\nall that remains in this world of the strong, pure life that was not\nyet fifty years old, to the beautiful city by the lake, and there\nwithin sight and almost within sound of the waves of the great inland\nsea, they will to-morrow lay him to rest until the morning of the\nresurrection.\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhat use shall we make of this deplorable calamity? Shall our faith\nin the prevalence of prayer be weakened? God forbid that we should so\ndistort his teachings. \u201cNay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest\nagainst God?\u201d\n\nOur prayers are answered, not as we wished, and almost insisted, but\nin softening the hearts of the people and drawing them as they have\nnever before been drawn towards the Great Ruler of the universe, and\nin uniting the people, and also in promoting a better feeling between\nthe different sections of our country than has been known for half a\ncentury. And if, in addition to this, the people would only learn to\nabate that passion for office which has been so fatal to peace, and\nwould be content to allow fitness for office to be the only rule of\nappointment, then a true civil service would be a heritage for the\nsecuring of which even the sacrifice of a President would seem not too\ngreat a price.\n\n    \u201cAnd the archers shot at King Josiah, and the king said to his\n    servants, Have me away for I am sore wounded. His servants\n    therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the\n    second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem,\n    and he died and was buried. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned\n    for Josiah.\u201d 2 Chron. xxxv. 23, 24.\n\n\n\n\n                 THE CASE OF THE UNEDUCATED EMPLOYED.\n\n                            March 25, 1888.\n\n\nA distinguished lawyer of our city delivered an address before one of\nthe societies in the venerable University of Harvard on this subject:\n\u201cThe Case of the Educated Unemployed.\u201d With an intimate knowledge\nof his subject, and with rare felicity of thought and expression,\nhe set before his audience, most of whom were either in the learned\nprofessions or preparing to enter them, the overcrowded condition of\nthose professions, especially that of the law, a preparation for which\nis supposed to imply a more or less thorough academic or collegiate\neducation.\n\nI have a different task; for I would show the importance of education\nto the workers with the hand, whether in the mills, the shops, or\namong the various trades and occupations. By education I do not mean\nthat of the colleges, or of the common schools merely, but also that\nwhich is acquired sometimes without the advantage of any schools. And\nI particularly desire to show that an uneducated worker, whatever be\nhis work, is at an immense disadvantage with one who is engaged in the\nsame kind of work, and who is more or less educated.\n\nA mechanic may be well trained; may have more than his share of brains;\nmay be highly successful in his business; indeed, may have acquired\na large property, and have very high credit, and may hardly know how\nto write his name. A man may have scores or hundreds of men in his\nemployment, and be conducting business on a very large scale, indeed,\nand yet be so ignorant of accounts that he is entirely at the mercy of\nhis book-keeper, and may be so defrauded as to be on the very brink\nof ruin and not know it until it is almost too late. In the course\nof a long business life more than one such case has come under my\nobservation. A man may be partially educated, able to cast up accounts,\nable to keep books by double entry (and no other kind of book-keeping\nis worthy of the name), and yet not be able to write a simple agreement\nin good English, nor understand clearly the meaning of such a paper\nwhen written by another.\n\nVery many of the business failures that occur are due to the fact that\nthe person or firm did not know how to keep accounts. This is not\nconfined to people of small business. How often after a failure are we\ntold \u201cthat the man was very much surprised at his condition; he thought\nhe was all right; he could not account for his failure, and that in\na short time he would have his books in such a shape that he would\nbe able to make a statement to his creditors and ask their advice.\nIt would require ten days or so, however, before he could tell how\nhe stood.\u201d Why, if the man had been an educated business man, and an\nhonest man, he would have known in twenty-four hours how he stood.\n\nThe great majority of people who are employed are not educated. They\ndo not know how to do in the best manner, that which they have to do.\nPerhaps a good definition of education, as the word is applied to a\nworking man, may be that he knows how to do that which he has to do, in\nthe very best way.\n\nEducation may be of three kinds, viz.:\n\nThat of the _schools_.\n\n_Self-education._\n\nThat of _trade_ or _business_.\n\n_That of the schools._ And this is the best of all; for the whole\nof one\u2019s time is given to it; and if you are so inclined you may go\nthrough the whole course, as provided in this school. And all this with\ntext-books, instruments and other appliances, absolutely free of cost.\nA boy, therefore, who passes through the entire course of study here,\nhas superior opportunities of acquiring a most substantial education.\n\nCertainly the education of the schools is the best; and let me urge you\nwith all seriousness to make the best use of your opportunities. You\ncan never learn as easily as now. You are young. You are not burdened\nwith cares. Do not relax your efforts in the least; do not yield to\nweariness; do not think you know enough already; do not be impatient\nlest others of your own age, who have already left school to go to\nwork, get ahead of you in trade or in any kind of business; if they\nhave the start of you, they may not be able to keep it; and depend\nupon it, in the long run you will overtake and pass them, other things\nbeing equal, if you have a better school education than they have. When\nyou are told that young men who are well educated are thereby unfitted\nor unwilling to take the lowest places in trade or business, do not\nbelieve it. I know the contrary. The better the school education you\nhave, and the more you know, the more valuable you will be to your\nemployer.\n\nAnother kind of education is called, but most inaccurately,\n_self-education_. All that I mean by it is, that education which one\nacquires without teachers. As so defined, it may be divided into two\nparts, viz.: the incidental and the direct.\n\nLet me speak first of the _incidental_.\n\nI mean by this that education that comes to us from society.\n\nYou cannot live alone, and you ought not to if you could. You seek\ncompanions, or other persons will seek you. Let your associates be\nthose whose friendship will be an instruction to you, rather than\nsimply a means of social enjoyment. There are young people of both\nsexes who, without being vicious, are utterly weak and foolish, idle\nand listless, drifting along a current, the end of which they do not\ncare to think of. They are living for this life only, with no thought\nof the future, no ambition, mere butterflies, who float in the sunshine\nwhen the sun is shining, but who, in a dark and cloudy day, are bored\nand miserable, and utterly useless. Sometimes they are pleasant enough\nto chat with for a few minutes, but to be shut up to such companionship\nas this, would be intolerable. Society has a large element of this\ndescription, and you are likely to see it in your daily life.\n\nBut this is not the worst phase of life among the young people with\nwhom you may be thrown. There are worse elements than this. There are\nthose who are depraved to a degree quite beyond their age; who have\ngiven themselves up to work all uncleanness with greediness; who put\nno restraint on their inclinations; in whose eyes nothing is pure or\nsacred; who have no respect for that which is wholesome or decent;\nwho are the devil\u2019s own children, and who are not ashamed of their\nparentage. And to such baleful, deadly influences and associations will\nyou be exposed, my young friends, and you may not be apprised of their\ntrue character until it is too late.\n\nBut there are _direct_ means of education, so called.\n\nThe first of these which I mention is the use of books. This is\nunquestionably the best means. I am supposing that you have some taste\nfor reading; if you have not, it is hardly worth while for me to speak,\nor for you to listen. I know some people who rarely read a book, and I\npity them. They seem to think that all that is necessary to read is the\ndaily newspaper. I do not say that such persons are necessarily very\nignorant, for very much may be learned from the daily paper. But the\nnewspaper does not pretend to supply all that you need, to fit you for\na life of business, either as a dealer in merchandise, a professional\nman or a mechanic. No; you must read books, not only for entertainment\nand recreation, but for information and culture, which you can obtain\nnowhere else. If there is no public library within your reach, seek out\nsome kind-hearted man or woman who has books, and who will be willing\nto lend them to one who is in search of knowledge. I well remember a\ngentleman in my early life who did this kind office for me before I was\nable to buy books, and there are such now who will do the same for you.\n\nIf you have little knowledge of books, you ought to ask the advice\nof some practical friend to point out such as you may most safely\nand properly read. For if left to your own judgment or taste, you\nwill probably waste valuable time, or be discouraged by an attempt to\nread something not immediately necessary or appropriate. But do not\nattempt to follow an elaborate plan of reading, such as you will find\ndetailed in some books, for you are very likely to be discouraged\nby the greatness of the task. Such lists, I fancy, are made out by\nscholars who have read almost everything, and to whom reading is no\ntask whatever, and who have plenty of time. Do not attempt to read\ntoo many books, nor too much at a time, and do not be disappointed or\ndiscouraged if you are not able to remember or put to good account all\nthat you read. You cannot always know what particular kind of food\nhas afforded you the most nourishment. You may rest assured, however,\nthat as every morsel of food that you take and are able to digest does\nsomething to build up and develop your system, or repair its waste, so\nevery book or paper that you read, that is wholesome, does something,\nyou may not know how much, to strengthen or develop your mind.\n\nThere are books that you read for entertainment or recreation, and\nthat are written for that purpose only. You may read such; indeed, you\nought to read them, for you need, as everybody else needs, recreation\nand amusement, and there is much of the purest and best of this that\nyou can get from books. But you must not make the mistake of supposing\nthat most, or even a very large proportion, of your reading can be of\nthis character. You would not think of making your daily meals of the\narticles of food that you enjoy as the sweets of your meals. You would\nnot think of living on sponge-cake and ice-cream for a regular diet.\nYou might as well do so, as to read only the light and humorous matter\nthat was never intended for the mental diet of a working man. No. If\nyou would attain the real object of reading and study, you must read\nand study books and papers that tax the full powers of your mind to\nunderstand them. This will soon strengthen the quality of your mind,\neven as the exercise of your muscles in work or play will develop a\nstrength of body that the idle or lazy youth knows nothing of.\n\nIf you would know how to make yourself master of any book that you\nread, form the habit, if the book is your own, of making notes with\na pencil in the margin of the pages; but if the book is not your\nproperty, or in any case, take a sheet of paper and write at the end\nof every chapter questions on the matter discussed, and the answer to\nsuch questions will probably bring out the author\u2019s meaning so fully\nthat you will have _absorbed_ the book and made it your own; for, as an\neminent American author has said, \u201cthought is the property of whoever\ncan entertain it.\u201d\n\nI said just now that the daily newspaper does not pretend to supply all\nthat you need to fit you for a life of business, either as a dealer\nin goods, or as a mechanic or clerk. But the daily paper is a most\nimportant means of education\u2015\u2015so important that no one can afford to\nignore it. Now-a-days one cannot be well informed who does not read\nthe newspaper. The whole world is brought before us every morning and\nevening, and, if we do not read the news as it comes, we shall not\nknow what we ought to know. It is not necessary to read everything in\na daily paper; there are some things that it will be better for you\nnot to read. You need not read all the editorials, brilliant as some\nof them are, for sometimes they discuss subjects that are not at all\ninteresting nor useful to you. The newspaper from which I make the most\nclippings is one which is the fullest of advertisements, but which\nsometimes has nothing whatever in it that I read. But when it does\ndiscuss a subject of interest, it is apt to leave nothing further to be\nsaid.\n\nBut to read with the most advantage one ought to have within easy reach\na dictionary, an atlas and, if possible, an encyclopedia. Then you can\nread with profit, and the mere outlines which the newspaper gives can\nbe filled up by reference to books which give more or less complete\nhistories.\n\nThe political articles which appear in the height of a campaign are\nhardly worth reading, unless you think of entering politics as a\nmoney-making business, which I sincerely hope none of you think of\ndoing. And I am sure that the full accounts of crime, and especially\nthe details of police reports and criminal trials, you will do well to\npass by and not read. I really believe that a familiarity with these\ndetails prepares the way, in many instances, for the commission of\ncrime, just as the reading of accounts of suicide sometimes leads to\nthe act itself.\n\nSome of the best minds in our country, and in the world, are now\nemployed in writing for the periodicals and magazines. No one can be\nwell informed without reading something of the vast amount of matter\nwhich is thus poured out before him. I have not named the newspapers\nnor the magazines which you may read with the most profit; but your\nteachers can advise you what to read. Rather is it important for you to\nknow what _not_ to read. Many of the most popular and the most useful\nbooks that have been published within the last quarter of a century\nhave appeared first in the pages of a weekly or monthly paper. The best\nthoughts of the best thinkers sometimes first see the light in such\npages.\n\nBesides the newspaper and the literary magazine, there are scientific\nperiodicals, which are of essential value to a worker who wishes\nto be well informed in any of the mechanical arts. The _Scientific\nAmerican_ is, perhaps, the best of this class, both in the beauty of\nits illustrations and in the high quality of its contributions. The\n_Popular Science Monthly_ is a periodical of a wider range and more\ndiversified character. These periodicals, if you are not able to\nsubscribe for them as individuals or in clubs, you may find in the\npublic library. But let me urge you to turn away from \u201cdime novels.\u201d\nNot because they are cheap, but because they are often unwholesome\nand immoral. The vile, fiery, poisonous whiskey which so many wretched\ncreatures drink until the coatings of the stomach are destroyed, and\nthe brain is on fire, is no more fatal to the health and life, than\nis the immoral literature I speak of, to the mind and soul of him who\nreads. There is an abundance of good literature that is cheap\u2015\u2015do not\nread the bad.\n\nHaving now spoken of the education you may get in the schools, and that\nwhich you may acquire for yourselves, if you have the pluck to strive\nfor it, either in the society which you cultivate, or more directly\nfrom books, whether read as an entertainment and recreation, or,\nbetter still, by careful study; or through the daily newspaper, or the\nperiodical, whether literary or scientific; or, what is best of all,\nthat which is decidedly religious; I turn now to the education which\nyou will acquire when you work day by day at your trade or business.\n\nLet me beg of you to consider the great value of truthfulness in all\nyour training. Hardly anything will help you more to reach up towards\nthe top. And when you are at the head of an establishment of your\nown or somebody else\u2019s (and I take it for granted you will be at the\nhead some day), whether it be a workshop or factory of any kind, or\na store, no matter what, a fixed habit of keeping your word, of not\npromising unless you are certain of keeping your promise, will almost\ninsure your success if you are a good workman. How many good mechanics\nhave utterly failed of success because they have not cared to keep\ntheir promises? A firm of high reputation agrees to supply certain\narticles of furniture at a time fixed by them. The time comes but the\narticles do not come. A call of inquiry is made and new promises are\nmade only to be broken. Excuses are offered and more promises given;\nthen incomplete articles are sent; then more delays, until, when\npatience is nearly exhausted, the work is finished. Then comes the bill\nand there is a mistake in it. The whole transaction is a series of\ndisappointments and misunderstandings. Will you ever incline to go to\nthat place again?\n\nIt is usual for miners of coal to place their sons, as they become ten\nor twelve years of age, at the foot of the great breakers to watch\nthe coal as it comes rattling and broken down the great wire screens,\nand catch the pieces of slate and throw them to one side and allow\nonly the pure coal to pass down into the huge bins, from which it is\ndropped into the cars and taken to market. To an uneducated eye there\nis hardly any perceptible difference between the coal and the slate.\nBut these little fellows soon become so quick in the education of the\neye, that they can tell in an instant the difference. When the boy\ngrows older he graduates to the place of a mule driver, and has his car\nand mule, which he drives day by day from the mouth of the mine to the\nbreaker. Then when he begins to be of age he fixes his little oil lamp\nin the front of his cap, and goes down into the mines with his pick\nand becomes a miner of coal. It seems a dreary life to spend most of\none\u2019s time under the ground, shut out from the sunshine and from the\npure air. And most of these men having no education, and never having\nbeen urged to seek one, are content to spend all their days in this\nmanner. But occasionally there is one who feels that he is capable of\nbetter things than this. And I know one at least, who began his work\nat the foot of a coal breaker and worked his way up through all these\nstages, as I have told you, and who determined to do something better\nfor himself. So he gave much of his leisure (and everybody has some\nleisure) to study; nor was he discouraged by the difficulties in his\nway. He persevered. He rose to be a boss among the men; then having\nsaved some money, instead of wasting it at the tavern, he bought his\nteams, and then bought an interest in a coal mine, and became a miner\nof his own coal, and had his men under him, and has grown to be a rich\nman, and is not ashamed of his small beginnings nor of his hard work.