Address in Praise of Founders

"N.B. University. The Encoenia Exercises. ... Prof. Rivet's Oration" The Daily Telegraph (25 June 1880): 3.

Education is the first need that the social man requires; it s for ht moral nature what breathing is for the body. It forms the most solid basis of society, the most agreeable bonds between men. It directs their desires towards the beautiful, towards what is profitable, virtuous and good, or in other words it directs them towards our needs; it animates and prolongs our employments, and its code is that of public and individual happiness. It charms our younger years and makes the delight of the more mature man, dispelling sorrows, soothing in time of trouble, causing to forget even misery. What adversity does it not alleviate?

The benefits it procures are lasting and incalculable, and, as they become known, they are felt and earnestly studies. Everyone to-day speaks of improvements in the different departments of education. New method! It is the cry which echoes from the humblest hamlet to the largest city. The old routine which retarded the progress of the mind and the development of the intellect are attacked on all sides. Every educationalist makes it his duty and honor, to bring his quota to the new monument which is being erected to human intellect, and the friends of youth who devote their time and thoughts in opening to teaching a sure and more rational way, more in harmony with the wants of the age, are increasing daily.

In the new world, as well as the old, no great question, either moral, religious, or political, engrosses the different communities so earnestly and so forcibly. Go where you will, on this American continent, or across the water, you will find the same feverish agitation for the improvements that characterize the time in which we live. Italy and Spain for so long indifferent in that respect, are not either maturing or inaugurating new educational systems. England, Germany and the United States are continually improving theirs. This question does more than engaging, in a direct manner, a large portion of the best men by requiring their labors and thoughts; it has within the last few years received more munificence than any other. The different Governors of this Province and the Dominion from Sir Howard Douglas down to the present Marquis of Lorne, who had medals to offer, as rewards of merit, offered them to institutions of learning, and perhaps there is scarcely a College in America which, at some period or other of its existence, has not received a legacy. The University of New Brunswick is probably the only sad exception there is. It has not yet had the pleasure of acknowledging any donation wherewith to extend its curriculum, and to furnish its halls and lecture rooms, which in that respect are very inferior to other institutions of learning in this Dominion. But, I do not mean to say that we are in a worse condition than other communities. If the rich men of the Province have, until now, showed some apathy for an object which has found zealous friends elsewhere, our legislators, on the other hand, have adopted the principle of free education for all, a principle calculated to improve and elevate the mass of the inhabitants of the Province, for it reaches every individual and class. New Brunswick has not remained behind in the great movement of the times. Her statesmen knew that in the long run, spiritual force prevails over physical force, that is to say, the enlightened country, the educated country--whatever may be her present condition and appearances otherwise--the country which makes sacrifices for education will have the supremacy over the others. To prove this we have only to refer to ancient and modern history. Egypt, Greece and Rome, the three most famous nations of antiquity, obtained their ascendancy and superiority through the training they received. Besides that commanding influence they exerted around them at different times, they enjoyed and realized a degree of happiness unknown to any other before the Christian era. Their arms were generally successful, their laws obeyed, property respected and their works, which in this present civilized century remain monuments of skill and learning were almost always turned to useful purposes. The same contrast exists among modern nations. North America is ahead of South America, Scotland ahead of England for the same reasons. These facts show sufficiently that education is the first great power, the great elevator, the first among social needs; they show also the obligations we are under to the founders of this University, who, in their wise and generous views, endowed New Brunswick with an institution whose present curriculum is complete in itself, for it embraces all the branches necessary and calculated to prepare and fit a young man for any purpose in life.

It would take too much time to discuss the merits of the different subjects taken up, and engaging the attention of the students, besides the advantages of some of them are too well known to require even to be mentioned. Mathematics and classics are in every college the ground work, the main studies, they are both well adapted to train the mind. The natural sciences, apart from their practical character bring us near our Maker, and initiate us into endless study. Whatever destiny awaits us, in whatever country of the globe we have to spend our days, nature will incessantly surround us with its productions, its phenomena, its wonders. In the vast plains, in the midst of thick woods, upon the top of high mountains and in the depth of solitary valleys, towards the banks of peaceful brooks and upon the immense surface of the troubled ocean we will find ourselves surrounded with objects of our studies. These subjects, with the literature of the two main languages of the world, are what are necessary, what are required to fit one for any calling followed in the Dominion.

