,,the ,,rectorial ,,address ,,delivered ,,at ,,st4 ,,andrews ,,university ,,may #crd #aibb ,,courage ,,by ,j4 ,m4 ,,barrie ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton ,,limited ,,toronto ,to the ,red ,gowns of ,st4 ,andrews ,canada1 #aibb ,you have had many rectors here in ,st4 ,andrews who will continue in bloom long after the lowly ones such as ,i am are dead and rotten and forgotten4 ,they are the roses in ,december2 you remember someone said that ,god gave us memory so that we might have roses in ,december4 ,but ,i do not envy the great ones4 ,in my experience--and you may find in the end it is yours also--the people ,i have cared for most and who have seemed most worth caring for--my ,december roses--have been very simple folk4 ,yet ,i wish that for this hour ,i could swell into someone of importance1 so as to do you credit4 ,i suppose you had a melting for me because ,i was hewn out of one of your own quarries1 walked similar academic groves1 and have trudged the road on which you will soon set forth4 ,i would that ,i could put into your hands a staff for that somewhat bloody march1 for though there is much about myself that ,i conceal from other people1 to help you ,i would expose every cranny of my mind4 ,but1 alas1 when the hour strikes for the ,rector to answer to his call he is unable to become the undergraduate he used to be1 and so the only door into you is closed4 ,we1 your elders1 are much more interested in you than you are in us4 ,we are not really important to you4 ,i have utterly forgotten the address of the ,rector of my time1 and even who he was1 but ,i recall vividly climbing up a statue to tie his colours round its neck and being hurled therefrom with contumely4 ,we remember the important things4 ,i cannot provide you with that staff for your journey2 but perhaps ,i can tell you a little about it1 how to use it and lose it and find it again1 and cling to it more than ever4 ,you shall cut it--so it is ordained--every one of you for himself1 and its name is ,courage4 ,you must excuse me if ,i talk a good deal about courage to you to-day4 ,there is nothing else much worth speaking about to undergraduates or graduates or white-haired men and women4 ,it is the lovely virtue--the rib of ,himself that ,god sent down to ,his children4 ,my special difficulty is that though you have had literary rectors here before1 they were the big guns1 the historians1 the philosophers2 you have had none1 ,i think1 who followed my more humble branch1 which may be described as playing hide and seek with angels4 ,my puppets seem more real to me than myself1 and ,i could get on much more swingingly if ,i made one of them deliver this address4 ,it is ,m',connachie who has brought me to this pass4 ,m',connachie1 ,i should explain1 as ,i have undertaken to open the innermost doors1 is the name ,i give to the unruly half of myself3 the writing half4 ,we are complement and supplement4 ,i am the half that is dour and practical and canny1 he is the fanciful half2 my desire is to be the family solicitor1 standing firm on my hearthrug among the harsh realities of the office furniture2 while he prefers to fly around on one wing4 ,i should not mind him doing that1 but he drags me with him4 ,i have sworn that ,m',connachie shall not interfere with this address to-day2 but there is no telling4 ,i might have done things worth while if it had not been for ,m',connachie1 and my first piece of advice to you at any rate shall be sound3 don't copy me4 ,a good subject for a rectorial address would be the mess the ,rector himself has made of life4 ,i merely cast this forth as a suggestion1 and leave the working of it out to my successor4 ,i do not think it has been used yet4 ,my own theme is ,courage1 as you should use it in the great fight that seems to me to be coming between youth and their betters2 by youth1 meaning1 of course1 you1 and by your betters us4 ,i want you to take up this position3 ,that youth have for too long left exclusively in our hands the decisions in national matters that are more vital to them than to us4 ,things about the next war1 for instance1 and why the last one ever had a beginning4 ,i use the word fight because it must1 ,i think1 begin with a challenge2 but the aim is the reverse of antagonism1 it is partnership4 ,i want you to hold that the time has arrived for youth to demand that partnership1 and to demand it courageously4 ,that to gain courage is what you came to ,st4 ,andrews for4 ,with some alarums and excursions into college life4 ,that is what ,i propose1 but1 of course1 the issue lies with ,m',connachie4 ,your betters had no share in the immediate cause of the war2 we