\nThis is only one instance of success in rising from a low position to a\nhigh one.\n\nThe same thing is going on all around us and we see it every day. It\nwould hardly be proper to give you names, but I could tell you of many\nwithin my own knowledge who, from positions of extremely hard labor and\nplain living, have risen to be the head men in shops and other places\nwhich they entered at the lowest places. Such changes are continually\noccurring. And there is no reason whatever, except your indifference,\nto prevent many of you from becoming, if God gives you health, the\nhead men, in the places where you begin work as subordinates or in\nvery low positions. And I tell you what you know already, that there\nis plenty of room for advancement. It is the lowest places that are\nfull to overflowing. Who ever heard of a strike among the _chiefs_ of\nany industry? No, indeed. They have made themselves indispensable to\ntheir employers and they don\u2019t need to strike. And there is hardly a\nyouth who cannot by strict attention to business, and conscientious\ndevotion to the interests of his employer, make himself so invaluable\nthat he need not join any trades union for protection. Do the vast\narmy of clerks in the various corporations, or in the great commercial\nhouses, or in the public service, or in the army and navy\u2015\u2015do these\npeople ever band themselves in any associations like the trades unions?\nThey know better than that; they accomplish their purposes in better\nways. If the working classes, so called, were better educated, they\nwould not suffer themselves to be led by the nose by people who will\nnot themselves work, who will not touch even with their little fingers\nthe burdens which are crushing the life out of the deluded ones whom\nthey are leading to folly. It is a true education that is needed, a\ntrue conscience that must be cultivated, to enable men to do their own\nthinking, and to determine for themselves what are their best interests.\n\nI urge you all to seek that higher and better education which will make\nyou true men. You have now the great advantage of the education of the\nschool. I have tried very simply, but not the less earnestly, to show\nyou how you can fit yourselves for high places. It is for you to say\nwhether you will avail yourselves of these plain hints. No earthly\npower can force you to do that which you will not do. You may lead a\nhorse to a brimming fountain of water, but if he is not thirsty, no\ncoaxing nor threatening nor beating can make him drink. I may show you,\nto demonstration, the abundant fountain of learning, but I can\u2019t make\nyou drink, or even stoop to taste the stream, if you are not thirsty.\nI can\u2019t make you study, however great the advantage to you, or however\nmuch they who are interested in you desire that you should.\n\nEvery year this question which I have been pressing upon you becomes\nmore and more important. The great colleges of the country are\ngraduating their thousands of students, many of whom will compete\nwith you for the high places in the mechanic arts. So are the public\nschools of the country sending out hundreds of thousands, many of them\nhaving the same aim. Technical schools, teaching the mechanic arts, are\nmultiplying. Great changes have been made recently in our own city in\nthis respect. The Spring Garden Institute is doing a noble work in this\nway. Our own college is moving in the same direction, and soon it will\nbe sending out its hundreds every year to compete for places in the\nshops, with this great advantage, that you Girard boys have a school\neducation\u2015\u2015the best that you are able to receive, and you must not let\nany others go ahead of you.\n\nLook at the poor, ignorant people from abroad who sweep our\nstreets\u2015\u2015look at the stevedores who load and unload the ships\u2015\u2015look at\nthe men who carry the hod of mortar or bricks up the high and steep\nladders\u2015\u2015look at the drivers and the conductors on our street cars,\nthe most hard worked people among us\u2015\u2015and are you not sure that most\nof these people are _un_educated? No one wants to be at the bottom all\nthe time. We may have been there at the first; but those who have made\nthe most progress are generally those who have had the best education.\nI know that education is not a sure guarantee of success; many other\nthings enter into the consideration of the question; but I am saying\nthat, other things being equal, _he who knows the most will do the\nbest_. There are, alas, many instances of the sons of the rich, who\nhave been well educated, who have everything provided for them, who\nhave no stimulus, no spur; who have no regular occupation, and need not\nhave any; many of whom sink into idleness and dissipation, and their\nfine education goes for nothing. But you are not of this class. You\nwill have to make your way in the world by your own exertions.\n\nI shall fail of my duty if I do not say some words about such boys\nas sometimes stand at the corners of the streets in large or small\ncompanies and amuse themselves by smoking and chewing tobacco, telling\nbad stories and making remarks upon those who pass by. I am sure much\nof this arises from thoughtlessness; but I wish to point out the\nexceeding impropriety of this behavior. I have known ladies to cross\nthe street and, at much inconvenience, go quite out of their way rather\nthan pass within hearing of these boys and young men. What right has\nany one to make the streets disagreeable to any passenger, to block\nup the way or make loose or rude remarks, or defile the pavement over\nwhich I walk?\n\nAll this most serious waste of time is probably because no one has\nparticularly called attention to it. The time may come when you will\nrecall the words of advice which you hear to-day, and you may regret\nwhen it is too late that you turned a deaf ear to what was said.\n\nI have now tried, in as much detail as the time will permit, to show\nthe importance of that education which will enable you to rise in\nyour trade or business, whatever it may be, to the upper places; and\nI have tried to show that a true ambition leads one to strive to be\n_chief_ rather than a _subordinate_, to be a _foreman_ rather than a\n_journeyman_.\n\nBut, after all, everything will depend upon yourselves and upon God.\nThere is no royal road to education; the very meaning of the word shows\nthis; the mind must be drawn out, worked over, developed, rounded,\nhammered, somewhat as a blacksmith puts a piece of rough iron in the\ncoals, keeps it there until it is red-hot, then draws it out, lays it\nupon his anvil and hammers it, turning it over and over, striking it\nfirst on this side and then on that, rounding it off; then when it\ncools thrusting it among the coals again, then hammering away again\nuntil he has brought the rough piece of iron to the size and shape\nhe wishes, when he allows it to cool and harden. If you are willing\nto work your mind into the shape you want it, you will surely bring\nyourself to the front among active, ingenious and successful men. But\nthis means hard work, and work all the time.\n\nNow if you mean to avail yourselves of any of the hints which I have\ngiven you, if you really mean to succeed, if you are not content to be\nworkers low down in the scale of industry, if you mean to rise rather\nthan to be obscure, if you intend to be well-to-do men, instead of\nliving from hand to mouth, you must grapple with the subject with all\nyour might and keep at it all the time. And you must keep out of the\nstreets at night, away from the taverns and from the low theatres, and\nfrom gambling dens, and from other places which I will not name; and,\nin short, you must be true Americans, for there is no truer type of\nmanhood in all the world than a real American; and nowhere else in all\nthe world has a poor boy so good an opportunity to be and do all this,\nas in our own good city of Philadelphia.\n\n\n\n\n                             WILLIAM PENN.\n\n                           October 22, 1882.\n\n\nIn the early autumn of the year 1682, a vessel with her bow pointing\ntowards the west was making her way slowly across the Atlantic\nocean. She was a small craft, rigged as a ship, and crowded with\nemigrants. The discomforts of a long and tiresome voyage, the very\nsmall accommodations, the horror of sea-sickness, were in this vessel\naggravated by the breaking out of that most awful of all scourges,\nthe small-pox. In a very short time, out of a population of one\nhundred, thirty passengers died. No record is left of the incidents\nof that voyage except this; but it is easy to imagine that all the\ncircumstances were as deplorable as they could well be.\n\nAfter a weary time of head winds and calms, in about seven weeks, this\nship, the \u201cWelcome,\u201d came within the capes of the Delaware bay.\n\nThe most distinguished person on that little ship was William Penn.\nHe had left his home in England, embarking with his trusty friends in\na vessel only one-tenth the size of the ships of our American Line,\nto come to Pennsylvania. He had bought the whole province from the\ngovernment of England for the sum of \u00a316,000 sterling, which, measured\nby our money, is about $80,000, and this money was due to him for\nservices rendered and money loaned to the government by his father, an\nadmiral in the English navy.\n\nAbout the 24th of October the vessel reached the town of Newcastle,\nwhere Penn landed and was cordially received by the people of that\nlittle village. Afterwards they came farther up the river to Uplands,\nnow the town or city of Chester. Then, leaving the vessel here, they\ncame in a barge (Penn and some of his principal men) to the mouth of\nDock creek, the foot of what is now known as Dock street, where they\nlanded, near a little tavern called the Blue Anchor.\n\nThere was already a settlement on the shore of the Delaware river, and\nthe people, mostly Swedes, had built a little church somewhat farther\ndown the stream. The entire land between the Delaware and Schuylkill\nrivers, and for a mile north and south, was owned by three brothers,\nSwedes, named Swen. Penn bought this tract from them, and at once\nproceeded to lay out his new city. When he bought the whole province\nfrom the crown he desired to call it New-Wales, because it was so\nhilly, but the king insisted on calling it Penn\u2019s Sylvania, in memory\nof the admiral, William\u2019s father. But when the new city came to be\nnamed, Penn having no one to dispute his wish, called it by that word,\nof whose meaning we think so little, Philadelphia\u2015\u2015brotherly love. Two\nmonths after this he met the Indians, it is said, under a great elm\ntree in the upper part of the city, in what we now call Kensington,\nand concluded that treaty which has been said to be the only treaty\nthat was ever made without an oath, and that was never broken. Shortly\nafter this Penn proceeded to lay out the city, and, as a distinguished\nEnglish author has said, he must have taken the ancient Babylon for his\nmodel, for this was the first modern city that was laid out with the\nstreets crossing each other at right angles.\n\nThe charter which Penn received from Charles the Second, King of\nEngland (the original of which is in the capital at Harrisburg, on\nthree large sheets of parchment), makes him proprietary and governor,\nalso holding his authority under the crown. He at once therefore set\nabout making a code of laws as special statutes, which with the common\nlaw of England should be the laws of the province. One of these special\nlaws was this: \u201cEvery one, rich or poor, was to learn a useful trade or\noccupation; the poor to live on it: the rich to resort to it if they\nshould become poor.\u201d And I do not know what better law he could have\nenacted.\n\nWhen the news of Penn\u2019s arrival and cordial reception reached England\nand the continent of Europe, the effect was to arouse a spirit of\nemigration. Although Penn\u2019s first thought and purpose was to found\na colony, where he and others who held the religious views of the\nSociety of Friends might worship without hindrance (which liberty\nwas denied them in England), the people from other countries in\nEurope came here in great numbers for other purposes. The population\ntherefore multiplied rapidly, and the people were generally such as had\ndetermined to brave the privations of a new country, to make themselves\na home where life could be lived under better conditions than in the\nold countries, under the harsh government of tyrannical kings. This\nemigration was stimulated also by the very liberal terms which the\ngovernor offered to new-comers; for to actual settlers he offered the\nland at about ten dollars for a hundred acres, subject, however, to\na quit-rent of a quarter of a dollar an acre per annum forever; and\nthis may be the origin of that ground-rent instrument which is almost\npeculiar to Pennsylvania, and which is such a favorite investment for\nour rich men.\n\nAfter a stay of two years Penn returned to England, where he had left\nhis wife and children; the care of the government having been left with\na council, of which Thomas Lloyd was president, who kept the great seal.\n\nNot long after his return to England the king, Charles the Second,\ndied, and having no son he was succeeded by his brother, James Duke of\nYork, as James the Second. Although Penn was on the most cordial terms\nwith the new king, as he had been with Charles, this did not secure him\nfrom the repeated annoyances and persecutions of those who detested his\nreligion. So severe was the treatment to which he was subjected, and\nsuch was his personal danger from unprincipled men, that he escaped to\nFrance. But not being able nor willing to bear this exile, he returned\nto England, was tried for his offence against the law of the church and\nwas acquitted. After this he came to America again, intending to spend\nthe rest of his life here, but he remained only two years.\n\nThe rest of his life was spent in England, but it was a life broken by\npersecutions and trials at law and other annoyances, the expenses of\nwhich, added to the losses by the unfaithfulness of his stewards, were\nso great as seriously to involve him in financial embarrassments; and\nhe was even compelled to mortgage his great estate in Pennsylvania to\nrelieve himself; but the interest annually payable on such encumbrance\nwas so heavy that he felt the necessity of relieving himself of the\nproperty entirely, and he offered to sell it to the crown. While the\nmatter was under consideration, his health began to decline; however,\nthe terms were agreed upon, but while the papers were in the course of\npreparation he died peacefully at Rushcombe, in Buckinghamshire, July\n30, 1718, and was buried five days after in the burial ground belonging\nto Jordan\u2019s meeting house.\n\nSuch is the briefest outline of the life of the founder of this\ncommonwealth of Pennsylvania, and of this city of Philadelphia.\n\nLet us see now what there was in this life which we may find it\ninteresting to recall and dwell upon; what there was in it which may be\nuseful for us to consider in its application to ourselves.\n\nWilliam Penn was born in the city of London on the 14th of October,\n1644, in the parish of St. Catharine\u2019s, near the Tower. His father\nwas an admiral and his grandfather was a captain in the English navy.\nThen, as now, it was the custom of English families of good condition\nto send their boys away from home to school. This boy, an only son, was\ntherefore sent to school near the town of Wanstead, in Essex, called\nChigwell. Here he remained until he was thirteen years old, with no\nincident particularly worthy of notice, except that he was, at the age\nof twelve, brought under deep religious impressions, which, however,\nlike many other boys, he soon threw aside. He seems to have been apt to\nlearn, and was fond of the childish sports belonging to his age. For\ntwo years after leaving school, he was under private instruction at\nhome, until he was fifteen years old, when he entered the University\nof Oxford. Here he devoted himself most diligently to his studies\nand became a successful student. But this did not prevent him from\nentering most heartily into the sports which were common to young\nmen of his quality. He was very fond of boating, fishing, shooting,\nand other pleasures, and he was extremely handsome; but he avoided\ndissipation of all kinds, thus proving that the keenest enjoyment of\nhealthful sports is quite consistent with a pure life. If the college\nstudents of this day would believe and act upon this principle, it\nwould be better for them and better for the world.\n\nWith this hearty enjoyment of sports, and this diligent application to\nstudy, he had a very tender sympathy and love for domestic animals.\nTowards those that were the most helpless, he evinced a kindliness that\nwas almost womanly.\n\nBut he had a strong will, and it was impossible to turn him aside\nfrom a course of duty, when he was satisfied that it was real duty.\nDuring his school and college life there were many seasons of religious\ninterest in his experience, and he was at last brought (under the\npreaching of a member of the Society of Friends named Thomas Loe) to\ndeclare himself a member of that society. He therefore refused to\nattend the services of the Church of England. The custom of wearing\nsurplices by Oxford students, which had been abolished in Cromwell\u2019s\ntime, had been restored by Charles; but Penn, when he came out as a\nreligious man, threw off his surplice and refused to wear it. This\nact was bad enough in the eyes of the authorities; but his zeal went\nfurther than this, and, in common with some others of the same way of\nthinking, he so far forgot himself as to attack other students and tear\noff their surplices. This very grave offence could not be overlooked,\nand, admiral\u2019s son though he was, he was expelled from the University\nof Oxford. This was a great blow to his father, who was building\nthe fondest hopes on the advancement of his son at college and his\ncareer as a courtier. No persuasion, however, could induce the son to\nreconsider his conduct, and his father at last flogged him and drove\nhim from the house. Some time after this, through the intercession of\nthe mother, the young man was brought back to his home; and his father,\nin the hope that a change of scene and circumstances would work a\nchange in the lad\u2019s feelings, sent him to Paris, and to travel on the\ncontinent.\n\nWhile in Paris he studied the French language, and read some books in\ntheology, and went as far as Turin, in Italy, from whence, however, he\nwas recalled to take charge of a part of his father\u2019s affairs. He then\nstudied law for a year, which no doubt was of some help to him in the\nfounding of his commonwealth. Then his father sent him to take care of\nhis estates in Ireland, at that time under the vice-royalty of the Duke\nof Ormond. He entered the army here, and did good service too; and was,\napparently, so much pleased with his new life that he suffered the only\nportrait of him that was ever painted, to be taken when he was wearing\narmor and in uniform. This picture, or a copy of it, may now be seen at\nthe Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in Spruce street, above Eighth.