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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1899)
the coast defences of the country at its principal port. DE miral Bunce has been an authority in several branches of naval warfare. In courts martial his services have been highly esteemed.” PRESENTING MR, DODGE. “T have the honor to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Divinity Reverend David Stuart Dodge, Presi- dent of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions. Mr. Dodge, a grad- uate of Yale in the Class of 1857, mani- fested as a student the disposition which has prompted him to devote his time and this means to the cause of educa- tion and religion. While in Syria he was inspired with the purpose to do something effective for the enlighten- ment of the people in that region. He procured the charter and obtained the funds for the foundation of the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, secured for it instructors of marked ability, or- ganized the course of study, himself served as a Professor for a number of years, and has ever since acted as a kind of general Manager and Treasurer. This college at Beirut has exerted a strong influence over all the Arabic- speaking peoples. In this countrv, Mr. Dodge thas given much time and con- tributed generously to the founding of schools for poor whites in the South. In the city of New York he has been actively concerned in no small number of charitable undertakings. All this time, in connection with absorbing activity in behalf of others, Mr. Dodge has kept up scholarly studies with a degree of success that merits honorable recognition.” PRESENTING DR. SMITH. “T have the honor to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Divinity Professor George Adam Smith, Profes- sor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis in Free Church College, Glasgow. The name of Professor Smith is well known beyond the bor- ders of his own country as that of an eminent scholar and author, and as one of a group of men who, in the pulpit and through other channels, have car- ried into the earnest inculcation of Christian truth a method and spirit specially fitted to the altered times. His experience as a preacher was mainly in Aberdeen, during a period of about ten years. Of his winning elo- quence in the pulpit none who have heard him during his recent sojourn among us need to be informed. Be-- fore assuming his present post of in- struction, for which ‘his studies at home and in Germany were a complete preparation, he twice visited Palestine and Egypt. His elaborate work, the “Historical Geography,” is the product of his studies and travels. Better known to general readers are his ad- mirable Commentaries on Isaiah and on the Twelve Prophets. These works, al- though based on accurate scholarship and familiarity with modern Biblical Criticism, are not in the form of dry annotations. They are fluent, spirited writings—expositions of the text and pictures of the times. Better still, they combine with frankness in the expres- sion of critical opinions, whether or not at variance with popular tenets, a profound belief in the divine revelation at the basis of the Bible, and a reverent appreciation of the incomparable value of the Scriptures. The same qualities have characterized his recent course of lectures to the Yale Divinity School, on the ‘Preaching of the Old Testa- ment.” They have presented an ex- ample of the harmonious union of scientific thoroughness and Christian faith. The last production ‘of Professor Smith, the Life of Henry Drummond, is the biography of one of the group of associates to whom I have referred,— of one who is remembered with grati- tude in so many American colleges.” PRESENTING JUDGE ADAMS. “J have the honor to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws Hon. Frederick Adams, Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals in the State of New Jersey. Judge Adams was grad- uated at Yale in 1862. His professional life has been mostly spent in New Jer- sey. His appointment (in 1897) to his present station followed naturally upon the high estimate of this qualifications which had been formed by his brethren at the bar. It verified an early judg- For many years Ad- his c judicial temper. ment which his classmates formed, in his college days, of his ability and his The Court of which he is a member is the Supreme Ap- pellate tribunal of the State, whose function it is to review: the decisions of the Supreme Court and of. other courts of subordinate jurisdiction. Judge Adams is likewise, ex-officio, a Judge of the Court of Pardons,— a court which in New Jersey is invested with unusual powers. Let me add that he has not allowed himself to abandon his classical studies, and has found time for literary compositions both in prose and verse.” PRESENTING MR. KINGSBURY. “T have the honor to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws Hon. Frederick John Kingsbury, of Water- bury, Connecticut. Mr. Kingsbury re- ceived the Bachelor’s degree at Yale in 1846. After studying law and spend- REV. NEWMAN SMYTH. Succeeds Rey. George L. Walker in Corporation. ing a few years in legal practice, he directed his attention to banking and to business connected with manufacturing and railways. Responsible _ stations ‘held by him in these employments, ' however, have not prevented him from giving generously his time and counsels to the highest interests of the com- munity. In civil and ecclesiastical af- fairs, his services have been prized. While in the Legislature of Connecticut, he served on a Committee on the revi- sion of the statutes of the State. Mr. Kingsbury’s literary tastes, early de- veloped, have found expression in numerous contributions to Reviews and other journals, and in writings pertain- ing to local history and social economy. For three years he was President of the American Social Science Associa- tion. It has been truly said, that “in a city devoted to manufactures and trade, he has long been a conspicuous repre- sentative of the best American culture, illustrating the practicability of com- bining an intelligent interest in litera- ture, art and science, with fidelity to important business trusts and to con- stantly accumulating duties.” I have only to add, that for the last eighteen years Mr. Kingsbury has served Yale University as a member of the Corpora- tion, with unsurpassed fidelity and wis- dom. The degree now offered to him by the spontaneous act of his asso- ciates, on his. retirement from office, while it is merited on other grounds, is a grateful acknowledgment of the debt which the University owes to him.” PRESENTING MR. M’CLINTOCK. “T have the honor to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws Emory McClintock, a graduate of Co- lumbia in 1859. The extraordinary capacity of Dr. McClintock as a mathe- — matician led to his appointment as a College instructor while he was still a student in the Senior class. Since that time, his work in this department of science has been such as to receive for its originality and value the most honorable recognition from the mathe- maticians of highest repute in this country and Great Britain. He has ob- tained satisfactory results in relation to problems of a profound and difficult nature. At the same time he has