day, he made his way to Massachusetts, and there, within two years of his arrival, he died, prematurely, as it then seemed, but in the fulness and perfection of time, as is now manifest; for, finding the infant colony struggling without means to establish a college in the wilderness, in the first decade of its settlement, he bequeathed to its foundation his library and half of his considerable fortune, and, what was better still, his name, which has now become so illustrious. The colonial record is quaint and touching: “After God had carried us safe to New England and we had builded our homes, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civic government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to our churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. And as we were thinking and consulting how to effect this great work, it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly gentleman and lover of learning then living among us) to give the one-half of his estate (it being in all about £1,700) towards the erecting of a college, and all his library. After him another gave £300, others after them cast in more, and the public hand of the State added the rest. The college was by public consent appointed to be at Cambridge, a place very pleasant and accommodate, and is called according to the name of its first founder, Harvard College." It assumed in its arms, as

you will see in the window, a double motto - veritas, truth, a word broad enough to embrace all knowledge, human and divine; and, what meant the same thing, Christo et Ecclesiae, to Christ and his Church, that the supply of godly ministers might never fail.

And now, after the lapse of three centuries, the little college in the pathless wilderness has become a great and splendid University, strong in prestige and renown, rich in endowments, and richer still in the pious loyalty of its sons, who supply all its wants upon demand with liberal hand. It is not unworthy to be compared with Oxford and Cambridge, those ancient nurseries of learning from which it drew its first life. And the name of John Harvard shares the fame which mankind accords to the founders of States. From the beginning until now it has occupied the foremost place in America as a radiating source of light and reading. In all the great movements of progress by which the United States have advanced from that little handful of storm-swept immigrants on the Atlantic coast to the Imperial Republic of to-day, Harvard University and its sons have had their full share; and without disparagement to her younger sisters, who are many and great, it may truly be said that, as she was first in time, she has always been first in position and influence; and especially in the matter of education, which is and always has been the chief industry of America, she has always led and still leads the way. So considerable have been the contribu

tions of her sons to the public and social and intellectual life of the nation that, if all other books and papers were destroyed, its history could be fairly reproduced from the Harvard University Catalogue, and from what is known of the lives of the alumni there registered. And if you ask if she is still true to her ancient watchwords veritas and Christo et Ecclesiae, I can answer that, in our own time, in a single quarter of a century, she has sent forth Phillips Brooks to be a pillar of Christ and the Church, and Theodore Roosevelt to be a champion of the truth, and thousands more who in humble spheres follow in their footsteps and share their faith and their hope.

Thus the name of John Harvard, unknown and of little account when he left England, has been a benediction to the new world, and his timely and generous act has borne fruit a millionfold. Coming back to the very beginning of things, we are here to-day to lay a wreath upon his shrine. I hope that this memorial, which the Dean and Chapter have kindly consented to accept from my hands, will long remain for Americans to come and see the very spot where one of their proudest institutions had its origin, and to remind all Englishmen who visit it how inseparable we are in history and destiny. I hope, also, that it may tend to keep alive the kindred spirit between the Universities of the two countries; for Harvard is just as surely the offspring of Cambridge and Oxford, and the own daughter of Emmanuel, as old England is the mother of New England. In the

earlier period of the colony we had one hundred teachers from Oxford and Cambridge, and of these seventy were from Cambridge, and of these again twenty were from Emmanuel. So long as ideas rule the world let all the Universities of both countries stand together for truth, and with one voice let them say to the youth of both lands, "Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go, for she is thy life." I am under deep obligations to the Dean and Chapter for consenting to receive and cherish this gift, and to Mr. LaFarge, the distinguished artist, for the noble manner in which he has designed and executed it.