\n\nAbout this time he came again under the influence of the preacher Loe,\nand was recalled by his father, who remonstrated with him on his new\nmode of life, but with no success whatever. He would not give up his\nnew religion. His father tried to compromise the matter with him, and\nhe even went so far as to propose to his son, that if he would remove\nhis hat in the presence of the king and the Duke of York and his\nfather, as his superiors, their differences might be healed; but the\nson, believing that the removal of his hat would be dishonorable to\nGod, absolutely refused.\n\nHis life for some time after this was stormy enough. He came out boldly\nand in defiance of law as a preacher of the Society of Friends; and was\nrepeatedly imprisoned, sometimes in the Tower of London and sometimes\nin the loathsome prison of Newgate, from which places he was released\nby the intercession of the Duke of York and his father and other\nfriends.\n\nThose were very rough times, not likely, let us hope, to be repeated.\nSociety was very corrupt at the highest sources, and religion was more\nviolent and aggressive in its measures then than now. The world has\ngrown wiser and better\u2015\u2015there is more toleration, more of the Spirit\nof the Master now than then, and in our favored land every soul can\nworship God as he may choose to do.\n\nWilliam Penn was a _statesman_. He founded this great commonwealth of\nPennsylvania. He established a code of laws that were in advance of\nhis time. He stipulated that the law of primogeniture, that law which\ngives the lands of the father to the _oldest_ son, with little or no\nprovision for younger sons, that law which is the corner-stone of the\ncrown of England, should have no place in this new commonwealth. The\nproperty of a parent dying without a will should be _equally divided\namong his children_. Penn was a statesman in the broadest sense of the\nterm. His laws were for the greatest good of the greatest number. He\ntreated the Indians as if they were human beings, and not as if they\nwere brute beasts. Indeed, he never treated the brutes as the Indians\nhave been treated even in our day by harsh and unscrupulous agents of\nthe government. Whether he was exactly just in his dealings with Lord\nBaltimore, the settler of Maryland, I do not know. Perhaps he was not.\nWe know this misunderstanding gave him great trouble, and was indeed\nthe prime cause of his return to England.\n\nPenn was a _rich man_. The inheritance left him by his father was\nhandsome, and he could have lived most comfortably upon it. But when\nhe received from the crown the charter which made him the owner of\nPennsylvania, he was the largest landholder, except sovereigns, known\nin history. He did not use his wealth for personal indulgence, or for\nluxurious living for himself or his family. He believed that he held\nhis property as a trustee, and that he had no right to waste it. He\nmight have lived the life of an ordinary English nobleman (for it is\nsaid his father was offered a peerage), but such a life had no charms\nfor him.\n\nPenn was a _conscientious man_. I mean by this that he followed his\ninner convictions, without regard to consequences. What he wanted to\nknow was, whether a given thing was _right_ and according to his way\nof determining what the right was; and he did it if it were a duty,\nwithout flinching. No personal inconvenience, no consideration for the\nviews or wishes of other people, was allowed to stand in the way of his\nduty, as he understood it. It was the custom of that time for gentlemen\nto wear swords, as some gentlemen now carry canes, and with no purpose\nexcept as an ornament or part of the dress. Some time after he joined\nthe Society of Friends, and while still wearing his sword, he said to\nhis friend George Fox, \u201cIs it consistent with our principles and our\ntestimonies against war for me to wear my sword?\u201d When Fox replied,\n\u201cWear thy sword as usual, so long as thy conscience will permit it.\u201d\nThis friendly rebuke led him to lay aside his sword never to resume it.\n\nWilliam Penn was a _religious man_. He was called by the Holy Spirit\nat the early age of twelve years, as I have already said. He resisted\nthat call and many others, until under faithful preaching he could\nresist no longer, when he yielded himself to the divine call and became\nan open professor of the principles of the Society of Friends. This\nwas a very different thing, so far as personal comfort was concerned,\nfrom professing religion in the ordinary forms; for this was to join\na hated sect, and bear all the contempt and persecution that belonged\nto a profession of religion in the early days of Christianity, when\nmen, women and children perilled their lives in the service of the\ngreat Master. But Penn cared not for the cost; he was ready to go to\nprison, and to death if necessary, for his opinions. He _did_ go to\nprison over and over again, and bore right manfully all that was put\nupon him. He was not idle, however, in the prison. He preached to\nhis fellow-prisoners; he wrote pamphlets; he did everything in his\npower to make known to others the good tidings of salvation that had\ncome to him. He wrote a great many letters, and they were all full\nof the spirit of religion. He wrote treatises on religious truth,\nthat might have been written by a systematic theologian; but among\nthe most practical things he wrote was the address to his children,\nthat it would be well if all people would read, and which, with a few\nexceptions, is as appropriate for the people of to-day as it was for\nthose who lived two hundred years ago.\n\nIf Penn had not been a religious man, his life had not been worth\nrecording. He would have lived the life that was lived by almost all\nmen of his class at that time, a life of unrestrained worldliness and\nluxury. The Almighty, who had great purposes in store for the New\nWorld, to be wrought out by the instrumentality of man, could have\nchosen another man, but he chose Penn.\n\nSuch is the story of the life of a man who was one of the world\u2019s\nheroes. His name will never die. There is a large literature on the\nsubject of his life, some of which you will find in your own library,\nif you choose to look further into it. This is all that I feel it\nproper to say to you to-day about it.\n\nBoys, it is a great thing to have been born in Pennsylvania, as all\nof you were. And this could hardly be said of any other congregation\nin this city to-day. This is a great commonwealth. As to its size, it\nis (leaving out Wales) nearly as large as the whole of England. As to\ngreat rivers and mountains and mines and metals, as to forests and\nfields, we are far in advance of anything of the kind in England. No\nvalleys on earth are more beautiful or more productive than the valleys\nof our own Pennsylvania.\n\nIt is a great thing, boys, to have been born in the city of\nPhiladelphia, as most of you were. It was founded by a great and good\nman. There are, in the civilized world, but three cities that are\nlarger than ours. There is no city, except London, that has so many\ndwelling-houses, and there is none anywhere in all the world where the\npoor man who works for his living can live so happily and so well.\n\nIn this State, in this city, your lot is cast. You will soon many of\nyou take your place among the citizens, and have your share in choosing\nthe men who make and execute the laws. Some of you _will be_ the men\nwho make and execute the laws. William Penn founded this commonwealth,\nnot only to provide a peaceable home for the persecuted members of his\nown society, but to afford an asylum for the good and oppressed of\nevery nation; and he founded an empire where the pure and peaceable\nprinciples of Christianity might be carried out in practice. When you\ncome to take your part in the duties of public life, see to it that you\nforget not his wise and noble purpose.\n\n\n\n\n                           OUR CONSTITUTION.\n\n                            October, 1887.\n\n\nI am about to do what I have never done\u2015\u2015what has probably never been\ndone by any other person in this chapel. I propose to give you a\npolitical speech, but not a partisan speech; indeed, I hardly think you\nwill be able to guess, from anything I say, to which of the two great\npolitical parties I belong.\n\nI do not go to the Bible for a text\u2015\u2015though there are many passages in\nthe holy Scriptures which would answer my purpose very well\u2015\u2015but I take\nfor my text the following passage from the will of Mr. Girard:\n\n\u201cAND ESPECIALLY I DESIRE THAT BY EVERY PROPER MEANS, A PURE ATTACHMENT\nTO OUR REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS, AND TO THE SACRED RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE\nAS GUARANTEED BY OUR HAPPY CONSTITUTIONS, SHALL BE FORMED AND FOSTERED\nIN THE MINDS OF THE SCHOLARS.\u201d\n\nA few weeks ago our city was filled to overflowing with strangers.\nThey came from all parts of the land, and some from distant parts of\nthe world. Our railways and steamboats were crowded to their utmost\ncapacity. Our streets were thronged; our hotels and many private\ndwellings were full. It was said that there were half a million of\nstrangers here. The President of the United States, the members\nof the Cabinet, many members of the national Senate and House of\nRepresentatives, the general of the army and many other generals, the\nhighest navy officers, judges of the Supreme Court of the United States\nand of the State courts, the governors of most of the States\u2015\u2015each\nwith his staff\u2015\u2015soldiers and sailors of the United States, and many\nregiments of State troops (the Girard College cadets among them)\u2015\u2015a\nmilitary and naval display of twenty-five thousand men\u2015\u2015representatives\nof foreign states, an exhibition of the industrial and mechanic arts,\nin a procession miles in extent, such as was never seen in all the\nworld before; receptions and banquets, public and private; a general\nsuspension of most kinds of business\u2015\u2015all this occurred in the streets\nof our city, only a few weeks ago. What did it mean?\n\nIt was the One Hundredth Anniversary of the adoption of the\nConstitution of the United States, and it was considered to be an\nevent of such importance that it was well worth while to pause in our\ndaily work; to give holiday to our schools; to still the busy hum\nof industry; to stop the wheels of commerce; to close our places of\nbusiness.\n\nOne hundred years ago the Constitution of the United States of America\nwas adopted in this city.\n\nWhat had been our government before this time? Up to July, 1776, there\nhad been thirteen colonies, all under the government of Great Britain.\nIn the lapse of time, the people of these colonies, owing allegiance to\nthe king of England, and subjected to certain taxes which they had no\nvoice in considering and imposing, because they had no representation\nin the Parliament which laid the taxes, became discontented and\nrebellious, and in a convention which sat in our own city of\nPhiladelphia, on the 4th of July, 1776, they united in a DECLARATION OF\nINDEPENDENCE of Great Britain, and announced the thirteen colonies as\nFree, Sovereign and Independent States.\n\nThis, however, was only a DECLARATION; and it took seven long years of\nexhausting and terrible war (which would have been longer still but for\nthe timely aid of the French nation) to secure that independence and\nhave it acknowledged by the governments of Europe.\n\nBefore the DECLARATION, each of the colonies had a State government and\na written constitution for the regulation of its internal affairs. Now\nthese colonies had become States, with the necessity upon them (not at\nfirst admitted by all) of a general compact or agreement, by which the\nStates, while maintaining their independence in many things, should\nbecome a confederated or general government.\n\nMore than a year passed before the Constitution, which the Convention\nagreed upon, was adopted by a sufficient number of the States to make\nit binding on all the thirteen; and I am glad to know and to say that\nmy own little State of Delaware was the first to adopt it.\n\nNow, WHAT IS THE CONSTITUTION? How does it differ from the _laws_ which\nthe Congress enacts every winter in Washington?\n\nFirst, let me speak of other nations. There are two kinds of government\nin the world\u2015\u2015monarchical and republican. And there are two kinds of\nmonarchies\u2015\u2015absolute and limited. An absolute monarch, whether he be\ncalled emperor or king, rules by his personal will\u2015\u2015HIS WILL IS THE\nLAW. One of the most perfect illustrations of absolute or personal\ngovernment is seen on board any ship, where the will of the chief\nofficer, whether admiral or captain, or whatever his rank, is, and must\nbe, the law. From his orders, his decisions, there is no appeal until\nthe ship reaches the shore, when he himself comes under the law. This\nis a very ancient form of government, now known in very few countries\ncalling themselves civilized.\n\nThe other kind of monarchy is limited by a constitution, _un_written,\nas in Great Britain, or _written_, as in some other nations of Europe.\nIn these countries the sovereigns are under a constitution; in some\ninstances with hardly as much power as our President. They are not a\nlaw unto themselves, but are under the common law.\n\nThe other kind of government is republican, democratic or representative.\nIt is, as was happily said on the field of Gettysburg, long after the\nbattle, by President Lincoln, \u201ca government _of_ the people, _by_ the\npeople, _for_ the people.\u201d These few plain words are well worth\nremembering\u2015\u2015\u201cof,\u201d \u201cby,\u201d \u201cfor\u201d the people. These are the traits which\ndistinguish our government from all kinds of monarchies, whether\nabsolute or limited, hereditary or elective.\n\nAfter the war between Germany and France, in 1870, the German kingdoms\nof Prussia, Hanover, Saxony, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, with certain small\nprincipalities, each with its hereditary sovereign, were consolidated\nor confederated as the German empire, and the king of Prussia, the\npresent Frederick William, was crowned emperor of Germany.\n\nFrance, however, after that war, having had enough of kings and\nemperors, adopted the republican form of government. So that now there\nare three republics in Europe, viz.: France, Switzerland, and a little\nterritory on the east coast of Italy, San Marino.\n\nSo that almost all of Europe, all of Asia, and all of Africa (except\nLiberia), and the islands of Australia, and the northern part of North\nAmerica (except Alaska), are under the government of monarchs; while\nthe three countries of Europe already mentioned, and our own country,\nand Mexico, and the Central American States, and all South America\nexcept Brazil (and some small parts of the coast of South America under\nBritish rule), are republics.[B]\n\n[B] One of our most distinguished citizens said some years ago that he\nbelieved the tendency of things was towards the English language, the\nChristian religion, and republican government for the human race.\n\nNow let us come back to our own government and see what is, and whether\nit is better than any form of monarchy; and if so, why.\n\nWhat is the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES? The first clause in it\nis the best answer I can give:\n\n\u201cWE, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, in order to form a more perfect\nunion, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the\ncommon defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings\nof liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this\nConstitution for the United States of America.\u201d\n\nThen follow the articles and sections setting forth the principles\non which it was proposed to build up a nation in this western world.\nThe thirteen States each had its constitution and its laws, but _this\ninstrument_ was intended to serve as the foundation of the general\ngovernment. Until these States had formed their constitutions, there\nwas no republican government in the world except Switzerland and San\nMarino, and these lived only on the sufferance of their powerful\nmonarchical neighbors. All South America was under Spanish rule, and\nMexico was a monarchy.\n\nThe great principle of a republic is that people _have a right to\nchoose_ their own rulers, and ought to do it. The divine right of\nhereditary monarchy we deny. It is often said that the English\ngovernment is as free as ours; but it is not quite true, and will\nnot be true until every citizen is permitted to vote for his rulers.\nWhether so much liberty is perfectly safe for all people is well open\nto question; but it is a FACT here, and if people would only behave\nthemselves properly there would be no danger whatever in it. And if\nthere IS danger here, it comes not from native-born citizens trained\nunder our free institutions. The sun does not shine on a broader,\nfairer land than this; and under that divine Providence, without\nwhose gracious aid we could not have achieved and cannot maintain our\nConstitution, we have nothing whatever to fear for the present or to\ndread in the future, but the evil men among us\u2015\u2015the Anarchists and\nSocialists, the scum and off-scouring of Europe\u2015\u2015who, with no fear of\nGod before their eyes, so far forget the high aims of this government\nand their own obligations to it as to seek to overthrow its very\nfoundations.\n\nThe highest and best types of monarchical governments are in Europe,\nand it is with such that we seek comparison when we insist that ours is\nbetter.\n\nMonarchies are hereditary. They descend from father to the oldest\nson and to the oldest son of the oldest son where there are sons.\nEngland has rejoiced in two female sovereigns at least, Elizabeth, and\nVictoria, the present sovereign; but they came to the throne because\nthere was no son in either case to inherit. The heir-apparent, whatever\nhis character or want of character, MUST reign when the sovereign dies,\nbecause, as they say, he rules by divine right. We insist on electing\nour President for a term of years, and if we like him we give him\nanother term; if we do not like him, we drop him and try another. I\nwish the term of office of the President were longer, and that he could\nserve only one term. Perhaps it will come to that; and I think he would\nbe a more independent, a better official under this condition.\n\nWhat is the difference between the Constitution and the laws?\n\nThe Constitution is the great charter under which, and within which,\nthe laws are made. No law that Congress may pass is worth the paper it\nis printed on if it is contrary to the Constitution. Such laws have\nbeen passed ignorantly, and have died.\n\nA very simple illustration is at hand. The constitution of this College\nis Mr. Girard\u2019s will. This is our charter. The laws which the Directors\nmake must be within the provisions of the will or they will not stand.\nFor instance, the will directs that none but _orphans_ can be admitted\nhere; and the courts have decided that a child without a father is\nan orphan. The directors, therefore, cannot admit the child who has\na father living. The will says that only _boys_ can be admitted;\ntherefore no law that the Directors can make will admit a girl. Nor\ncan the Directors make a law which will admit a colored boy; nor a boy\nunder six nor over ten years of age; nor a boy born anywhere except in\ncertain States of our country\u2015\u2015Pennsylvania, New York and Louisiana. It\nwould be UNCONSTITUTIONAL. I think now you see the difference between\nthe Constitution and the laws.