know what nation has that blot to wipe out2 but for fifty years or so we heeded not the rumblings of the distant drum1 ,i do not mean by lack of military preparations2 and when war did come we told youth1 who had to get us out of it1 tall tales of what it really is and of the clover beds to which it leads4 ,we were not meaning to deceive1 most of us were as honourable and as ignorant as the youth themselves2 but that does not acquit us of failings such as stupidity and jealousy1 the two black spots in human nature which1 more than love of money1 are at the root of all evil4 ,if you prefer to leave things as they are we shall probably fail you again4 ,do not be too sure that we have learned our lesson1 and are not at this very moment doddering down some brimstone path4 ,i am far from implying that even worse things than war may not come to a ,state4 ,there are circumstances in which nothing can so well become a land1 as ,i think this land proved when the late war did break out and there was but one thing to do4 ,there is a form of anaemia that is more rotting than even an unjust war4 ,the end will indeed have come to our courage and to us when we are afraid in dire mischance to refer the final appeal to the arbitrament of arms4 ,i suppose all the lusty of our race1 alive and dead1 join hands on that4 ',and he is dead who will not fight2 ,and who dies fighting has increase4' ,but if you must be in the struggle1 the more reason you should know why1 before it begins1 and have a say in the decision whether it is to begin4 ,the youth who went to the war had no such knowledge1 no such say2 ,i am sure the survivors1 of whom there must be a number here to-day1 want you to be wiser than they were1 and are certainly determined to be wiser next time themselves4 ,if you are to get that partnership1 which1 once gained1 is to be for mutual benefit1 it will be1 ,i should say1 by banding yourselves with these men1 not defiantly but firmly1 not for selfish ends but for your country's good4 ,in the meantime they have one bulwark2 they have a ,general who is befriending them as ,i think never1 after the fighting was over1 has a ,general befriended his men before4 ,perhaps the seemly thing would be for us1 their betters1 to elect one of these young survivors of the carnage to be our ,rector4 ,he ought now to know a few things about war that are worth our hearing4 ,if his theme were the ,rector's favourite1 diligence4 ,i should be afraid of his advising a great many of us to be diligent in sitting still and doing no more harm4 ,of course he would put it more suavely than that1 though it is not1 ,i think1 by gentleness that you will get your rights2 we are dogged ones at sticking to what we have got1 and so will you be at our age4 ,but avoid calling us ugly names2 we may be stubborn and we may be blunderers1 but we love you more than aught else in the world1 and once you have won your partnership we shall all be welcoming you4 ,i urge you not to use ugly names about anyone4 ,in the war it was not the fighting men who were distinguished for abuse2 as has been well said1 ',hell hath no fury like a non-combatant4' ,never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own4 ,there may be students here to-day who have decided this session to go in for immortality1 and would like to know of an easy way of accomplishing it4 ,that is a way1 but not so easy as you think4 ,go through life without ever ascribing to your opponents motives meaner than your own4 ,nothing so lowers the moral currency2 give it up1 and be great4 ,another sure way to fame is to know what you mean4 ,it is a solemn thought that almost no one--if he is truly eminent--knows what he means4 ,look at the great ones of the earth1 the politicians4 ,we do not discuss what they say1 but what they may have meant when they said it4 ,in #aibb we are all wondering1 and so are they1 what they meant in #aiad and afterwards4 ,they are publishing books trying to find out2 the men of action as well as the men of words4 ,there are exceptions4 ,it is not that our statesmen are 'sugared mouths with minds therefrae'2 many of them are the best men we have got1 upright and anxious1 nothing cheaper than to miscall them4 ,the explanation seems just to be that it is so difficult to know what you mean1 especially when you have become a swell4 ,no longer apparently can you deal in 'russet yeas and honest kersey noes'2 gone for ever is simplicity1 which is as beautiful as the divine plain face of ,lamb's ,miss ,kelly4 ,doubts breed suspicions1 a dangerous air4 ,without suspicion there might have been no war4 ,when you are called to ,downing ,street to discuss what you want of your