Literary genius has been displayed by men like Longfellow, Bryant,
Lowell, Holmes, Hawthorne, Mitchell, Holland, Emerson and a host of
lights scarcely less brilliant. These men, who have written in a terse
and graphic style, received their stimulus and training in college,
and are among the bright examples of classical scholarship, and the
results of their genius have enriched character and enlightened the
world.

The periodical literature reflects the prevailing ideas, sentiments
and spirit of the American people. The college-trained men have been
especially quick to utilize this throne of power to guide the public
mind to right principles and inspiring motives. The colleges must
continue to be fountains whence shall flow a pure, earnest, and
truthful literature, which will, in a great measure, determine the
destiny of the present and future generations.

We are especially indebted to the colleges for the maintenance of the
ascendency of the moral and religious principles which have done so
much in unfolding and shaping our national life. The religious
sentiment has been the controlling spirit of the nation, and our
patriotism has issued from a meditative and religious temper, which
the colleges have been foremost in fostering. Nearly all the great
religious and reformatory movements have proceeded from the colleges
and universities, whereby great good has come to society. "It was
through the interchange of students between the Universities of Oxford
and Prague that the teachings of Wycliff passed over into Bohemia and
issued in the splendid work of Huss. It was from college students of
Florence that Colet, and Erasmus, and More caught somewhat of the
spirit of Savonarola, and felt the power of truths that emerged in
the Italian Renaissance, and made them contribute so grandly to
religious liberty in England. It was in the presence of the college
students of Germany that Martin Luther nailed his thesis to the doors,
and burned the papal bull, and lit the watch-fire of the Reformation
that has awaked an answering brightness from ten thousand hills. It
was from a little circle of Oxford students that God led forth Wesley
and Whitfield to shake the mighty pillars of unbelief in the
eighteenth century."

President William F. Warren says: "By means of the great religious
movement called Puritanism, the English University of Cambridge
shaped, for nearly two hundred years, the intellectual and spiritual
life of New Englan