The 24th, Baccalaureate

Commencement week began Sunday with President Angeli's baccalanreate address in university hall. For the twenty-fourth time he stood before the graduating classes and pointed out to them some of the pitfalls and snares of life and suggested ways of avoiding them. The classes marched into the hall shortly before eight o'clock and took seats in front of the platform. Prof. Stanley began the exercises with an organ voluntar}', and the Choral Union sang "The Strain Upraise," one of Prof. Stanley's compositions, for tlie first chorus. Dean M. L. D'Ooge read the Scripture in Ephesians 2:4 and offered prayer. The Choral Union sang "As the Heart Pants," after which President Angelí took bis place before the great audience and began his address. 11e took for his theme "The Problem of Equipoise in Life" and for three-quarters of an hour with the audience as rapt in attention and the constant waving of numberlcss fans and the nervouSness produced by the heat would allow. It was generally agreed that his address was scholarly and his advice sound. It is scant credit tp remark thatit was interesting. He spoke in substance as follows: Every man may be considere! in two ' aspects, as an individual and as a member of society. As an individual he is directly responsible to God for his conduct, and according to his light for his opinions and beliefs. As a meinier of society he has duties to others, and his opinions, beliefs, and couduct are in a greater or less degree shaped by others. Between the promptings of his own conscience and the suggestions of his own mind on the one hand, and a tendeucy within him to conform somewhat to the customs and ideas of those around him, he finds.himsclE the subject of an almost continuous conflict. IL his conscicnce is powerful and his social impulse strong, this conflict is often serious, at times almost tragic. It is a battle from which no earnest nature eau ever escape. It begins in childhood and continúes till death. There are few graver problems in life thañ this of keeping the proper equipoise betweeu fidelity to one's better self and the fratrnal, genial, helpful relatiun to others. I am inclined to thiuk that there are mauy influences at work in our days, ■which tend to break down in some degree the spirit of sturdy self reliance and manly independence of thought and action. 1. Take for instance the rapid multiplication of societies, which we have witnessed of late years, societies, social, ethical, intellectual, political, religious. These associations have become so numerous that the combinations and permutations of the letters of the alphabet are well nigh exhausted in furnishing the initials of tlieir titles. Few are the men and women who are not enrolled in several societies. Most of these societies have their uses. But what I wish to cali attention to is this : the cases are rare in which one who is trui y devoted to society does not have his course of action modified bjr the views and examples of his associatos. It may be they are changad íor the better, but, alas it may be they are changed for the ■worse; or at any rate they may be changed not as the result of his delibérate judgement, but simply frona the desire to conform to the usages of his corarades, even though at first his conscience is somewhat strained. His personality is thus infringed on. He is not quite himself . His sense of personal responsibility is weakened. He persuades himself that he can make others answerable in part for hini. Some of the same sort is witnessed in political parties. Let a man venture to dissent from any doctrine proclaimed n the national convention of liis party, even thousch the doctrine forrned no portion of the party creed when the party was organized or for years afterward, and he is likely to be branded as a traitor to the party and prononnced unworthy to hold the smallest office in its organizations. He is denounced as worse tlian au open foe. And so thousands of men are constantly adyoeating or failing to oppose measures, which do not commend themselves to their judgement. The effect of such a course on one's moral nature is sufflciently obvious. Even the most sacred of all organizations, the Christian church is, I fear, not free from the same difficulty. Men, whose views are not always in harmony with tliose of their branch of the church, hesitate to vow tlie change in their beliefs, because it is unpleasant to incur the disapprobation of their brethren, which, it must be confessed, has sometimes been expressed in a temper not very fraternal. ButI believe tliat in these later years disseritin politcal orin religious beliefs bas been treated more charitably than it used to be. If we turn to business pursuits, we find men entangled in serious nes tnrougli issociateü action. JNearly all great enterprises now are conducted by corporations, which are managed by a few officials. The stockholders lose in large degree the sense of personal responsibility