devel- oped principles and methods of great importance in his chosen fields of re- search. The titles of his printed con- tributions to the American Journal of Mathematics and to other periodicals are themselves indicative of the depth of this investigations. For four years he ‘has been President of the American ‘Mathematical Society. While engaged in scientific researches, Dr. McClintock -has been the Actuary of more than one ‘of the chief Life Insurance organiza- tions in America. He was the first American to be elected as a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Great Britain, and he was for some years the President of the Actuarial Society of America, which he took an active part in organizing, and which comprises in its membership the entire profession on this continent. PRESENTING DR. VON ROTTENBURG. “I have the honor to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws His Excellency, Dr. Franz Johannes von -Rottenburg, Curator of the University of Bonn. For several years Dr. von Rottenburg held a very high position in the Foreign Office at Berlin, which brought him into close and confidential relations with Prince Bismarck. He was rapidly advanced in official promo- tion, received the title of ‘von,’ and was made a ‘Wirklicher Geheimrath.’ Dr. von Rottenburg has given to the public the first instalment of a learned treatise, ‘Vom Begriff des Staates.’ Absorption in public affairs and im- paired health have thus far prevented its completion. the important office of Curator of the University of Bonn. The degree which you are asked to confer is not only a suitable tribute to acknowledged merit; it is likewise a greeting from Yale to a representative of a great Prussian University. May it. contribute’ to strengthen the bond of good-will which connects our country with the Land of Scholars, which is to so many of us our intellectual Fatherland!” PRESENTING PROFESSOR MINOT. “T have the honor to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws Charles Sedgwick Minot, S.D., Profes- sor of Histology and Human Embry- ology in MHarvard University. Dr. Minot is a graduate of the Boston School of Technology, and worked in Leipsic,, Paris, and Wurtzburg, under the most eminent teachers. His great treatise of Human Embryology, which has been translated into German, is the standard authority on the subject. It was followed by a large quarto volume, ‘a Bibliography of Vertebrate Embry- ology, containing three thousand classi- fied titles, with a full index of authors. REV. NEWELL M. CALHOUN. Succeeds Rey. J. W. Backus in Corporation. Dr. Minot’s numerous works are not mere records of observed facts and of theories previously broached, but abound in original and far-reaching theories of his own, some of which Will always be associated with his name. He has, moreover, given much time and attention to the practical, mechani- cal work of investigation, and to the invention of two of the best forms of the microtome, the instrument, next to the microscope, the most useful to histologists and embryologists. It in- dicates the high standing of Dr. Minot, as a biologist, that he has served as President of the American Morphologi- cal Society, and, also, of the Ameri- can Society of Naturalists. PRESENTING ATTORNEY-GENERAL GRIGGS. “T have the honor to present to you for the degree of Doctor of Laws Hon. John William Griggs, Attorney-Gen- eral of the United States. Mr. Griggs He holds at present. aT pe ee was graduated at Lafayette College in 1868. In 1871 he began the practice of law in New Jersey, his native State. He was early advanced by his fellow citizens to public offices. He was first a member of the General Assembly, then State Senator, then President of the Senate, and was inaugurated as Governor in 1896. This station he re- signed in 1898, to accept a seat, as Attorney-General, in the Cabinet of President McKinley. To dwell on the legal ability and attainments of Gover- nor Griggs would be to rehearse familiar facts. : | THE CENTURY REVIEWED. The President’s Sketch of the Waking of the University. [Being the address, delivered at the Commencement exercises in Battell Chapel, Wednesday morn- ing, June 28. 1899, by President Timothy Dwight.] In the arrangements for our Com- mencement exercises which were made when the old order for the day was abandoned and the new one was insti- tuted, it was provided that the Presi- dent should make at the beginning of the service a brief address. This ad- dress was intended to be, and in previ- ous years it has been, a review, in some measure, of the events of the year as related to the history and pro- gress of the University, and the setting forth of those matters connected with its life in the period just finished which might seem to be of peculiar interest to its graduates and friends. On the present occasion, however, an address of this character will be regarded as less called for, and less appropriate ;— less called for, because a full ‘and for- mal record of the year 1898 and of the portion of the year 1899 which has now passed thas been presented by the Presi- dent to the Corporation and been given to the public within the last few days;— less appropriate, because we stand to- day at the dividing-point of two ad- ministrations, and as it were, also, of two centuries. If our minds turn back- ward at all at such a time, it would seem more fitting to take into the thought a longer period and try to get a larger vision. If we let our thinking follow the impulses and in- spirations of the hour, on the other hand, we shall the more readily open our view to the future, and listen to its suggestions of hope and of promise. ~ In what I have the privilege of say- ing at this time, accordingly, I would leave the year that is behind us out of view, and would give expression to a few thoughts with reference to the century now closing and to the era that is soon to open. The history of our institution in the nineteenth century has seemed to me in all my thought of it, as I have from time to time traced its progress from its beginning towards its ending, to be remarkable in one particular aspect. It has seemed to move, as individual human life moves, in accordance with a plan formed by an_ intelligent, superintending mind at the outset and carefully watched in its unfolding and development by the same intelligence. It is full of interest to me as I| think of it thus. THE PROBLEM. The problem of the century, as I look at it, was the making of the Uni- versity. It was a problem of great moment, but of great difficulty and far- reaching in the time that would be required for its solution. The very idea of it was beyond the limit of the thought of most of the men of the early period. There was a college here, in- deed, which had gradually grown out of the original collegiate school, as it might be fitly called. But there was, as we.may say, no beginning for the greater growth which was to be needed in the coming time. Limitation was manifest on every side. The gradual development of what had already been realized appeared to be the largest hope that could open. The vision, unless made clear by a peculiar light that was beyond that of our common life and manhood, did not seem able to take into itself the great possibilities. Strange indeed would it have been, had there been such ability.