It is true, most colleges have a more extensive curriculum. Among other subjects, Spanish, Italian and German are often added to it; especially the latter, which seems to-day to be almost exclusively the language of modern philosophers and theologians. But, after all, their works are very little read in the original, even by those who understand them. To become universal and popular they have to be transformed, as it were, by some patient hand: they have to become either French or English. These two, besides their pleasing form and the attraction they present to the student, have the most extensive and comprehensive literature of all modern languages. Heirs of the old classic Greece and Rome they continue them. They treat all the phases of society which they represent. From the time Roman civilization in its decayed form offered for exercise nothing but vain combinations of frivolous notions they saw before them a vast work, a vast field where the greatest problems of philosophy were discussed under various names. The gravest questions concerning the nature of God, our relations to Him, human freedom, providential action upon our will, sublime researches around with roll eternally the incertitudes of philosophers, and which each one views under a different aspect.

In the midst of these solemn disputes where debates are mere speculative questions, others of a more practical nature are introduced. Aristotle's works find a place there, and excite the wildest enthusiasm. With them are studies the other classics and inspired that brilliant army of writers who have illustrated England and France. The passionate love for Grecian and Roman antiquities which they imparted was not long before it bore fruit. Modern thought, fortified by the intercourse with great writers, dared at least, to look political and moral questions in the face to examine and discuss them. The nations, compressed in the severe unity of the middle age, escaped from the uniform mode which has so long surrounded them and tended to that other unity, still very distant, which must arise from the spontaneous aspect of the same truth by all men, and which must result from the development, free and original, of each individual, and, as a vast concert unite harmonious discords. Europe unconscious of the results, greedily seized the means; the insurrection. In that movement the sixteenth century was the vanguard of the seventeenth. Luther appears in Germany and commences that implacable war of words, and moves and inflames his country as well as the rest of Europe. France and England are among the first to receive the impulse. Germany abdicates, as it were, for a time and sends down the sceptre to them. People think, examine; various talents spring up, Bacon, Shakespeare, and Milton appear in England; Descartes, Corneille, Moliere and Racine in France, and from that moment the literature of France and England became immortal.

In Italy the assimilation of modern thought and antique reminiscences had been simple and rapid. No obstacle had shackled their union. It was not so, however, in the two other countries. Before that literature reached its perfection it had to receive and combine numerous and diverse elements, and suffer before producing modern thought the labor of a long gestation. This antique beauty introduced in the literature of those two languages is due not only to the inspirations of the middle age and the study of the old classics. A new breath has come from the north, and ennobled the conscience of man. The right of doubting, the duty of thinking, the need of a free and individual action had to be combined with the unity of opinion, of mind and government, necessary condition of a strong national unity, indispensable preliminary for an art and a literature.

By what agitation, therefore, is that diversity of elements in the sphere of thoughts expressed in the field of deeds? Civil wars, races exterminated, democracy passing from one sect to another and forming with theocracy a strange alliance. Such is the spectacle the history of these two countries presents to the view. Then comes the long expected denouement of that bloody tragedy. Tumult is appeased, passions calm down, politics are lulled to sleep. Unity springs up again by the reconciliation of thoughts. The mixture of these different elements with the immortal remains of the antique civilization was slow. It is scarcely before the latter part of the sixteenth century that that inimitable literature will flourish. Previous to that time authors of rare talents had undoubtedly existed. Perhaps none will ever surpass them in enthusiasm and originality, in a purer and more incisive common sense. But the language of these writers belongs to themselves. Each one extemporizes it for the present use of his thoughts. There is not yet a common and universal form for all.

To find perfection, elegance, simplicity, harmony and majesty, as well as diversity, we have to come down to the sixteenth century. The noble productions of that time, which were continued without interruption in the subsequent ages, apart from placing before us incomparable models for our imitation imposes a duty upon us; to grow in perfection by their study, to exist, as it were, in a higher degree. It is the duty which God enjoins to man; it is the continuation of the works of God himself, it is the complement of creation. But this moral growth, this need to grow, as all other forces of nature, yield to a greater force. It is more an impulse than a necessity. It induces, it does not compel. A thousand other obstacles may stop its development in individuals. Moral freedom can hasten or slacken its result. After virtue and religion nothing can lead more safely to happiness than the love for science and literature. Oh you who listen to me, you who are still young, who are planning for your dearest hopes, you before whom is opened a career which you can illustrate by so many works and deeds! Oh, when you have experienced this comforting truth that happiness consists in virtue, and in the knowledge that enlightens when in the midst of the splendor of glory, or in the obscurity of a perpetual retreat, you shall enjoy the delight derived from study, and when it shall recall to you your best years, your first efforts, your first success, mingle sometimes with these thoughts the remembrance of you Alma Mater, and those who perhaps will be no more, but who to-day wish you, and urge you to, the most glorious and happy destinies.