\n\nNow, again, is our government better than a monarchy? and why?\n\nBecause the men of the present time make it, and are not bound by the\ntraditions of far-off times. There are improvements in the science of\ngovernment as in all other human inventions, as the centuries come\nand go. Man is progressive; he would not be worth caring for if he\nwere not. If the present age has not produced a higher and better\ndevelopment in all essentials, it is our own fault, and is not because\nmen were perfect in the past or cannot be better in the present or in\nthe future. Therefore when our Constitution is believed not to meet the\nrequirements of the present day there is a way to amend it, although\nthat way is so hedged up that it cannot possibly be altered without\nample time for consideration. As a matter of fact, the Constitution has\nbeen altered or amended fifteen times since its adoption; and it will\nbe changed or amended as often as the needs of the people require it.\n\nWe believe our form of government to be better than any monarchy\nbecause _the people choose their own law-makers_. The Congress is\ncomposed of two houses or chambers: the members of the Senate, chosen\nby the legislatures of the States, two from each State, to serve for\nsix years; the members of the House of Representatives (chosen by the\ncitizens), who sit for two years only, unless re-elected. The Senate is\nsupposed to be the more conservative body, not easily moved by popular\nclamor; while the Representatives, chosen directly and recently by the\nvoters, are supposed to know the immediate wants of the people. The\nthought of two houses grew probably from the two houses of the British\nparliament.\n\nWe cannot have an _hereditary legislature_ like the House of Lords in\nthe British parliament, whose members sit, as the sovereign rules, by\ndivine right, as they say, and with the same result in some instances:\nfor the sovereign may be a mere figure-head, or only the nominal ruler,\nwhile the cabinet is the real government, and the House of Lords long\nago sunk far below the House of Commons in real influence. There is no\nbetter reason for this than the fact that the people have nothing to do\nwith the House of Lords and the sovereign, except to depose and scatter\nthem when they choose to rise in their power and assert themselves.\n\nWe can have no _orders of nobility_ under our Constitution. There can\nbe no privileged class. All men are equal under the law. I do not mean\nthat all persons are equal in all respects. Divine Providence has\nmade us unequal. Some are endowed naturally with the highest mental\nand physical gifts and distinctions; some are strong and others weak.\nThis has always been so and always will be so. Some have inherited or\nacquired riches, while others have to labor diligently to make a bare\nliving. Some have inherited their high culture and gentle manners and\nnoble instincts, which, in a general sense, we sometimes call culture;\nand others have to acquire all this for themselves\u2015\u2015and it is not very\neasy to get it. So there is no such thing as absolute equality, and\ncannot be; but before the law, in the enjoyment of our rights and in\nthe undisturbed possession of what we have, we are all equal, as we\ncould not be under a monarchy. Here there is no legal bar to success;\nall places are open to all.\n\nThere can be no law of _primogeniture_ under our Constitution. By this\nlaw, which still prevails in England, the eldest son inherits the\ntitles and estates of the father, while the younger sons and all the\ndaughters must be provided for in other ways. Some of the sons are put\nin the church, in the army or the navy, or in the professions, such as\nlaw and medicine; but it is very rare indeed that any son of a noble\nhouse is willing to engage in any kind of business or trade, for they\nare not so well thought of if they become tradesmen.\n\nThere can be no _state church_, no _establishment_, under our\nConstitution. In England the Episcopal Church, and in Scotland the\nPresbyterian Church, are established by law; and until within the\nlast seventeen years the Church of England was by law established in\nIreland; and it is now established in Wales; and in other countries\nof Europe the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church and the\nGreek Church are established by law. In countries where there is a\nnational church, it derives more or less of its support from taxing the\npeople, many of whom do not belong to it; but in this land there is no\nestablished church; and there never can be, let us hope and believe.\n\nUnder our form of government we need no _standing army_. We owe this\npartly to the fact that we are so isolated geographically that we do\nnot need to keep an army. I heard the general of our army say, a short\ntime ago, that the regular army of the United States is a fiction\u2015\u2015only\n25,000 men. (You saw as many troops a few weeks ago in one day as are\nin all our army.) \u201cThe real army,\u201d he added, \u201cis composed of every\nable-bodied citizen; for all are ready to volunteer in the face of a\ncommon enemy.\u201d Our territory is immensely large already, and it will\nprobably be larger, but it will not again be enlarged as the result\nof war. When we look at the nations of Europe, and see the immense\nnumbers of men in their standing armies, we can\u2019t help thanking God\nthat we are separated from them by the wide Atlantic, and that we\nhave a republican government, and have no temptation to seek other\nterritory, and are not likely to be attacked for any cause. In the\narmies of Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy, Turkey, are\nmore than ten millions of men withdrawn from the cultivation of the\nsoil and from the pursuits of commerce and manufactures. In Italy alone\nthe standing army is said to be 750,000 men! The withdrawal of so many\nmen from peaceful occupations makes it necessary to employ women to do\nwork which in our country women are never asked to do. I have seen a\nwoman drawing a boat on a canal, and a man sitting on the deck of that\nboat smoking his pipe and steering the boat. I have seen a woman with\na huge load of fresh hay upon her head and a man walking by her side\nand carrying his scythe. I have seen women yoked with dogs to carts,\ncarrying the loads that here would be put in a cart and drawn by a\nhorse. I have seen women carrying the hod for masons on their _heads_,\nfilled with stone and mortar. I have seen women carrying huge baskets\nof manure on their backs to the field, and young girls breaking stone\non the highway. Did you ever hear of such things here? See what a\ndifference! The men in the army eat up the substance which the women\nproduce from the soil.\n\nBut nowhere else in the world is the _dignity of labor_ recognized as\nhere. They do not know the meaning of the words. For in most other\ncountries it is considered undignified, if not ungenteel, to be engaged\nin labor of any kind. A man who is not able to live without work is\nhardly considered a gentleman. To work with the hands is degrading;\nis what ought to be done by common people only, and by people who are\nnot fit to associate with gentlemen and ladies. It is not so in this\ncountry. Here, a man who is well educated and well behaved, and upright\nand honorable in his dealings with men, who cultivates his mind by\nreading and observation, and is careful of the usages of good society,\nis fit company for any one. He may rise to any place within the gift of\nhis fellow-citizens, and adorn it. This is not so elsewhere. And think\nof a young girl hardly out of her teens, with no special preparation\nfor such a distinction, but educated and accomplished, becoming the\nwife of the President of the United States, and proving herself\nentirely worthy of that high position! Could any other country match\nthis?\n\nNow what is the effect of all this freedom of thought and action on the\npeople? Well, it is not to be denied that there are some disadvantages.\nThere is danger that we may over-estimate the individual in his\npersonal rights, and not give due weight to the people as a community.\nThere is danger of selfishness, especially among young people. There\nis not as much respect and reverence for age, and for those above us,\nand for the other sex, as there ought to be. Young people are very\nrude at times, when they should always be polite to their superiors\nin age or position. At a little city in Bavaria the boys coming out\nof school one day all lifted their hats to me, a stranger! That would\nbe an astounding thing in a Philadelphia street! In riding in the\nneighborhood of the city here, if I speak civilly to a boy by the\nroadside, I am just as likely as not to get an impudent answer.\n\nBut in spite of these defects, which we hope will never be seen\nin a Girard College boy, the true effect of training under our\nrepublican institutions is to make men. There is a wider, freer,\nfuller development of what is in man than is known elsewhere. Man is\nmuch more likely to become self-reliant, self-dependent, vigorous,\nskillful, here\u2015\u2015not knowing how high he may rise, and consciously or\nunconsciously preparing himself for anything to which he may be called.\nAnd for woman, too, where else does she meet the respect that belongs\nto her? Where else in the world do women find occupation in government\noffices, on school boards, at the head of charitable and educational\ninstitutions? With few exceptions, such as Girton College, where are\nthere in any other country such colleges as Vassar or Wellesley, and\nas the Woman\u2019s Medical College, almost under the walls of our own?\n\nI have already kept you too long. But a few words and I am done. I am\nmoved by the injunction of Mr. Girard in his will not only to say these\nthings, but by this grave consideration also. Every boy who hears me\nto-day, within fifteen years, if he lives, unless he is cut off by\ncrime from the privilege, will be a voter. You will go to the polls to\ncast your votes for those who are to have the conduct of the government\nin all its parts. I want to make you feel, if I can, the high destiny\nthat awaits you. You are distinctive in this respect\u2015\u2015you are all\nAmerican boys. This can be said of no other assembly as large as this\nin all this broad land. You have it in your power, and I want to help\nyou to it, and God will if you ask him\u2015\u2015you have it in your power to\nbecome American gentlemen. And I believe that an _American gentleman_\nis the very highest type of man.\n\n    God, give us men. A time like this demands\n    Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands:\n    Men whom the lust of office does not kill;\n      Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;\n    Men who possess opinions and a will;\n      Men who have honor, men who will not lie;\n    Men who can stand before a demagogue\n      And scorn his treacherous flatteries without winking;\n    Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog\n      In public duty and in private thinking.\n\n\n\n\n              [Illustration: _James Lawrence Claghorn._]\n\n\n\n\n                       JAMES LAWRENCE CLAGHORN.\n\n\nWhen a man has lived a long, busy, useful and successful life it seems\nproper that something more than the ordinary obituary notices in the\ndaily papers is due to his memory. This thought moves me to speak to\nyou to-day of a gentleman who died on August 25, 1884, while a Director\nof the Girard College, and of whom it seems appropriate that something\nmay be said to you in this chapel.\n\nMr. James L. Claghorn was a distinguished citizen of Philadelphia. He\nwas born here on the 5th of July, 1817. His father, John W. Claghorn,\nwas a merchant of excellent standing, who in the latter years of his\nlife gave much time and thought to benevolent institutions. At the age\nof fourteen years James left school to go into business. You boys know\nhow very incomplete an education at school must be which ends when the\nboy is fourteen years old. But you don\u2019t know until your own experience\nproves it how hard it is for a half-educated boy to compete for the\nhigh places in life or in business with boys of equal natural ability,\nwho have had the full advantage of a liberal school education. At\nfourteen, then, James Claghorn turned his back on school and went to\nwork in earnest. For it was an auction store that he entered, and the\nwork there was usually harder work than in other kinds of stores. The\nhours of labor were longer\u2015\u2015earlier and later\u2015\u2015and the holidays more\nrare than in ordinary commercial houses.\n\nThere is no record of the early years of his business life; but it is\nnot difficult to imagine the hardships to which a young lad of that\ntime would be subjected. We can\u2019t suppose that any indulgence was\nallowed him because his father was one of the partners in the firm;\nneither he nor his father would have permitted such distinction.\n\nThe boy must have been _industrious_; for in such a house there was no\nplace for an idle lounger. He was not afraid of work, for he was always\nat it; he did not spare himself, else some other boy would have done\nhis share and got ahead of him; he must have been _faithful_, not one\nwho works only when his master\u2019s eye is on him\u2015\u2015not shirking any hard\nwork\u2015\u2015not forgetting to-day what he was told yesterday\u2015\u2015not thinking\ntoo much of his rights or his own particular work, but doing anything\nthat came to hand\u2015\u2015looking always to the interest of the firm, and\ntrusting the future for a recognition of his faithfulness.\n\nAnd he must have been _patient_. Many rough words, many hasty and\npassionate words are spoken to young boys, and must have been spoken to\nthis boy, and may have hurt him; but there is good reason to believe\nfrom the character he built up that he knew how to hold his tongue and\nnot answer back. Not every boy has learned that useful lesson; and\nhence the many outbreaks of passion and the frequent discharge of boys\nwho will \u201canswer back\u201d when they are reproved.\n\nAnd I think also that he must have been of a bright and cheery\ndisposition and well mannered. Some young fellows who have to make\ntheir way in the world seem not to know the importance of a good\naddress; in other words, politeness, good breeding. Nothing impresses\none so favorably at first meeting a stranger as good manners. A\nfrank, hearty greeting, a bright, cheerful face, a manly bearing, a\nwillingness to consider others, a desire to please for the sake of\ngiving pleasure, are of great importance. On the contrary, sullenness,\nsluggishness, indifference, selfishness are all repulsive, and though\nallowance will be made at first for the existence of such qualities,\nyet they will hardly be tolerated long in a young person, and they\nwill certainly unfit him for a successful career. I did not know Mr.\nClaghorn when he was a young lad; but I can hardly suppose that the\nkindly, genial, hearty man in middle and later life could have been a\nmorose, sullen, sluggish, ill-mannered boy.\n\nI have said that Mr. Claghorn left school while still a boy; but we\nmust not infer that he supposed his education was complete with the\nend of his school life, for it is very evident that he must have\ngiven very much of his leisure to self-improvement. We do not know\nhow his evenings were spent when not in the counting-house; but he\nmust have given a good deal of time to reading; and it is not likely\nthat the books which he read were such as are to be found now at any\nbook-stand, and in the hands of so many boys as they go to and fro on\ntheir errands\u2015\u2015books which are simply read without instruction, and\nwhich sometimes treat of subjects which are unreal, extravagant, coarse\nand brutalizing. Doubtless he was fond of fiction. All boys of fair\neducation and refined taste are more or less fond of fiction; but we\ncan hardly suppose that he gave too much of his time to such reading,\nelse he could not have become the strong business man that he was. At\na very early age he became fond of art, and gathered about him as his\nmeans would permit engravings and pictures such as would cultivate his\ntaste in that direction. When he could spare the money he would buy\nan engraving, if the subject or the author interested him; so that he\nbecame, in the latter part of his life, the owner of one of the largest\ncollections of engravings in the whole country. Indeed, he became a\nnoted patron of art, and especially was he desirous of encouraging\n_native_ art, so that at one period he had more than two hundred\npaintings, the work of American artists; for at that time he was more\ndesirous of encouraging native artists, especially if they were poor,\nthan he was in making collections of the great masters. Many a picture\nhe bought to help the artist, rather than for his own gratification\nas a collector. Further on in life he became deeply interested in\nthe Academy of the Fine Arts, which was then in Chestnut street\nabove Tenth. Subsequently he became its President, and very largely\nthrough his influence and his personal means that fine building at the\nsouthwest corner of Broad and Cherry street, which all of you ought\nto visit as opportunity is afforded, was erected as a depository of\nart. The splendid building of the Academy of Music at Broad and Locust\nstreet, is also largely indebted to Mr. Claghorn for its erection.\n\nBut I am anticipating, and we must now go back to Mr. Claghorn in\nhis counting-house. No longer a boy\u2015\u2015an apprentice\u2015\u2015he has grown to\nmanhood, and has become a member of the firm, taking his father\u2019s\nplace. Now his labors are greatly increased; the hours of business,\nwhich were long before, are longer now; he begins very early in\nthe morning, before sunrise in the winter season, and is sometimes\ndetained late in the evening, the long day being entirely devoted to\nbusiness; and no one knows, except one who has gone through that sort\nof experience, how much labor is involved in such a life; but not only\nhis labors\u2015\u2015his responsibilities are greatly increased. He becomes the\nfinancial man in the firm; he is the head of the counting-house; he\nhas charge of the books and the accounts. For many years no entry was\nmade in the huge ledgers except in his own handwriting. The credit of\nthe house of Myers & Claghorn becomes deservedly high. A time of great\nfinancial excitement and distress comes on. This house, while others\nare going down on the right and left like ships in a storm, stands\nerect with unimpaired credit, and with opportunities of helping other\nand weaker houses which so much needed help. The name of his firm was a\nsynonym of all that is strong and admirable in business management.\n\nSo he passed the best years of his whole life in earnest attention to\nbusiness, snatching all the leisure he could for the gratification\nof his passion, it may be called, for art, until the time came when,\nhaving acquired what was at that time supposed to be an abundant\ncompetency, he determined to retire from business. Now he appears to\ncontemplate a long rest in a visit to other countries, and was making\narrangements looking to a long holiday of great enjoyment, when the\ncountry became involved in the Great Rebellion. None of you, except\nas you read it in history, know what a convulsion passed over the\ncountry when the first gun was fired upon the flag at Fort Sumter.