betters with the ,prime ,minister he won't be suspicious1 not as far as you can see2 but remember the atmosphere of generations you are in1 and when he passes you the toast-rack say to yourselves1 if you would be in the mode1 ',now1 ,i wonder what he means by that4' ,even without striking out in the way ,i suggest1 you are already disturbing your betters considerably4 ,i sometimes talk this over with ,m',connachie1 with whom1 as you may guess1 circumstances compel me to pass a good deal of my time4 ,in our talks we agree that we1 your betters1 constantly find you forgetting that we are your betters4 ,your answer is that the war and other happenings have shown you that age is not necessarily another name for sapience2 that our avoidance of frankness in life and in the arts is often1 but not so often as you think1 a cowardly way of shirking unpalatable truths1 and that you have taken us off our pedestals because we look more natural on the ground4 ,you who are at the rash age even accuse your elders1 sometimes not without justification1 of being more rash than yourselves4 ',if ,youth but only knew1' we used to teach you to sing2 but now1 just because ,youth has been to the war1 it wants to change the next line into ',if ,age had only to do4' ,in so far as this attitude of yours is merely passive1 sullen1 negative1 as it mainly is1 despairing of our capacity and anticipating a future of gloom1 it is no game for man or woman4 ,it is certainly the opposite of that for which ,i plead4 ,do not stand aloof1 despising1 disbelieving1 but come in and help--insist on coming in and helping4 ,after all1 we have shown a good deal of courage2 and your part is to add a greater courage to it4 ,there are glorious years lying ahead of you if you choose to make them glorious4 ,god's in ,his ,heaven still4 ,so forward1 brave hearts4 ,to what adventures ,i cannot tell1 but ,i know that your ,god is watching to see whether you are adventurous4 ,i know that the great partnership is only a first step1 but ,i do not know what are to be the next and the next4 ,the partnership is but a tool2 what are you to do with it8 ,very little1 ,i warn you1 if you are merely thinking of yourselves2 much if what is at the marrow of your thoughts is a future that even you can scarcely hope to see4 ,learn as a beginning how world-shaking situations arise and how they may be countered4 ,doubt all your betters who would deny you that right of partnership4 ,begin by doubting all such in high places-- except1 of course1 your professors4 ,but doubt all other professors-- yet not conceitedly1 as some do1 with their noses in the air2 avoid all such physical risks4 ,if it necessitates your pushing some of us out of our places1 still push2 you will find it needs some shoving4 ,but the things courage can do6 ,the things that even incompetence can do if it works with singleness of purpose4 ,the war has done at least one big thing3 it has taken spring out of the year4 ,and1 this accomplished1 our leading people are amazed to find that the other seasons are not conducting themselves as usual4 ,the spring of the year lies buried in the fields of ,france and elsewhere4 ,by the time the next eruption comes it may be you who are responsible for it and your sons who are in the lava4 ,all1 perhaps1 because this year you let things slide4 ,we are a nice and kindly people1 but it is already evident that we are stealing back into the old grooves1 seeking cushions for our old bones1 rather than attempting to build up a fairer future4 ,that is what we mean when we say that the country is settling down4 ,make haste1 or you will become like us1 with only the thing we proudly call experience to add to your stock1 a poor exchange for the generous feelings that time will take away4 ,we have no intention of giving you your share4 ,look around and see how much share ,youth has now that the war is over4 ,you got a handsome share while it lasted4 ,i expect we shall beat you2 unless your fortitude be doubly girded by a desire to send a message of cheer to your brothers who fell1 the only message1 ,i believe1 for which they crave2 they are not worrying about their ,aunt ,jane4 ,they want to know if you have learned wisely from what befell them2 if you have1 they will be braced in the feeling that they did not die in vain4 ,some of them think they did4 ,they will not take our word for it that they did not4 ,you are their living image2 they know you could not lie to them1 but they distrust our flattery and our cunning faces4 ,to us they have passed away2 but are you who stepped into their heritage only yesterday1 whose books are scarcely cold to their hands1 you who still hear