for the proeeedings of the corporato body. If a policy questionable in moráis is adopted by the body, the individual stockholder is tempted to simt lus eyes to the fact under the plea tliat the officers are managing affairs, and to pocket liis divideuds without too great eompunetíon. Indeed bis individual protest against the policy would in many cuses be of no avail. He has no resource but to withdraw l'rom the corp.oratión. Frequently he cannot withdraw without grave sacrifice. His individnality is thus imprisoned within the walls of the Corporation. If the capitalist is thus embarrassed in preserving his independence the laborerig equally bound fast wifliin the meshes of trades unions and other similar brotherhoods. ïhat these societies, like corporations, have their uses is not for a moment questioned here. But who does not know that in many cases their rules ponstrain laborera to commit acts which their jtidgment, not to say their conscience, condemns? Strikes are ordered at times when sensible men know that it is unwise to order them, and yet these sensible men have to take part in them. In some cases these associations have rules against non-union laborera, whose harshness and cruelty manya workman at heart disap proves. The personality and indepen dence of the workman are thus sacriflced in greater or less degree. II. Again I am constrained to believe th at there is just novv a trend in our theories of the fuuctions of government, which is tending to diminish the self-reliance, energy and independence of men. No one can be blind to the fact that of late years governments have been enlarging the scope of their action, and in many ways for the good of mankind. They have intervenedto protect the individual who was comparatively lielpless, especially women and children, against cruel industrial usages. They have put many checks on the creed of soulless corporations. The}' have provided free public education. They have enforced wholesome laws of public sanitation in spitej of hardhearted landlords. We all rejoice in these and other similar acts. Butis there not a dcsire on the part of many to go much farther than this, and resort to legislatioii wliich will tend to break down tlie self reliance and enterprise of men? Is there not a tendeucy to ask the government to do for us what we ought to do for ourselves ? IIow many men in our times seem to think that for every evil, real or imaginary, by which any of us are afilicted, some legislative panacea can be found ! Competition, that spur to individual enterprise, we are urgently recommended to extinguish by luw. England is seriously considering whether she shaM not follow Germany in pensioning laborers. Socialistic schemes teem in the brains of men all about us. They are not limited to tliose which are defensive of the rights and liberties of the individual against the strong, but, also include those which throw upon tlie government, federal, state, or municipal, the duty to a greateror less extent of providing labor and wages and even partía] or eutire support for large classes of men. This is no place to discuss in detail any of these schemes. All I wish to cali attention to here is, that the condition of the public mind wliich makes the serious consideration of tliein possible, is one which is weakening to the spirit of manly self reliance and enterprise. There is n soine quarters too much disposition to coudle men with the idea that for tlie overwhelining majority of ns there is any way for us to gaiu an lionest living except to work for it day in and day out, with all our might. No other plan has ever yet succeeded. We have no good grounds for supposing that any otlier plan ever will succeed. It is demoraliziug to a people to be cherishing the notion that by any jugglery of legislation this necessity of striving with all our keenness of mind and with all our industry to accomplish something, can be escaped. You wil] not understand me as commending a s])irit of selfish disregard of others. But what I am deprecating is what seems to me an increasing tendency to substitute for the old fashioned American ïndividuality and enterpnse and pluck, which hewed down tlie foreste, turned the wild prairies into farms builded town and cities, 'a weak and whining dependence on utopian schemes of legislation or social reconstruction for our prosperity. AVhat we need is not so mncli new laws or new social devices as to keep up the race of men, brave, intelligent, industrious, capable of standing squarely on their own feet and breasting the storms of life. So long as we can rear these, we slnül bave laws and a social organism adequate for our needs. III. The practical question to which I wish to cali your attention is, how shall educated men and women like you who are abont to enter on active life, maintain your equipoise, do your whole duty to society and yet preserve youi own personality ? i. You must work in society. You cannot wisely become recluses. Young graduates of scholarly tastes often inake a mistake in this regard under the impreesion that they must shut selves in from theworld unt.il tliey have made much larger acquisitions. This impulse sometimes springs from gehuinë modesty. But there is danger that this seclusion beconie a habit, and escape from it in maturer years become impracticable. 