\nMr. Claghorn, full of love for his country and unwilling to do what\nseemed to him almost like a desertion in her time of trial, gave up\nhis contemplated foreign tour, and applied himself most diligently and\nearnestly to the duties of a true, loyal citizen in the support of the\ngovernment. He was one of the earliest members of the Union League,\nand was largely interested in collecting money for the raising and\nequipping of regiments to be sent to the front. Three or four years of\nhis life were spent in this laudable work, and in company with those\nof like mind he was largely instrumental in accomplishing great good.\nThe war, however, came to an end\u2015\u2015was fought out to its final and\ninevitable issue.\n\nNow the desire to visit foreign countries returned with increased\ninterest. His business affairs, although they had not been as\nprofitable as they would have been if he had looked closer to them\nand had given less thought to public matters during the war, were so\nsatisfactory that he could afford to put them in other hands for a\nwhile, and in company with his wife he embarked for Europe. It was\nto be a long holiday such as he had never known before. He intended\nto make an extended tour\u2015\u2015he was not to be hurried. He went through\nEngland, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy,\nEgypt, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Austria, Russia, Germany, Holland\nand Belgium. In this way he saw and enjoyed all the most famous\npicture-galleries of the old world; and his long study of art in its\nvarious phases and schools gave him special advantages for the highest\nenjoyment of the great collections, public and private, of the old\nmasters as well as of those of modern times.\n\nThe interest of his extended tour was not, however, limited to\ngalleries and collections of paintings and statuary. He was an observer\nof men and things. His practical American mind observed and digested\neverything that came within his reach. The government of the great\ncities\u2015\u2015the condition of the masses of the people gathered in them\u2015\u2015the\ncommon people outside of the cities, their customs and costumes; their\nway of living\u2015\u2015in short, everything that was unlike what we see at\nhome\u2015\u2015he observed and remembered to enjoy in the retrospect of after\nyears.\n\nIt was hardly to be expected that Mr. Claghorn, having lived the busy\nlife that he had lived before he went abroad, should have been content\non his return to sit down in the enjoyment of his well-earned leisure;\nand accordingly, shortly after his return, he became the President of\nthe Commercial National Bank, one of the oldest financial institutions\nin our city. For several years previously he had been a Director in\nthe Philadelphia National Bank (as his father had before him), so\nthat he had had proper training for the duties of his new position.\nHe became also a Manager in the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, the\noldest and the largest saving fund in our city. With most commendable\ndiligence and industry he at once set about building up the bank so as\nto make it profitable to its stockholders. Not forgetting, however,\nthe attractions of art, he covered the walls of his bank parlor with\nbeautiful specimens of the choicest engravings, so that even the daily\nroutine of business life might be enlivened by glimpses into the\nattractive world of art.\n\nIn the year 1869, when the Board of City Trusts was created by act of\nLegislature (to which board is committed the vast estate left by Mr.\nGirard, as well as of the other trusts of the city of Philadelphia),\nMr. Claghorn was appointed one of the original board of twelve, and\nfrom that date until his death he gave much time and thought to the\nduties thus devolved upon him. He became chairman of the finance\ncommittee, which place he held until the end of his life. Although he\nwas not so well known to the boys of the college as some other members\nof this board, because his duties did not require very frequent visits\nto the college, he nevertheless gave himself to the duties of the\ncommittee of which he was chairman with great interest and fidelity;\nand the time which he gave to this great work is not to be measured by\nvisits to the college, but by the time spent in the city office and in\nhis own place of business, where his committee met him on their stated\nmeetings. As I have reason to know, he had a deep personal interest in\nall the affairs of this college, and of the other trusts committed to\nour charge.\n\nAlthough the condition of his health in the latter part of his life\nmade close attention to business very trying to him, so far as I\nknow he never permitted his health to interfere with his business\nengagements.\n\nIn this brief and fragmentary way I have tried to set before you\nsome features of the life of one of our most distinguished citizens.\nIn the limits of a single discourse as brief as this must be it is\nnot possible to make this more than an outline sketch. In the little\ntime that remains let me refer again for the purpose of emphasis to\nsome traits in the character of Mr. Claghorn which will justly bear\nreconsideration.\n\nA very large proportion of the merchants of any city fail in business.\nThe proportion is much larger than is generally known, and larger than\nyoung people are willing to believe.\n\nIn an experience of more than forty years of business life, during\nwhich I have had much to do with merchants, I have known so many\nfailures, have seen so many wrecks of commercial houses, that I am\ncompelled to regard a merchant who has maintained high credit for a\nlong term of years and finally retired from business with a handsome\nestate as one who is entitled to the respect and confidence of his\nfellow-citizens. Some men grow rich as junior partners in successful\nbusiness, the good management having been due to the ability and tact\nof their seniors; but this can hardly be said in the present case. The\nmerchant whose life we are considering was an active and influential\npartner.\n\nLet me say, however, that true success in business is not to be\nmeasured by the amount of money one accumulates. A man may be rich\nin the riches acquired by his own activity and shrewdness who is in\nno high sense a successful business man. These things are necessary:\nHe should be a just man, an upright, honorable man, a man of breadth\nand solidity of character, who gathers about him some of the ablest\nand best of his fellow-citizens in labors for the good of others and\nthe welfare of society. In such sense was Mr. Claghorn a successful\nbusiness man.\n\nHis early love of art in its various forms, the substantial aid and\nencouragement he gave to young students in their beginnings, his deep\nsympathy with persons who in literature and art were striving for a\nliving, his generous hospitality to artists, and his public spirit\u2015\u2015all\nthese had their influence in the growth and development of his\ncharacter, and made his name to be loved and honored by many who shared\nin his generous sympathies.\n\nMr. Claghorn\u2019s love of country, which we call patriotism, was signally\ndisclosed at the outbreak of the war in 1861. When we remember his\nlong and busy life as a merchant\u2015\u2015broken by few or no vacations such\nas most other men enjoyed\u2015\u2015when we remember that his self-culture had\nbeen of such a nature as to prepare him most admirably well for a\ntour in foreign countries, especially such countries as had produced\nthe ablest, the most distinguished artists\u2015\u2015we can have some idea of\nwhat it cost him to forego the much needed rest\u2015\u2015to deny himself the\nwell-earned pleasure of a visit to the picture galleries of Europe,\nwhere are gathered the treasures of the highest art in all the world.\nMany men in like circumstances would have felt that one man, whose age\nand sedentary habits unfitted him for active service in the field,\nwould hardly be missed from among the loyal citizens of the North\u2015\u2015but\nhe did not think so; and therefore he put aside all his personal plans,\nand in the city where he was born he remained and devoted himself\nas one of her true, loyal citizens in raising money and men for the\ndefence of the government. There could be no truer heroism than this,\nand right bravely and successfully he carried his purpose to the end.\n\n\u201cI am permitted,\u201d said the clergyman who spoke at his funeral, and with\nhis words I close these remarks, \u201cI am permitted to address to you\nin the presence of the solemnity of death some few reflections that\noccur to me in memory of one whom we shall know no more in life. A\nfew Saturday evenings ago I was walking along by a lake at a seashore\nhome when a great and wondrous beauty spread itself beneath my eye.\nIt was one of those inimitable pictures that rarely come to one. In\nthe foreground there lay a lake with no ripple on its surface. It was\na calm and sleeping thing. A shining glory was in the western sky. The\nsun had gone, but where he disappeared were indications of beauty\u2015\u2015one\nof the most beautiful afterglows I have ever seen. It was not one of\nthe ordinary things, and as I looked at it there came many reflections.\nHere is one of them. It seems quite applicable this morning. That which\ncaused the quiet glory of the lake, that which caused the radiation of\nbeauty, had gone. Its day\u2019s work was done. That quiet lake and streaked\nsky were the type of a picture of a busy, useful, successful life that\nhad been accomplished. It was a complete thing. The day was done. The\nactivity had passed away. It was finished just as this life. What had\nmade it beautiful had gone, but he flung back monuments of beauty\nthat made the scene as beautiful as good words and noble deeds make\nthe memory of man. There were six of these rays. Young men, brethren\nof this community, you will do well to remember that anywhere and\neverywhere, without patience and industry, nothing great can be done.\nThe life departed was a busy one\u2015\u2015one of busy usefulness. The cry that\ncame from him was, \u2018I must work; I must be busy.\u2019 Live as this man\ndid, that your life may be one that can be held up as an example and a\nlight to young men of the coming generations. One ray of beauty was\nhis sterling truthfulness. It is a splendid thing to be trusted by your\nfellows. Another ray was his prudent foresight. It was characteristic\nof him, and it is a splendid thing to have. Another ray that welled out\nof him was his striking humanity. There was one continual trait in his\ncharacter. I would call it manhoodness. There was another feature\u2015\u2015his\ndeep humility.\u201d\n\nSuch were some of the traits of character of a man who lived a long\nlife in the city where he was born. If no distinctive monument has been\nerected to his memory, there are the \u201cUnion League,\u201d \u201cThe Academy of\nthe Fine Arts,\u201d and \u201cThe Academy of Music,\u201d with which his name will\nalways be associated; and, what is better still, there are many hearts\nthat throb with grateful memories of an unselfish man, who in time\nof sore need stretched out his hand to help, and that hand was never\nempty. And you will remember, you Girard boys, that this man who did so\nmuch for his native city and for his fellow-citizens was not nearly so\nwell educated at the age of fourteen when he left school as many of you\nare now. See what he did; see what some of you may do!\n\n\n\n\n                         THE LEAF TURNED OVER.\n\n                           January 1, 1888.\n\n\nSome weeks ago I gave you two lectures on \u201cTurning Over a New Leaf.\u201d\nOne of the directors of this college to whom I sent a printed copy said\nI ought to follow those with another on this subject: \u201cThe Leaf Turned\nOver.\u201d I at once accepted this suggestion and shall now try to follow\nhis advice.\n\nMost thoughtful people as they approach the end of a year are apt to\nask themselves some plain questions\u2015\u2015as to their manner of life, their\nhabits of thought, their amusements, their studies, their business,\ntheir home, their families, their companions, their plans for the\nfuture, their duty to their fellow-men, their duty to God; in short,\nwhether the year about to close has been a happy one; whether they have\nbeen successful or otherwise in what they have attempted to do.\n\nThe merchant, manufacturer or man of business of any kind who keeps\nbooks, and whose accounts are properly kept, looks with great interest\nat his account book at such a time, to see whether his business has\nbeen profitable or otherwise, whether he has lost or made money,\nwhether his capital is larger or smaller than it was at the beginning\nof the year, whether he is solvent or insolvent, whether he is able to\npay his debts or is bankrupt.\n\nAnd to very many persons engaged in business for themselves, this is\na time of great anxiety, for one can hardly tell exactly whether he\nis getting on favorably until his account books are posted and the\nbalances are struck. If one\u2019s capital is small and the result of the\nyear\u2019s business is a loss, that means a reduction of capital, and\nraises the question whether this can go on for some years without\nfailure and bankruptcy. Many and many a business man looks with great\nanxiety to the month of December, and especially to the end of it,\nto learn whether he shall be able to go on in his business, however\nhumble. And, alas! there are many whose books of account are so badly\nkept, and whose balances are so rarely struck, or who keep no account\nbooks at all, that they never know how they stand, but are always under\nthe apprehension that any day they may fail to meet their obligations\nand so fail and become bankrupt. They were insolvent long before, but\nthey did not know it; and they have gone on from bad to worse until\nthey are ruined. Others, again, are afraid to look closely into their\naccount books\u2015\u2015afraid to have the balances struck, lest they should\nbe convinced that their affairs are in a hopeless condition. Unhappy\ncowards they are, for if insolvent the sooner they know it the better,\nthat they may make the best settlement they can with their creditors,\nif the business is worth following at all, and begin again, \u201cturning\nover a new leaf.\u201d\n\nI do not suppose that many of you boys have ever thought much on these\nsubjects; for you are not in business as principals or as clerks, you\nhave no merchandise or produce or money to handle, you have no account\nbooks for yourselves or for other people to keep, to post, to balance,\nand you may think you have no interest in these remarks; but I hope to\nbe able to show you that these things are not matters of indifference\nto you.\n\nThe year 1887, which closed last night, was just as much _your_ year as\nit was that of any man, even the busiest man of affairs. When it came,\n365 days ago, it found you (most of you) at school here: it left all of\nyou here. And the question naturally arises, what have you done with\nthis time, all these days and nights? Every page in the account books\nof certain kinds of business represents a day of business, and either\nthe figures on both the debit and the credit side are added up and\ncarried forward, or the balance of the two sides of the page is struck\nand carried over leaf to the next page.\n\nSo every day of the past year represents a page in the history of your\nlives: for every life, even the plainest and most humble, has its own\npeculiar history. Your lives here are uneventful; no very startling\nthings occur to break the monotony of school life, but each day has\nits own duties and makes its own record. Three hundred and sixty-five\npages of the book of the history of every young life here were duly\nfilled by the records of all the things done or neglected, of the words\nspoken or unspoken, of the thoughts indulged or stifled; these pages\nwith their records, sad or joyful, glad or shameful, were turned over,\nand are now numbered with the things that are past and gone. When an\naccountant or book-keeper discovers, after the books of the year are\nclosed and the balances struck, that errors had crept in which have\ndisturbed the accuracy of his work, he cannot go back with a knife and\nerase the errors and write in the correct figures; neither can he blot\nthem out, nor rub them out as you do examples from a slate or from\nthe blackboard; he must correct his mistakes; he must counteract his\nblunders by new entries on a new page.\n\nIt is somewhat so with us, with you. Last night at midnight the last\npage of the leaves of the book of the old year was filled with its\nrecord, whatever it was, and this morning \u201cthe leaf is turned over.\u201d\nWhat do we see? What does every one of you see? A fair, white page.\nAnd each one of you holds a pen in his hand and the inkstand is within\nreach; you dip your pen in the ink, you bend over the page, the\nthoughts come thick and fast, much faster indeed than any pen, even\nthat of the quickest shorthand writer can put them on the page. There\nare stenographers who can take the language of the most rapid speakers,\nbut no stenographer has ever yet appeared who can put his own thoughts\non paper as rapidly as they come into his mind. But while there is but\none mind in all the universe that can have knowledge of what is passing\nin your mind and retain it all\u2015\u2015THE INFINITE MIND; and while no one\npage of any book, however large, even if it be what book-makers call\nelephant folio, can possibly hold the record of what any boy here says\nand thinks in a single day, you may, and you do, all of you, write\nwords good or bad on the page before you.\n\nLet me take one of these boys not far from the desk, a boy of sixteen\nor seventeen years of age, who is now waiting, pen in hand, to write\nthe thoughts now passing in his mind. What are these thoughts? No one\nknows but himself. Shall I tell you what I think he ought to write? It\nis something like this:\n\n\u201cI have been here many years. When I came I was young and ignorant. I\nfound myself among many boys of my own age, hardly any of whom I ever\nsaw before, who cared no more for me than I cared for them. I felt\nvery strange; the first few days and nights I was very unhappy, for I\nmissed very much my mother and the others whom I had left at home. But\nvery soon these feelings passed away. I was put to school at once, and\nin the school-room and the play-ground I soon forgot the things and\nthe people about my other home. Years passed. I was promoted from one\nschool to another, from one section to another; I grew rapidly in size;\nmy classmates were no longer little boys; we were all looking up and\nlooking forward to the school promotions, and I became a big boy. The\nlessons were hard, and I studied hard, for I began to understand at\nlast why I was sent here, and to ask myself the question, what might\nreasonably be expected of me? Sometimes when quite alone this question\nwould force itself upon me, what use am I making of my fine advantages,\nor am I making the best use of them? And what manner of man shall I\nbe? For I know full well that all well-educated boys do not succeed in\nlife\u2015\u2015do not become successful men in the highest and best sense. How\ndo I know that I shall do well? Is my conduct here such as to justify\nthe authorities in commending me as a thoroughly manly, trustworthy\nboy? Have I succeeded while going through the course of school studies\nin building up a character that is worthy of me, worthy of this great\nschool? Can those who know me best place the most confidence in me? If\nI am looking forward to a place in a machine shop, or in a store, or\nin a lawyer\u2019s office, or to the study of medicine, or to a place in a\nrailroad office or a bank, am I really trying to fit myself for such a\nplace, or am I simply drifting along from day to day, doing only what I\nam compelled to do and cultivating no true ambition to rise above the\ndull average of my companions? And then, as I look at the difficulties\nin the way of every young fellow who has his way to make in the world,\nhas it not occurred to me to look beyond the present and the persons\nand things that surround me now, and look to a higher and better Helper\nthan is to be found in this world? Have I not at times heard words of\ngood counsel in this chapel, from the lips of those who come to give me\nand my companions wholesome advice? What attention have I given to such\nadvice? I have been told, and I do not doubt it, that the great God\nstoops from heaven and speaks to my soul, and offers his Divine help,\nand even holds out his hand, though I cannot see it, and will take my\nhand in his, and help me over all hard places, and will never let me\ngo, if I cling to him, and will assure me success in everything that is\nright and good. I have heard all this over and over again; I know it is\ntrue, but I have not accepted it as if I believed it; I have not acted\naccordingly; in fact, I have treated the whole matter as if it were\nunreal, or as if it referred to somebody else rather than to me.