obtained into the several branches of knowledge, created in your hearts a reverence for learning, and a desire to add to your knowledge, day by day and year by year, and to expend your best energies in the pursuit of truth? If you can answer "yes" to these questions, I can assure you that your labors, thus far, have not been wasted, and that you begin the working years of your lives under circumstances most favorable to success and future distinction. A quaint poet[1] of the seventeenth century has embodied his estimate of men's motives in seeking education in these lines:—
And idle ouriositie that is!
Some but to sell, not freely to bestow;
These gaine, and spend both time and wealth amisse,
Some to build others, which is Charity,
But these to build themselves, who wise men be."
If the education you have received has been acquired in a spirit of love and humility, you will profit by all opportunities of imparting your knowledge to others, and, in the words of the poet, you will be amongst the number of the "wise men" who seek to "build themselves".
In Literature, Art, and Science, "the old order changeth, yielding place to new" with such rapid strides, that unless a man remains a zealous student throughout his life, he must be left behind in the branches of knowledge which are needful to his professional usefulness. Let me then advise you to maintain, both in the near and distant future, those habits of mental discipline which have enabled you to obtain Degrees in this University. In every life, no matter how it may be engrossed by professional duty, and care for the things of the moment, some leisure must fall, which you may pass in absolute idleness, and mental vacuity, or in storing your minds with the wisdom of the past, or in following the ramifications of modern thought. The careful and critical study of classical works relating to history, poetry, philosophy, and any branch of science of which you have mastered the principles, will prove the most effectual remedy against that mental hebetude, which is apt to overtake us, when we have attained, as we think, the summit of our ambition. And while urging yon to a familiar acquaintance with the thoughts of eminent men of all ages and climes, I would not have you neglectful of modern ways of thought, as represented by current literature, and the periodical and newspaper press. A man to be of use in his generation must not be a mere
- ↑ Lord Brooke— "Certaine Learned and Elegant Worhes" 1633,
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- Lord Brooke— "Certaine Learned and Elegant Workes" 1633,
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