"There is always room for the man of force, and he makes room for many." It is the strong, wise, and good of the past who have made our lives possible. It is the great human men, the "men in the natural order," that have made it possible for "the plain, common men," that make up civilization, to live, rather than merely to vegetate.
We hear those among us sometimes who complain of the shortness of life, the smallness of truth, the limited stage on which man is forced to act. But the men who thus complain are not men who have filled this little stage with their action. The man who has learned to serve the Lord never complains that his Master does not give him enough to do.
The man who helps his fellow-men does not stand about with idle hands to find men worthy of his a.s.sistance. He who leads a worthy life never vexes himself with the question as to whether life is worth living.
We know that all our powers are products of the needs and duties of our ancestors. Wisdom too great to be translated into action is an absurdity. For wisdom is only knowing what it is best to do next.
Virtue is only doing it. Virtue and happiness have never been far apart from each other. To know and to do is the essence of the highest service. Those the world has a right to honor are those who found enough in the world to do. The fields are always white to their harvest.
Alexander the Great had conquered his neighbors in Greece and Asia Minor, the only world he knew. Then he sighed for more worlds to conquer. But other worlds he knew nothing of lay all about him. The secrets of the rocks he had never suspected. Steam, electricity, the growth of trees, the fall of snow,--all these were mysteries to him.
The only conquest he knew, the subjection of men"s bodies, went but a little way. All the men who in his lifetime knew the name of Alexander the Great could find encampment on the Palo Alto farm. The great world of men in his day was beyond his knowledge. His world was a very small one, and of this he had seen but a little corner.
For the need of more worlds to conquer is no badge of strength. It is the stamp of ignorance. It is the cry only of him who knows that the great earth about him still stands unconquered. No Lincoln ever sighed for more nations to save; no Luther for more churches to purify; no Darwin that nature had not more hidden secrets which he might follow to their depths; no Aga.s.siz that the thoughts of G.o.d were all exhausted before he was born.
And now, a final word to you as scholars: Higher education means the higher sacrifice. That you are taught to know is simply that you may do. Knowing the truth signifies that you should do right. Knowing and doing have value only as translated into justice and love. There is no man so strong as not to need your help. There is no man so weak that you cannot make him stronger. There is none so sick that you cannot bring him to the "gate called Beautiful." There is no evil in the world that you cannot help turn to goodness. "We could lift up this land," said Bjornson of Norway, "we could lift up this land, if we lifted as one."
Therefore lift, and lift as one. You are strong enough and wise enough. You shall seek strength and wisdom, that others through you may be wiser and stronger. You shall seek your place to work as your basis for helpfulness. Others will make the place as good as you deserve. If your lives are sacrificed in helping men, it is to the market of the ages you carry your blood, not to the milk-market of Concord town. The honest man will not "pledge himself in Germany to teach nothing which is not true." Being true himself, he can teach nothing false. The more men of the true order there are in the world, the greater is the world"s need of men.
As you are men, so will your places in life be secure. Every profession is calling you. Every walk of life is waiting for your effort. There will always be room for you, and each of you will make room for many.
[1] Address to the Graduating Cla.s.s, Leland Stanford Jr. University, May 21, 1896.
THE BUBBLES OF SaKI.
In sad, sweet cadence Persian Omar sings The life of man that lasts but for a day; A phantom caravan that hastes away, On to the chaos of insensate things.
"The Eternal Saki from that bowl hath poured Millions of bubbles like us and shall pour,"
Thy life or mine, a half-unspoken word, A fleck of foam tossed on an unknown sh.o.r.e.
"When thou and I behind the veil are past, Oh, but the long, long while the world shall last?
Which of our coming and departure heeds, As the seven seas shall heed a pebble cast."
"Then, my beloved, fill the cup that clears To-day of past regrets and future fears."
This is the only wisdom man can know, "I come like water, and like wind I go."
But tell me, Omar, hast thou said the whole?
If such the bubbles that fill Saki"s bowl, How great is Saki, whose least whisper calls Forth from the swirling mists a human soul!
Omar, one word of thine is but a breath, A single cadence in thy perfect song; And as its measures softly flow along, A million cadences pa.s.s on to death.
Shall this one word withdraw itself in scorn, Because "t is not thy first, nor last, nor all-- Because "t is not the sole breath thou hast drawn, Nor yet the sweetest from thy lips let fall?
I do rejoice that when "of Me and Thee"
Men talk no longer, yet not less, but more, The Eternal Saki still that bowl shall fill, And ever stronger, purer bubbles pour.
One little note in the Eternal Song, The Perfect Singer hath made place for me; And not one atom in earth"s wondrous throng But shall be needful to Infinity.