\n\n\u201cAnd now I have come probably to my last year in this school. Before\nanother New Year\u2019s day some other boy will have my desk in the\nschool-room, my bed in the dormitory, my place at the table, my seat\nin the chapel. These long years, oh! how long they have seemed, have\nnearly all passed; I shall soon go away; if some place is not found\nfor me I must find one for myself\u2015\u2015oh! what will become of me? Since\nlast New Year\u2019s day two boys who were educated here have been sent\nconvicted criminals to the Eastern Penitentiary. What are they thinking\nabout on this New Year\u2019s morning? They sat on these seats, they sang\nour hymns, they heard the same good words of advice which I have heard,\nthey had all the good opportunities which all of us have; what led them\nastray? Did they believe that the good God stooped from heaven to say\ngood words to them, holding out his strong hand to help them? I wonder\nif they thought they were strong enough to take care of themselves?\nI wonder if they thought they could get along without his help? Do I\nthink I can?\u201d\n\nSome such thoughts as these may be passing in the mind of the boy now\nlooking at me and sitting not far from the desk, the boy whom I had\nin my mind as I began to speak. He is holding his pen full of ink. He\nhas written nothing yet; he has been listening with some curiosity to\nhear what the speaker will say, what he can possibly know of a boy\u2019s\nthoughts.\n\nI can tell that boy what _I_ would write if I were at his age, in this\ncollege, and surrounded by these circumstances, listening to these\nserious, earnest words. I would take my pen and write on the first page\nof this year\u2019s book, this Sunday morning, this New Year\u2019s day, these\nwords: \u201c_The leaf is turned over!_ God help me to lead a better life.\nGod forgive all the past, all my wrong doings, all my neglect, all\nmy forgetfulness. God keep me in right ways. God keep me from wicked\nthoughts which defile the soul; keep me from wicked words which defile\nthe souls of others.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut this is a prayer,\u201d you say; \u201cdo you want me to begin my journal by\nwriting a prayer?\u201d\n\nYes; but this is not all. Write again.\n\n1. _I will not willingly break any of the rules which are adopted for\nthe government of our school._\n\nSome of the rules may _seem_ hard to obey, and even unreasonable, but\nthey were made for my good by those who are wiser than I am. I _can_\nobey them; I _will_.\n\n2. _I will work harder over my lessons than ever before, and I will\nrecite them more accurately._\n\nThis means hard work, but it is my duty; I shall be the better for it;\nit will not be long, for I am going soon; I _can_, I _will_.\n\n3. _I will watch my thoughts and my talk more carefully than I have\never done before._\n\nIf I have hurt others by evil talk I will do so no more. It is a common\nfault; many of us boys have fallen into the habit of it; but for one, I\nwill do so no more; I _can_ stop it, I _will_.\n\n4. _I will be more careful in my daily life here, to set a good example\nin all things, than I have ever been before._\n\nThe younger boys look to the older boys and imitate them closely. They\nwatch us, our words, our ways, our behavior in all things. If any young\nfellows have been misled by me, it shall be so no more. I will behave\nso that no one shall be the worse for doing as I do. This is quite\nwithin my control; I _can_, I _will_.\n\n5. _I will look to God to help me to do these things._\n\nFor I have tried to do something like this before and failed; it must\nbe because I depended on my own strength. Now I will look away from\nmyself and depend upon \u201cGod, without whom nothing is strong, nothing\nis holy.\u201d He _can_ help me; he surely will, if I throw myself on his\nmercy, and by daily prayer and reading the Scriptures, even if only for\na moment or two each day, I shall see light and find peace.\n\nThese are the things that I would write, my boy, if I were just as you\nare.\n\nShall I stop now? May I not go a little farther and say some words to\nothers here?\n\nTeachers, prefects, governesses: these boys are all under your charge,\nand every day. The same good Providence that brought them here for\neducation and support, brought you here also to teach them and care\nfor them. Your work is exacting, laborious, unremitting. Some of these\nyoung boys are trying to your patience, your temper, your forbearance,\nalmost beyond endurance. Sometimes you are discouraged by what seems\nto be the almost hopeless nature of your work, the untidiness, the\nrough manners, the ill temper, the stupidity of some of these young\nboys. But remember that all this is inevitable; that from the nature of\nthe case it must be so; and remember, too, that to reduce such material\nto good order, to train and educate these young lives so that they\nshall be well educated, well informed, well mannered, polite, gentle,\nconsiderate, so they may be fairly well assured of a successful future,\nis a great and noble work, worthy of the ambition of the highest\nintelligence. This is exactly what the great founder had in his mind\nwhen he established this college and provided so munificently for its\nendowment. This is what his trustees most earnestly desire, and the\nhope of which rewards them for the many hours they give every week to\nthe care of this great estate. We depend upon you to carry out the plan\nof instruction here, not only in the schools, but in the section rooms\nand on the play-grounds. Be to these older boys their big brothers,\ntheir best friends. Be kind to them always, even when compelled to\nreprove them for their many faults.\n\nAnd to those of you who have the care of the younger boys, let me\nsay: remember, they have no mothers here; they are very young to send\nfrom home; they are homesick at times; they hardly know how to behave\nthemselves; they shock your sense of delicacy; they worry and vex you\nalmost to distraction; but bear with them, help them, encourage them,\nlove them, for if _you_ do not, who will? And what will become of them?\nAnd remember what a glorious work it is to lift such a young life out\nof its rudeness, its ignorance, its untidiness, and make a real man of\nit. Oh! friends, suffer these words of exhortation, for they come from\none who has a deep sympathy with you in your arduous, self-denying work.\n\n    And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it from\n    whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was\n    found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great,\n    stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book\n    was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged\n    out of those things which were written in the books, according\n    to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it;\n    and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them;\n    and they were judged every man according to his works\u2015\u2015Rev. xx.\n    11\u201313.\n\n\n\n\n                           THANKSGIVING DAY.\n\n                          November 29, 1888.\n\n\nThe President of the United States, in a proclamation which you have\njust heard, has set apart this 29th day of November for a day of\nthanksgiving and prayer, for the great mercies which the Almighty has\ngiven to the people of our country, and for a continuance of these\nmercies. His example has been followed by the governors of Pennsylvania\nand many, if not all, of the States, and we may therefore believe that\nall over the land, from Maine to Alaska, and from the great lakes to\nthe Gulf of Mexico, the people in large numbers are now gathered or\ngathering in their places of worship, in obedience to this proper\nrecommendation. The directors of this college, in full sympathy with\nthe thoughts of our rulers, have closed your schools to-day, released\nyou from the duty of study, gathered you in this chapel, and asked you\nto unite with the people generally in giving thanks to God for the\npast, and imploring his mercies for the future. For you are a part of\nthe people, and although not yet able, from your minority, to take an\nactive part in the government, are yet being rapidly prepared for this\ngreat right of citizenship. It is the high privilege of an American\nboy, to know that when he becomes a man he will have just as clear a\nright as any other man, to exercise all the functions of a freeman,\nin choosing the men who are to be intrusted with the responsibilities\nof government. What are some of the things that give us cause for\nthankfulness to Almighty God? Very briefly such as these:\n\n1. _This is a Christian country._ Although there is not, and cannot\nbe, any part or branch of the church established by law, there is\nassured liberty for every citizen to worship God by himself, or with\nothers in congregations, as he or they may choose, in such forms of\nworship as may be preferred, with none to molest or make afraid. Here\nis absolute freedom of worship. And even if it be that the name of God\nis not in our Constitution, nevertheless no president or governor or\npublic officer can be inducted or inaugurated in high office except by\ntaking oath on the book of God, and as in his presence, that he will\nfaithfully discharge the duties of his office. If there were nothing\nelse, this public acknowledgment of the being of Almighty God and our\naccountability to him gives us an unquestioned right to call ourselves\na Christian people.\n\n2. _This is a free government_, free in the sense that the people\nchoose their own rulers, whether of towns, cities, States, or the\nnation. There is no hereditary rule here, and cannot be. We not\nonly _choose_ our own rulers, but when we are dissatisfied with them\nfor whatever cause, we dismiss them. And the minority accept the\ndecision when it is ascertained, without doubt, without a question of\nits righteousness; they only want to know whether the majority have\nactually chosen this or that candidate, and they accept frankly, if not\ncheerfully. We have had a splendid illustration of this within this\npresent month. The great party that has administered the government\nfor four years past, on the verdict of the majority, are preparing to\nretire and will retire on the fourth of March next, and give up the\ngovernment to the other great party, its victorious rival. Nowhere\nelse in the world can such a revolution be accomplished on so grand\na scale, by so many people, with so little friction. This government\nthen is better than _any monarchy_, no matter how carefully guarded\nby constitutional restrictions and safeguards. The best monarchical\ngovernments are in Europe: the best of all in England; but the\ngovernments of Europe have many and great concessions to make to the\npeople, before they can stand side by side with the United States in\nstrong, healthy, considerate management of the people. It has been said\nthat the best machinery is that which has the least friction, and as\nthe time passes, we may hope that our machinery of government will be\nso smooth that the people will hardly know that they are governed at\nall; in fact, they will be their own governors. This time is coming as\nsure as Christmas, though not so close at hand, and you boys can hasten\nit by your own upright, manly bearing when you come to be men. Never\nforget that this is a government of the majority, and you must see to\nit that the majority be true men.\n\n3. _We are separated by wide oceans from the rest of the world._ The\nAtlantic separates us from Europe on the east; the Gulf of Mexico from\nSouth America on the south, and the great Pacific ocean washes our\nwestern shores. We are a continent to ourselves, with the exception of\nMexico, a sister republic on the south, with whom we are not likely to\nquarrel again, and the Dominion of Canada on the north, which, if never\nto become a part of ourselves, will at least at some day, and probably\nnot a very distant day, become independent of the mother country as we\ndid, though not at the great cost at which we obtained our freedom.\nOur distance from Europe relieves us entirely from the consideration\nof subjects which occupy most of the time of their statesmen, and\nwhich very often thrill the rest of the world in the apprehension of\na general war in Europe. We are under no necessity of annexing other\nterritory. We are not afraid of what is called \u201cthe balance of power;\u201d\nwe have no army that is worthy of the name, because we don\u2019t need one,\nand we can make one if we should need it; and we have no navy to speak\nof, though I think we ought to have for the protection of our commerce,\nwhen our commerce shall be further encouraged. We have no entanglements\nwith other nations; the great father of his country in his Farewell\nAddress warned the people against this danger.\n\n4. _Our country is very large._ You school-boys can tell me as well as\nI can tell you what degrees of latitude and longitude we reach, and how\nmany millions of square miles we count. Europeans say we brag too much\nabout the great extent of our country; but I do not refer to it now for\nboasting, but as a matter of thankfulness to God for giving it to us.\nIt means that our territory, reaching from the Arctic to the tropics,\ngives us every variety of climate and almost every variety of product\nthat the earth produces; and I am sure that the time will come when,\nunder a higher agricultural cultivation than we have yet reached, our\nsoil will produce everything that grows anywhere else in the world. The\ncorn harvest now being gathered in our country will reach _two thousand\nmillions of bushels_. The mind staggers under such ponderous figures\nand quantities. Our wheat fields are hardly less productive; our\npotatoes and rice and oats and barley and grass, the products of our\ncattle and sheep, and, in short, everything that our soil above ground\nyields; and the enormous yield of our coal mines, our oil wells, our\nnatural gas, our metals, our railroads, spanning the entire continent\nand binding the people together with bands of steel\u2015\u2015all these, and\nmany others, which time will not permit me even to mention, give some\nfaint idea of what a splendid country it is that the Almighty God has\ngiven to the American people. And do we not well therefore, when we\ncome together on a day like this, to make our acknowledgments to Him?\n\n5. _The general education of the people_ is another reason for\nthankfulness to God. The system is not yet universal, but it will be at\nno distant day. You boys will live to see the day when every man, woman\nand child born in the United States (except those who are too young or\nfeeble-minded) will be able to read and write and cipher. It is sure to\ncome. Then, under the blessing of God, when people learn to do their\nown reading and thinking, we shall not fear anarchists and atheists and\nthe many other fools who, under one name or another, are now trying to\nmake this people discontented with their lot. There is no need for such\npeople here, and no place for them; they have made a mistake in coming\nto this free land, as some of them found to their cost on the gallows\nat Chicago.\n\n6. _We have no war in our country, no famine, and with the exception of\npoor Jacksonville, Florida, no pestilence._ Famine we have never known,\nand with such an extent of country we have little need to dread such a\nscourge as that. No one need suffer for food in our country, and this\nis the only country in the world of which this can be said; for labor\nof some kind can always be found, and food is so cheap, plain kinds of\nfood, that none but the utterly dissipated and worthless need starve;\nand in fact none do starve; for if they are so wretchedly improvident,\nthe guardians of the poor will save them from suffering not only, but\nactually provide them with a home, that for real comfort is not known\nelsewhere in the world.\n\nSome of us have seen war in its most dreadful proportions, but even\nthen the alleviations furnished by the Christian Commission greatly\nrelieved some of its most horrid features; and we are not likely to see\nwar again, for there will be hereafter nothing to quarrel and fight\nabout. Our political differences will never again lead to the taking up\nof arms in deadly strife.\n\nSuch are some of the occasions of thankfulness which led the President\nof the United States to ask the people, by public proclamation, to turn\naside for one day from their business, their farms, their workshops,\ntheir counting-houses, to close the schools, and assemble in their\nplaces of worship and thank God, the giver of every good and perfect\ngift.\n\nBut I don\u2019t think the President of the United States knew what special\nreasons the Girard College boys have to keep a thanksgiving day. And I\nshall try in what I have yet to say to point out some of them.\n\n1. This foundation is under the control of the Board of City\nTrusts. When Mr. Girard left the bulk of his great estate for this\nnoble purpose, he gave it to the \u201cmayor, aldermen and citizens of\nPhiladelphia,\u201d as his trustees. The city of Philadelphia could act\nonly through its legislative body, the select and common councils,\nbodies elected by the people, and consequently more or less under the\ninfluence of one or the other of the great political parties. Nearly\ntwenty years ago, owing largely to Mr. William Welsh, who became\nthe first President of the Board of City Trusts, the legislature of\nPennsylvania took from the control of councils all the charitable\ntrusts of the city and committed them to this board. If any political\ninfluences were ever unworthily exerted in the former board it ceased\nwhen the judges of the city of Philadelphia and the judges of the\nSupreme Court named the first directors of the City Trusts. These\ndirectors are all your friends; they give much thought, much labor,\nmuch anxiety to your well-being, desiring to do the best things that\nare possible to be done for your welfare, and to do them in the best\nway. Many of them have been successful in finding desirable situations\nfor such of your number as were prepared to accept such places. I am\nglad to say that I have three college boys associated with me in my\nbusiness; Mr. Stuart had two; Mr. Michener has two; General Wagner\nhas two, and Mr. Rawle has had one, and probably other members of the\nboard have also, so you see our interest in you is not limited to the\ntime which we spend here and in the office on South Twelfth street,\nbut we are ever on the lookout for things which we hope may be to your\nadvantage.