RESPONSE BY PRESIDENT LOWELL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
It is a privilege to speak for the endowed universities of this country
at the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the University of
Virginia, founded by the philosopher-statesman, and architect as well.
Here he lived during the struggle for independence, whereof he wrote the
charter; and here he returned after his labors for the new-born nation, in
France, as Secretary of State and as President. In his later years of well-earned
repose he lit here a beacon to diffuse the light of learning he held
needful for the people he had served so long.
The examples of such far-sighted men as he, have been followed, until
to-day, a host of lights are shining over our whole country from shore to
shore. The oceans that guard our land are the only things upon the planet
that man does not, and cannot, change—symbols of eternity, eternally in
movement and eternally at rest. In this they typify the human spirit, unchangeable
yet ever changing; and the universities, which embody that
spirit in its most refined and keenest form, should ever be centers both of
continual movement and of rest.
Bound together in a common cause, quickened by a common aim,
faithful to a noble trust, our universities and colleges are constantly calling
with their bells throughout this broad land—calling to one another to serve
the needs of the present time, and to prepare the way for generations yet to
come.
Your bells have called, and we, representatives of the great brotherhood
of scholars, have come to pay our tribute of respect to this university, venerable
in years, but ever young;—more vigorous and more youthful as the
years roll on. We come to tell you of our faith that, large as have been her
services in the century that is past, the University of Virginia, in the century
that lies before us, will be greater in works, in influence and in renown.