2. In throwing ourselves into active life, we cannot but be affected by the opinions and customs of other. Even scholars cannot pause to investígate thoroughly every subject. Every one of us must depend much on the judgments and researches of our fellows. But we can clearly recognize the fact when we are taking the opinión of another. And we can be careful to scrutinize the general eharacter of the associations, with whose life we bind up our lives. "We can generalij' decide in advance whether their tendency is such as our conscionces approve-, whether the doctrines and maxims current among the membership are such as are consonant with our fundamental ideas and principies. If they are not, we sliall hardly go aniiss y shunning them. 3. And when we so far approve the general spirit of the associations, with which we identify ourselyes, as to enter heartily into their lives, we do well to examine with care the inflnence which they bring to bear upon us, to see that we are not carried away froni tlie solid ground of our own true conceptions and principies. We are sometimes told that under a free constitutional government a man must identify himself with some great party, and advocate or at least silently acquiesce in its avowed doctrines, if Le is to accomplish anything either for himself or for his country in political activity. That great parties are necessary for healtliy political life cannot be denied. But a party ought to be so organized as to leave some liberty of individual opinión in its adherents. I tliink this is mach more emphatically the case in England than it is here. Mr. Chamberlain can support the Liberal government in the proposition to disestablish the Church in Wales without sacriflcins; bis chances for a place in the cabinet of the Liberal Union and Tory Cabinet, when the latter comes into power. Mr. Balfour has quite as good a chance to be the Premier ofj the next Cabinet, althougfa liis advocacy of bimetalisin is opposed by nearly alljhis I doubt if such divergences from the accepted policy of a party iu this couuty would be tolerated in a candidato for a high position. But a system whicta leaves considerable liberty within a party for independence of opinión on some matters is much more likely to breed statesmen of high intelligence and lofty character than the more narrow spirit which generally dominates our party organizatious. It is clear that every man ought to claim this liberty for himself and labor for the recognition of it by his party. 4. "While we claim this right of personal independence for ourselves, we should be charitable in judging of those who differ from us. It may be liumilia ting to human pride to confess it, but i is nevertheless true tbat it is often a matter of temperament or of early train ing on which side of a disputed ques tion one stands. Many men are bon whigs or tories, eonservatives or radi cals. 5. Sucli considerations ought to make us more tolerant than we sometimes are of men wlio differ n'idely from acceptet opinions and are so active and aggres sive in urging their own views that we often atteinpt to dispose of thein sum marily by branding tliem as eranks Probably neaily all the great innovators Ikhii we now honor as useful reform ers would have been termed eranks by a majority of their contemporaries, i thatexpressive term had been coined in their day. They may not always be agreeable neighbors to those whodonotappreciate the value of their innovations. It is not pleasant to have amansuddenly appear and run his ploiighshare under all our comfortable customs and hallöwed prejudices and turn them bottom side upto the light of day. But sometimes we are obliged to admit in the end that he was our true lriend and benefactor. [f, therefore, your heart is burdened with some message of trntli to }'our time, do not be deterred from delivering it because yon may be called peculiar. I!ut on the other hand do not suppose tliut by mere oddity you can be of service to others or to yourself. Be Dot mprisoned. within the walls of whatever association you may belong to. Do not sit idly down and flatter yourselves that you and your generatipn are to be easily iloated into enduring prosperity by any of your ingenioua devices of legislation or social reconstruction. Search for the truth as for bid troasure. Eedeem the time witli faithful toil day by day. Witli unselfish zeal for the good of mankind aliare the truth you flnd witli others. So according to the ineasure of your ability to apprebend tlie truth and to use it, you will have followed in the steps of Him, wlio was the AVa' and the Life, because He was the Truth.