nk his knowledge ignorance; this makes
Saint Paul think his heroic virtue naught. Oh, blessed men, who make us
feel that we are of the race of God; who measure and weigh the heavens;
who love with boundless love; who toil and are patient; who teach us
that workers can wait! They are in love with life; they yearn for fuller
life. Life is good, and the highest life is God; and wherever man grows
in knowledge, wisdom, and strength, in faith, hope, and love, he walks
in the way of heaven.

To you, young gentlemen, who are about to quit these halls, to continue
amid other surroundings the work of education which here has but begun,
what words shall I more directly speak? If hitherto you have wrought to
any purpose, you will go forth into the world filled with resolute will
and noble enthusiasm to labor even unto the end in building up the being
which is yourself, that you may unceasingly approach the type of perfect
manhood. This deep-glowing fervor of enthusiasm for what is highest and
best is worth more to you, and to any man, than all that may be learned
in colleges. If ambition is akin to pride, and therefore to folly, it is
none the less a mighty spur to noble action; and where it is not found
in youth, budding and blossoming like the leaves and flowers in spring,
what promise is there of the ripe fruit which nourishes life? The love
of excellence bears us up on the swift wing and plumes of high desire,--

Without which whosoe'er consumes his days,
Leaveth such vestige of himself on earth
As smoke in air or foam upon the wave.

Do not place before your eyes the standard of vulgar success. Do not
say, I will study, labor, exercise myself, that I may become able to get
wealth or office, for to this kind of work the necessities of life and
the tendency of the age will drive you; whereas, if you hope to be true
and high, it is your business to hold yourselves above the spirit of the
age. It is our worst misfortune that we have no ideals. Our very
religion, it would seem, is not able to give us a living faith in the
reality of ideals; for we are no longer wholly convinced that souls live
in the atmosphere of God as truly as lungs breathe the air of earth. We
find it difficult even to think of striving for what is eternal,
all-holy, and perfect, so unreal, so delusive do such thoughts seem.

Who will understand that to be is better than to have, and that in truth
a man is worth only what he is? Who will bel