\n\n2. This splendid estate, which you enjoy; these beautiful buildings,\nwhich were erected for your use; these grounds, which are so well kept\nand which are so attractive to you and to the thousands of visitors\nthat come here; these school-rooms, which we determine shall lack\nnothing that is desirable to make them what they ought to be; the\ntext-books which you use in school, the best that can be found; the\nteachers, the most accomplished and skilful that can be procured; the\nprefects and governesses chosen from among many applicants, and because\nthey are supposed to be the best, all your care-takers; all who have\nto do with you here are chosen because they are supposed to be well\nqualified to discharge their duties most successfully. The arrangements\nfor your lodging in the dormitories, the furniture and food of your\ntables, the well-equipped infirmary for the sick, are such as, in the\njudgment of the trustees, the great founder himself would approve if he\ncould be consulted. Truly, this gives occasion for special thanksgiving\non this Thanksgiving Day.\n\n3. _You all have a birthright._\n\nWhat that meant in the earliest times we do not fully know; but it\nmeant at least to be the head or father of the family, a sort of\ndomestic priesthood, the chief of the tribe, or the head of a great\nnation. In our own times, in Great Britain the first-born son has by\nright of birth the headship of the family, inheriting the principal\npart of the property, and he is the representative of the estate. They\ncall it there the _law of primogeniture_, or the law of the first-born.\nIn our country there is no birthright in families, and we have no law\nto make the eldest born in any respect more favored than the other and\nyounger children.\n\nBut you Girard boys have a birthright which means a great deal. The\nfounder of this great school left the bulk of his large estate to\nthe city of Philadelphia, for the purpose of adopting and educating\na certain class of boys, very particularly described, to which you\nbelong. The provision he made for you was most liberal. Everything that\nhis trustees consider necessary for your careful support and thorough\neducation is to be provided. Nothing is to be wanting which money\nwisely expended can supply. _This is your birthright._ No earthly power\ncan take it from you without your consent. No commercial distress, no\nfinancial panic, no change of political rulers, no combination of party\npolitics can interfere with the purpose of the founder. Nothing but the\nloss of health or life, or your own misconduct, can deprive you of this\ngreat birthright. Do you boys fully appreciate this?\n\nNow, is it to be supposed that there is a boy here who is willing to\n_sell_ this birthright as Esau did?\n\nIs there a boy here who is corrupt in heart, so profane and foul in\nspeech, so vicious in character, so wicked in behavior, as to be an\nunfit companion for his schoolmates, and who cannot be permitted to\nremain among them? Is there a boy here who, for the gratification\nof a vicious appetite, will _sell_ that privilege of support and\neducation so abundantly provided here? So guarded is this trust, so\nsacred almost, that no human being can take it away from you: will\nyou deliberately _throw it away_? The wretched Esau, in the old\nJewish history, under the pressure of hunger and faintness, sold his\nbirthright with all its invaluable privileges; will you, with no such\ntemptation as tried him, with no temptation but the perverseness of\nyour own will and your love of self-indulgence, will you _sell your\nbirthright_? Bitterly did Esau regret his folly; earnestly did he try\nto recover what he had lost, but it was too late; he never did recover\nhis lost birthright, though he sought it carefully and with tears. And\nhe had no one to warn him beforehand as I am warning you.\n\nBoys, if you pass through this college course not making the best use\nof your time, or if you allow yourselves to fall into such evil habits\nas will make it necessary to send you away from the college\u2015\u2015and this\nafter all the kind words that have been spoken to you and the faithful\nwarnings that have been given you\u2015\u2015you will lose that which can never\nbe restored to you, which can never be made up to you in any other way\nelsewhere. You will prove yourselves more foolish, more wicked than\nEsau, for you will lose more than he did, and you will do it against\nkinder remonstrances than he had.\n\n4. There is another feature of the management here which gives especial\nsatisfaction. When a boy leaves the college to go to a place which has\nbeen chosen for him, or which he has found by his own exertions, he\nis looked after until he reaches the age of twenty-one, by an officer\nespecially appointed, and as we believe well adapted to that service.\nAnd many a boy who has found himself in unfavorable circumstances and\nunder hard task-masters, with people who have no sympathy with his\nyouth and inexperience, many such have been visited and encouraged,\nhelped and so assisted towards true success.\n\n5. But what is there to make each particular boy thankful to-day? Why\nyou are all in good health; and if you would know how much that means\ngo to the infirmary and see the sick boys there, who are not able to\nbe in the chapel to-day, not able to be in the play-grounds, who are\nlooking out of the windows with wistful eyes, very much desiring to be\nwith you and enjoying your plays but cannot. God bless them.\n\nYou are all comfortably clothed; those of you who are less robust have\nwarmer clothing, and all of you are shielded and guarded as well as the\ntrustees know how to care for you, so that you may be trained to be\nstrong men.\n\nYou are all having a holiday; no school to-day; no shop-work to-day;\nno paying marks to-day; no punishments of any kind to-day. Why? It is\nThanksgiving Day and everything that is disagreeable is put out of\nsight and ought to be put out of mind.\n\nYou are all to have a good dinner. Even now, while we are here in the\nchapel and while some of you are growing impatient at my speech, think\nof the good dinner that is now cooking for you. Think of the roast\nturkey, the cranberry sauce, the piping-hot potatoes, the gravy, the\ndressing, the mince pies, the apples afterwards, and all the other good\nthings which make your mouths water, and make my mouth water even to\nmention the names. Then after dinner you go to your homes, and you have\na good time there.\n\nThe last thing I mention which you ought to be thankful for is having a\nshort speech.\n\n\n\n\n               [Illustration: _Professor W. H. Allen._]\n\n\n\n\n                   ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT ALLEN.\n\n                          September 24, 1882.\n\n                  \u201c_Remember how He spake unto you._\u201d\n\n\nThese are the words of an angel. They were spoken in the early morning\nwhile it was yet dark, to frightened and sorrowful women, who had\ngone to the sepulchre of Christ with spices and ointments to embalm\nhis body. These women fully expected to find the body of their Lord;\nfor as they went they said, \u201cWho shall roll us away the stone from\nthe sepulchre?\u201d When they reached the place, they found the stone was\nrolled away and the grave was empty. And one of them ran back to the\ndisciples to tell them that the grave was open and the body gone. Those\nthat remained went into the sepulchre and saw two men in glittering\ngarments, who, seeing that the women were perplexed and afraid,\nstanding with bowed heads and startled looks, said, with a shade of\nreproof in their tone, \u201cWhy seek ye the living among the dead? He is\nnot here, he is risen.\u201d And, perhaps, seeing that the women could\nhardly believe this, it was added, \u201cRemember how he spake unto you when\nhe was yet in Galilee, saying, \u2018The Son of man must be delivered into\nthe hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise\nagain.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe words that are quoted as having been spoken by Jesus to his\ndisciples were spoken in Galilee six months or more before this, and as\nthey were not clearly understood at the time, it is not so very strange\nthat they should have been forgotten.\n\nIt had been well if these sorrowing women, as well as the other\ndisciples of the Lord, had remembered other words, and all the words\nthat the Lord spake to them, not only while in Galilee, but in all\nother places. The world would be better to-day if those gracious words\nhad been more carefully laid to heart.\n\nI hope the words of my text will bear, without too much accommodation,\nthe use which I shall make of them.\n\nAlmost three-quarters of a century ago, a boy was born in the family of\na New England farmer. It was in the then territory of Maine, and near\nthe little city of Augusta. The family were plain, poor people, and\nthe child grew up, as many other farmers\u2019 children grew up, accustomed\nto plain living and such work as children could properly be set to\ndo. In the winter he went to school, as well as at other times when\nthe farm work was not pressing. It would be very interesting to know,\nif we _could_ know, whether there was anything peculiar in the early\ndisposition and habits of this boy, or whether he grew up with nothing\nto distinguish him from his playmates. If we could only know what\nchildren would grow up to be distinguished men, we should, I think, be\nvery careful to observe and record any little traits and peculiarities\nof their early childhood. The boy of whom I am speaking, and whom you\nknow to be William Henry Allen, seems to have been prepared at the\nacademy for college, which he entered at the advanced age of twenty-one\nyears. Four years after, he was graduated, and at once he set out to\nteach the classics in a little town in the interior of the State of New\nYork. While engaged in that seminary, he was called to a professorship\nin Dickinson College, at Carlisle, in our own State of Pennsylvania.\nIn Dickinson College he held successively the chairs of chemistry\nand the natural sciences, and that of English literature, until his\nresignation, in 1850, to accept the presidency of Girard College.\n\nFrom this time until his death, except during an interval of five\nyears, his life was spent here. For twenty-seven years he gave himself\nto the work of organizing and directing the internal affairs of this\ncollege, with an interest and efficiency which, until within the last\nyear, never flagged. It is not possible at this day for any of us to\nappreciate the difficulties he had to encounter in the early days of\nthe college, but we do know that he did the work well.\n\nSee how he was prepared for the work he did. He was a lover of study.\nWhen only eight years old he had learned the English grammar so well\nthat his teacher said he could not teach him anything further in that\nstudy. There was an old family Bible that was very highly prized by all\nthe family, and his father told him that if he would read that Bible\nthrough by the time he was ten years old, it should be his property.\nThe boy did so, and claimed and received his reward. That book is now\nin the possession of his daughter (Mrs. Sheldon). This early reading\nof the Bible will, perhaps, account for President Allen\u2019s unusual\nfamiliarity with the Scriptures, as evinced in the richness of his\nprayers in this school chapel.\n\nThe school to which he went in his early youth was three miles from\nhis father\u2019s house; and in all kinds of weather, through the heats of\nsummer and the deep snows of winter, he plodded his way.\n\nI have said that his parents were not rich; and this young man pushed\nhis way through college by teaching, thus earning the money necessary\nfor his support. This may account for the fact that he entered college\nat the age when most young men are leaving it, viz., twenty-one years.\nIt did not seem to him that it was a great misfortune to be poor; but\nit was an additional inducement to call forth all his powers to insure\nsuccess. He knew that he must depend upon himself if he would succeed\nin life. And so he was not satisfied with qualifying himself for one\nchair in a college, but, as at Dickinson, he held two or three chairs.\nHe could teach the classics or mathematics or general literature,\nor chemistry or natural sciences. Not many men had qualities so\ndiversified, or knew so well how to put them to good account. You know\nvery well that this liberal culture was not acquired without hard work.\nAnd this hard work he must have done in early life, before cares and\nduties crowded him, as they will absorb all of us the older we grow.\n\n\u201cRemember how He spake unto you.\u201d I would give these words a two-fold\nmeaning\u2015\u2015remember _what_ he said and _how_ he said it.\n\nTwenty-seven years is a long time in the life of any man, even if he\nhas lived more than three-score years and ten. In all these years\nPresident Allen was going in and out before the college boys, saying\ngood and kind words to them.\n\nHow often he spoke to you in the chapel! It was _your church_, and the\nonly church that you could attend, except on holidays. His purpose was\nthat this chapel service should be worthy of you, and worthy of the\nday. So important did he consider it, that when his turn came to speak\nto you here, he prepared himself carefully. He always wrote his little\ndiscourses, and the best thoughts of his mind and heart he put into\nthem. He thought that nothing that he or any other speaker could bring\nwas too good for you.\n\nAnd then the tones of his voice, the manner of his instruction; how\ngentle, kind, conciliating. He remembered the injunction of Scripture,\n\u201cThe servant of the Lord must not strive.\u201d You will never know in this\nlife how much he bore from you, how long he bore with your waywardness,\nyour thoughtlessness; how much he loved you. He always called you \u201chis\nboys.\u201d No matter though some of you are almost men, he always called\nyou \u201chis boys,\u201d much as the apostle John in his later years called his\ndisciples his \u201clittle children.\u201d For President Allen felt that in a\ncertain sense he was a father to you all.\n\nFor some time past you knew that his health was declining. You saw his\nbowed form and his feeble, hesitating steps. In the chapel his voice\nwas tremulous and feeble. The boys on the back benches could not always\nunderstand his words distinctly. But you knew that he was in earnest in\nall that he did say. And for many months he was not able to speak at\nall in the chapel. On the last Founder\u2019s Day he was seated in a chair,\nwith some of his family about him, looking at the battalion boys as\nthey were drilled, but the fatigue was too great for him. And as the\nsummer advanced into August, and the people in his native State were\ngathering their harvests, he, too, was gathered, as a shock of corn\nfully ripe.\n\nWhen Tom Brown heard of the death of his old master, Arnold of Rugby,\nhe was fishing in Scotland. It was read to him from a newspaper. He\nat once dropped everything and started for the old school. He was\noverwhelmed with distress. \u201cWhen he reached the station he went at once\nto the school. At the gates he made a dead pause; there was not a soul\nin the quadrangle, all was lonely and silent and sad; so with another\neffort he strode through the quadrangle, and into the school-house\noffices. He found the little matron in her room, in deep mourning;\nshook her hand, tried to talk, and moved nervously about. She was\nevidently thinking of the same subject as he, but he couldn\u2019t begin\ntalking. Then he went to find the old verger, who was sitting in his\nlittle den, as of old.\n\n\u201c\u2018Where is he buried, Thomas?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Under the altar in the chapel, sir,\u2019 answered Thomas. \u2018You\u2019d like to\nhave the key, I dare say.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Thank you, Thomas; yes, I should, very much.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then,\u2019 said Thomas, \u2018perhaps you\u2019d like to go by yourself, sir?\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cSo he walked to the chapel door and unlocked it, fancying himself the\nonly mourner in all the broad land, and feeding on his own selfish\nsorrow.\n\n\u201cHe passed through the vestibule and then paused a moment to glance\nover the empty benches. His heart was still proud and high, and he\nwalked up to the seat which he had last occupied as a sixth-form boy,\nand sat down there to collect his thoughts. The memories of eight\nyears were all dancing through his brain, while his heart was throbbing\nwith a dull sense of a great loss that could never be made up to him.\nThe rays of the evening sun came solemnly through the painted windows\nover his head and fell in gorgeous colors on the opposite wall, and the\nperfect stillness soothed his spirit. And he turned to the pulpit and\nlooked at it; and then leaning forward, with his head on his hands,\ngroaned aloud. \u2018If he could have only seen the doctor for one five\nminutes, have told him all that was in his heart, what he owed him,\nhow he loved and reverenced him, and would, by God\u2019s help, follow his\nsteps in life and death, he could have borne it all without a murmur.\nBut that he should have gone away forever, without knowing it all,\nwas too much to bear.\u2019 \u2018But am I sure that he does not know it all?\u2019\nThe thought made him start. \u2018May he not even now be near me in this\nchapel?\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd with some such feelings as these I suppose many a boy will\ncome back to the college and stand in this chapel, and recall the\nimpressions he has received from President Allen here. But his voice\nwill never be heard here again. Nothing remains but to \u201cremember how he\nspake unto you.\u201d\n\nI am sure you will never forget the day he lay in his coffin in the\nchapel, and you all looked on his face for the last time. What could\nbe more impressive than the funeral? The crowded house, the waiting\npeople, the bowed heads, the solemn strains of the organ, the sweet\nvoices of children singing their beautiful hymns, the open coffin, the\nappropriate address given by one of his own college boys, the thousand\nand more boys standing in open ranks for the procession to pass through\nto the college gates, the burial at Laurel Hill cemetery, where many\nof his pupils already lie, and where many more will follow him in the\ncoming years\u2015\u2015all these thoughts make that funeral day one long to be\nremembered.\n\nLet us accept this as the will of Providence. There is nothing to\nregret for him; but for us, the void left by his withdrawal. He is\nleading a better life now than ever before. He has just begun to live,\nand the best words I can say to you are, \u201cremember how he spake unto\nyou.\u201d\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n    \u201cBut when the warrior dieth,\n      His comrades in the war\n    With arms reversed and muffled drums\n      Follow the funeral car.