progress of the past has been accomplished not by the total overthrow of
institutions so much as by discarding that which was bad and preserving
that which was good; not by revolution but by evolution has man worked
out his destiny. We shall miss the central feature of all progress
unless we hold to that process now. It is not a question of whether our
institutions are perfect. The most beneficent of our institutions had
their beginnings in forms which would be particularly odious to us now.
Civilization began with war and slavery; government began in absolute
despotism; and religion itself grew out of superstition which was
oftentimes marked with human sacrifices. So out of our present
imperfections we shall develop that which is more perfect. But the
candid mind of the scholar will admit and seek to remedy all wrongs with
the same zeal with which it defends all rights.

From the knowledge and the learning of the scholar there ought to be
developed an abiding faith. What is the teaching of all history? That
which is necessary for the welfare and progress of the human race has
never been destroyed. The discoverers of truth, the teachers of science,
the makers of inventions, have passed to their last rewards, but their
works have survived. The Phoenician galleys and the civilization which
was born of their commerce have perished, but the alphabet which that
people perfected remains. The shepherd kings of Israel, the temple and
empire of Solomon, have gone the way of all the earth, but the Old
Testament has been preserved for the inspiration of mankind. The ark of
the covenant and the seven-pronged candlestick have passed from human
view; the inhabitants of Judea have been dispersed to the ends of the
earth, but the New Testament has survived and increased in its influence
among men. The glory of Athens and Sparta, the grandeur of the Imperial
City, are a long-lost memory, but the poetry of Homer and Virgil, the
oratory of Demosthenes and Cicero, the philosophy of Plato and