\n    They show the banners taken,\n      They tell his battles won,\n    And after him lead his masterless steed,\n      While peals the minute gun.\n\n    \u201cAmid the noblest of the land\n      Men lay the _sage_ to rest,\n    And give the _bard_ an honored place,\n      With costly marble drest,\n    In the great Minster transept\n      Where lights like glories fall,\n    And the choir sings and the organ rings\n      Along the emblazoned wall.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                    A YOUNG MAN\u2019S MESSAGE TO BOYS.\n\n                           December 7, 1884.\n\n\nWhen I came here in April last I brought with me some friends, among\nwhom was my son. And I said to him that some day I should wish _him_ to\nspeak to you. He had so recently been a college boy himself, graduating\nat the University of Pennsylvania, and he was so fond of the games\nand plays of boys, and withal was so deeply interested in boys and\nyoung men, that I thought he might be able to say something that would\ninterest you, and perhaps do you good.\n\nAt a recent meeting of the proper committee his name was added to the\nlist of persons who may be invited to speak to you. The last time I was\nat the college President Fetterolf asked me when my son could come to\naddress you, and I replied that he was sick.\n\nThat sickness was far more serious than any of us supposed; there was\nno favorable change, and at the end of twelve days he passed away.\n\nMy suggestion that he might be invited to speak here led him to\nprepare a short address, which was found among his papers, and has,\nwithin a few days, been handed to me. It was written with lead pencil,\napparently hastily; and certainly lacking the final revision, which in\ncopying for delivery he would have given it.\n\nI have thought it would be well for me to read to you this address; but\nI did not feel that I had any right to revise it, or to make any change\nin it whatever; so I give it precisely as he wrote it, adding only a\nword here and there which was omitted in the hurried writing.\n\n    He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that\n    ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.\u2015\u2015Proverbs xvi.\n    32.\n\nI want you to look with me at the latter part of each of these\nsentences, and see if we can\u2019t understand a little better what Solomon\nmeant by such words \u201c_the mighty_\u201d and \u201c_he that taketh a city_.\u201d\n\nDo you remember the wonderful dream that came to Solomon just after\nhe had been made king over Israel? How God came to him while he was\nsleeping and said to him, \u201cAsk what I shall give thee,\u201d and how\nSolomon, without any hesitation, asked for wisdom. And God gave him\nwisdom, so that he became famous far and wide, and people from nations\nfar off came to see him and learn of him.\n\nIf I were to ask you now who was the wisest man that ever lived, you\nwould say \u201cSolomon.\u201d Often you have heard one person say of another,\n\u201che is as wise as Solomon.\u201d I cannot stop here to tell you of the way\nin which Solomon showed this wonderful gift. But his knowledge was\nnot that of books, because there were not a great many books then for\nhim to read. It was the knowledge which showed him how to do _right_,\nand how to be a _good ruler_ over his people. And because he chose\nsuch wisdom, the very best gift of God, God gave him besides, riches\nand everything that he could possibly desire. His horses and chariots\nwere the most beautiful and the strongest; his armies were famous\neverywhere for their splendid arms and armor. He had vast numbers of\nservants to wait upon him, and to do his slightest wish. Presents, most\nmagnificent, were sent to him by the kings of all the nations round\nabout him. No king of Israel before or after him was so great and so\npowerful. And, greatest honor of all, God permitted him to build a\ntemple for him\u2015\u2015what his father David had so longed to do and was not\nallowed, God directed Solomon to do. David\u2019s greatest desire before\nhe died was to build a house for God. The ark of God had never had\na house to rest in, and David was not satisfied to have a splendid\npalace to live in himself, and to have nothing but a _tent_ in which\nto keep God\u2019s ark. But God would not suffer him to do that, although\nhe was the king whom he loved so much. No, that must be kept for his\nson Solomon to do. David had been too great a fighter all his life; he\nhad been at war; he had driven back his enemies on all sides, and had\nmade God\u2019s people a nation to be feared by all their foes. So David was\na \u201cmighty man,\u201d and while Solomon was growing up he must have heard\nevery one talking of the wonderful things his father had done from his\nyouth up\u2015\u2015the adventures he had had when he was only a poor shepherd\nlad keeping his flocks on the hills about Bethlehem. And how often\nmust he have been told that splendid story, which we never grow tired\nof hearing, of his fight with the giant Goliath; and when he was shown\nthe huge pieces of armor, and the great sword and spear, he surely knew\nwhat it was for a man to be \u201cmighty\u201d and \u201cgreat.\u201d And when his old\nfather withdrew from the throne and made him king, he found himself\nsurrounded on all sides with the results of his father\u2019s wars and\nconquests, and soon knew that he also was \u201ca mighty man.\u201d\n\nThere is not a boy here who does not want to be \u201cgreat.\u201d Every one\nof you wants to make a name for himself, or have something, or do\nsomething, that will be remembered long after he is dead.\n\nIf I should ask you what that something is, I suppose almost all of you\nwould say, \u201cI want to be rich, so rich that I can do whatever I like;\nthat I need not do any work; that I can go where I please.\u201d Some of\nyou would say, \u201cI would travel all over the world and write about what\nI see, so that long after I am dead people will read my books and say,\n\u2018what a great man he was!\u2019\u201d Some of you would say, \u201cI would build great\nhouses, and fill them with all the richest and most beautiful goods. I\nwould have whole fleets of ships, sailing to all parts of the world,\nbringing back wonderful things from strange countries; and when I would\nmeet people in the street they would stand aside to let me pass, saying\nto one another, \u2018there goes a great man; he is our richest merchant;\nhow I should like to be as great as he.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd still another would say: \u201cI don\u2019t care anything about books or\nbeautiful merchandise. No, I\u2019ll go into foreign countries and become a\ngreat fighter, and I shall conquer whole nations, so that my enemies\nshall be afraid of me, and I shall ride at the head of great armies,\nand when I come home again the people will give me a grand reception;\nwill make arches across the street, and cover their houses with flags,\nand as I ride along the street the air will be filled with cheers for\nthe great general.\u201d\n\nAnd so each one of you would tell me of some way in which he would like\nto be great. I should think very little of the boy who had no ambition,\none who would be entirely content to just get along somehow, and never\ncare for any great success so long as he had enough to eat and drink\nand to clothe himself with, and who would never look ahead to set\nhis mind on obtaining some great object. It is perfectly right and\nproper to be ambitious, to try and make as much as possible of every\nopportunity that is presented. No one can read that parable of the\nmaster who called his servants to account for the talents he had given\nthem, and not see that God gives us all the blessings and advantages\nthat we have, in order that we may have an opportunity to put them to\nsuch good use, that He may say to us as the master in the parable said\nto his servants, \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant.\u201d\n\nSo it is right for you to want to be great, and I want to try and tell\nyou how to accomplish it. If you were sure that I could tell you the\nreal secret of success you would listen very carefully to what I had\nto say, wouldn\u2019t you? Some of you would even write down what I said.\nThen write _this_ down in your hearts; for, following this, you will\nbe greater than \u201cthe mighty:\u201d \u201cHe that is slow to anger is better than\nthe mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city.\u201d\nAre some of you disappointed? do you say, \u201c_Is that all?_ I thought he\nwas about to tell us how we could make lots of money.\u201d Ah, if you would\nonly believe it, and follow such advice, such a plan were to be far\nricher than the man who can count his wealth by millions. But look at\nit in another way. What sort of a boy do you choose for the captain of\na base-ball nine or a foot-ball team? What sort of a _man_ is chosen\nfor a high position? Is he one who loses all control over himself when\nsomething happens to vex him, and flies into a terrible passion when\nsome one happens to oppose him? No; the one you would select for any\nplace of great responsibility is he who can keep his head clear, who\nwill not permit himself to get angry at any little vexation, who rules\nhis own spirit\u2015\u2015and can there be anything harder to do? I tell you \u201cno.\u201d\n\nSo, I have told you how to be successful, and at the same time I tell\nyou, there is nothing harder to do; and now I go on still further, and\nsay you can\u2019t follow such advice by yourself, you must have some help.\nIs it hard to get? No, it is offered to you freely; you are urged to\nask for it, and you are assured that it is certain to come to all who\nwant it. Will such help be sufficient? Much more than sufficient, for\nHe who shall help you is abundantly able to give you more than you ask\nor think. It is God who tells you to come to him, and he shall make\nyou more than \u201cthe mighty,\u201d greater than he which taketh the city;\nyes, for the greatness he shall bestow upon those who come to him is\nfar above all earthly greatness. He shall be with you when you are\nready to fly into a furious temper, when you lift your hand to strike,\nwhen you would _kill_ if you were not afraid; but when the wish is in\nyour heart, yes, then, even then, He is beside you. He looks upon you\nin divine mercy, and if you will only let him, will rebuke the foul\nspirit and command him to come out of you, and your whole soul shall\nbe filled with peace. Why won\u2019t you listen to his pleading voice, and\nlet him quiet the dreadful storm of anger? And when the hot words fly\nto your lips, remember his soft answer that turns away wrath. Then\nwill you have won a greater battle than any ever fought; for you will\nhave conquered your own wicked spirit, and by God\u2019s grace you are a\nconqueror. And the reward for a life of such self-conquest shall be a\ncrown of life that fadeth not away. Won\u2019t you accept _such_ greatness?\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\nSuch are the words he would have spoken to you had his life been\nspared; and he would have spoken them with the great advantage of a\n_young man_ speaking to _young men_. Now they seem like a message\nfrom the heavenly world. It is more than probable that in copying for\ndelivery he would have expanded some of the thoughts and have made the\nlittle address more complete. Perhaps it would be better for me to stop\nhere; ... but there are a few words which I would like to say, and it\nmay be that they can be better said now than at any other time.\n\nI want to say again, what I have so often said, that a boy may be fond\nof all innocent games and plays and yet be a Christian. Some of you\nmay doubt this. You may believe and say, that religion interferes with\namusements and makes life gloomy. Here is an example of the contrary;\nfor I do not see how there _could_ be a happier life than my son\u2019s\n(there never was a shadow upon it), and no one could be more fond of\nbase-ball and foot-ball and cricket and tennis than he was; and yet he\nwas a simple-hearted Christian boy and young man. And with all this\nlove of innocent pleasure and fun he neglected no business obligations,\nnor did he fail in any of the duties of social or family life. In\nshort, I can wish no better thing for you boys than that your lives may\nbe as happy and as beautiful as his was.\n\n\n\n\n                         A TRUTHFUL CHARACTER.\n\n                             April, 1889.\n\n\nCan anything be more important to a young life than truthfulness? Is\ncharacter worth anything at all if it is not founded on truth? And are\nnot the temptations to untruthfulness in heart and life constantly in\nyour path?\n\nIt is most interesting to think that every life here is an individual\nlife, having its own history, and in many respects unlike every other\nlife. When I see you passing through these grounds, going in procession\nto and from your school-rooms, your dining halls and your play-grounds,\nthe question often arises in my thoughts, how many of these boys are\nwalking in the truth?\n\nIf I were looking for a boy to fill any position within my gift, or\nwithin the reach of my influence, and should seek such a boy among\nyou, I should ask most carefully of those who know you best, whether\nsuch and such a boy were truthful; and not in speech merely (that is,\ndoes he answer questions truthfully), but is he open and frank in his\nlife? Does he cheat in his lessons or in his games? Does he shirk any\nduty that is required of him in the shops? When he fails to recite his\nlessons accurately, is he very ready with his excuses trying to justify\nhimself for his failure, or does he admit candidly that he did not do\nhis best, and does he promise sincerely to do better in the future?\nAnd is he one who may be depended upon to give a fair account of any\nincident that may come up for investigation? Sometimes there are wrong\nthings done here, done from thoughtlessness often; may such a boy as\nI am looking for be depended upon to say what he knows about it, in a\nmanly way, so as to screen the innocent, and, if necessary, expose the\nguilty? In other words, is he trustworthy, worthy of trust, can he be\ndepended on?\n\nIt may not be easy for one at my time of life to say just what a boy\nought to be, if he is to make much of a man. But we who think much\nof this subject have an idea of what we would like the boys to be,\nin whom we are especially interested. And if I borrow from another\na description of what I mean, it is because this author has said it\nbetter than I can.\n\n\u201cA real boy should be generous, courteous among his friends and among\nhis school-fellows; respectful to his superiors, well-mannered. He\nmust avoid loud talk and rough ways; must govern his tongue and his\ntemper; must listen to advice and reproof with humility. He must be a\ngentleman. He must not be a sneak or a bully; he must neither cringe\nto the strong nor tyrannize over the weak. To his teachers he must be\nobedient, for they have a right to require obedience of him; he must\nbe respectful, because the true gentleman always respects those who\nare wiser, more experienced, better informed than himself. He must\napply himself to his lessons with a single aim, seeking knowledge for\nits own sake, and earnestly striving to make the best possible use of\nsuch faculties as God has given him. He must do his best to store his\nmind with high thoughts by a careful study of all that is beautiful\nand pure. In his sports and plays he must seek to excel, if excellence\ncan be obtained by a moderate amount of time and energy; but he must\nremember, that though it is a fine thing to have a healthy body and\na healthy mind, it is neither necessary nor admirable to develop a\nmuscular system like that of an athlete or a giant. Whatever falls to\nhis hands to do, he must do it with his might, assured that God loves\nnot the idle or dishonest worker. He must remember that life has its\nduties and responsibilities as well as its pleasures; that these begin\nin boyhood, and that they cannot be evaded without injury to heart and\nmind and soul. He must train himself in all good habits, in order that\nthese may accompany him easily in later life; in habits of method and\norder, of industry and perseverance and patience. He must not forget\nthat every victory over himself smooths the way for future victories\nof the same kind; and the precious fruit of each moral virtue is to set\nus on higher and better ground for conquests of principle in all time\nto come. He must resolutely shut his ears and his heart to every foul\nword and every improper suggestion, every profane utterance; guarding\nhimself against the first approaches of sin, which are always the most\ninsidiously made. He must not think it a brave or plucky thing to\nbreak wholesome rules, to defy authority, to ridicule age or poverty\nor feebleness, to pamper the appetite, to imitate the \u2018fast,\u2019 to throw\naway valuable time; to neglect precious opportunities. He must love\ntruth with a deep and passionate love, abhorring even the shadow of a\nlie, even the possibility of a falsehood. True in word, true in deed,\nhe shall walk in the truth.\u201d\n\nI say then to you boys, do your best; be honest and diligent; be\nresolute to live a pure and honorable life; speak the truth like boys\nwho hope to be gentlemen; be merry if you will, for it is good to be\nmerry and wise; be loving and dutiful sons, be affectionate brothers,\nbe loyal-hearted friends, and when you come to be men you will look\nback to these boyish days without regret and without shame.\n\nSomething like this is my ideal of a boy. I am very desirous that your\nfuture shall be bright and useful and successful, and I, and others who\nare interested in your welfare, will hope to hear nothing but good of\nyou; but we can have no greater joy than to hear that you are walking\nin the truth. Some of you may become rich men; some may become very\nprominent in public affairs; you may reach high places; you may fill\na large space in the public estimation; you may be able and brilliant\nmen; but there is nothing in your life that will give us so much joy as\nto hear that \u201cyou are walking in the truth.\u201d\n\nTruth is the foundation of all the virtues, and without it character\nis absolutely worthless. No gentleness of disposition, no willingness\nto help other people, no habits of industry, no freedom from vicious\npractices, can make up for want of truthfulness of heart and life.\nSome persons think that if they work long and hard and deny themselves\nfor the good of others, and do many generous and noble acts and have\na good reputation, they can even tell lies sometimes and not be much\nblamed. But they forget that reputation is not character; that one may\nhave a very good reputation and a very bad character; they forget that\nthe reputation is the outside, what we see of each other, while the\ncharacter is what we are in the heart.\n\n\n                   *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n \u2015\u2015Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).\n\n \u2015\u2015Printer\u2019s, punctuation, and spelling inaccuracies were silently\n   corrected.\n\n \u2015\u2015Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.\n\n \u2015\u2015Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.","title":"Advice to young men and boys: A series of addresses delivered by B. B. Comegys to the pupils of Girard College","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":45009}