their cries being blown across the links--are you already relegating them to the shades8 ,the gaps they have left in this ,university are among the most honourable of her wounds4 ,but we are not here to acclaim them4 ,where they are now1 hero is1 ,i think1 a very little word4 ,they call to you to find out in time the truth about this great game1 which your elders play for stakes and ,youth plays for its life4 ,i do not know whether you are grown a little tired of that word hero1 but ,i am sure the heroes are4 ,that is the subject of one of our unfinished plays2 ,m',connachie is the one who writes the plays4 ,if any one of you here proposes to be a playwright you can take this for your own and finish it4 ,the scene is a school1 schoolmasters present1 but if you like you could make it a university1 professors present4 ,they are discussing an illuminated scroll about a student fallen in the war1 which they have kindly presented to his parents2 and unexpectedly the parents enter4 ,they are an old pair1 backbent1 they have been stalwarts in their day but have now gone small2 they are poor1 but not so poor that they could not send their boy to college4 ,they are in black1 not such a rusty black either1 and you may be sure she is the one who knows what to do with his hat4 ,their faces are gnarled1 ,i suppose--but ,i do not need to describe that pair to ,scottish students4 ,they have come to thank the ,senatus for their lovely scroll and to ask them to tear it up4 ,at first they had been enamoured to read of what a scholar their son was1 how noble and adored by all4 ,but soon a fog settled over them1 for this grand person was not the boy they knew4 ,he had many a fault well known to them2 he was not always so noble2 as a scholar he did no more than scrape through2 and he sometimes made his father rage and his mother grieve4 ,they had liked to talk such memories as these together1 and smile over them1 as if they were bits of him he had left lying about the house4 ,so thank you kindly1 and would you please give them back their boy by tearing up the scroll8 ,i see nothing else for our dramatist to do4 ,i think he should ask an alumna of ,st4 ,andrews to play the old lady 7indicating ,miss ,ellen ,terry74 ,the loveliest of all young actresses1 the dearest of all old ones2 it seems only yesterday that all the men of imagination proposed to their beloveds in some such frenzied words as these1 ',as ,i can't get ,miss ,terry1 may ,i have you8' ,this play might become historical as the opening of your propaganda in the proposed campaign4 ,how to make a practical advance8 ,the ,league of ,nations is a very fine thing1 but it cannot save you1 because it will be run by us4 ,beware your betters bringing presents4 ,what is wanted is something run by yourselves4 ,you have more in common with the ,youth of other lands than ,youth and ,age can ever have with each other2 even the hostile countries sent out many a son very like ours1 from the same sort of homes1 the same sort of universities1 who had as little to do as our youth had with the origin of the great adventure4 ,can we doubt that many of these on both sides who have gone over and were once opponents are now friends8 ,you ought to have a ,league of ,youth of all countries as your beginning1 ready to say to all ,governments1 ',we will fight each other but only when we are sure of the necessity4' ,are you equal to your job1 you young men8 ,if not1 ,i call upon the red-gowned women to lead the way4 ,i sound to myself as if ,i were advocating a rebellion1 though ,i am really asking for a larger friendship4 ,perhaps ,i may be arrested on leaving the hall4 ,in such a cause ,i should think that ,i had at last proved myself worthy to be your ,rector4 ,you will have to work harder than ever1 but possibly not so much at the same things2 more at modern languages certainly if you are to discuss that ,league of ,youth with the students of other nations when they come over to ,st4 ,andrews for the ,conference4 ,i am far from taking a side against the classics4 ,i should as soon argue against your having tops to your heads2 that way lie the best tops4 ,science1 too1 has at last come to its own in ,st4 ,andrews4 ,it is the surest means of teaching you how to know what you mean when you say4 ,so you will have to work harder4 ,isaak ,walton quotes the saying that doubtless the ,almighty could have created a finer fruit than the strawberry1 but that doubtless also ,he never did4 ,doubtless also ,he could have provided us with better fun than hard work1 but ,i don't know what it is4 ,to be born poor is probably the next best thing4 ,the greatest glory that has ever come to me was to be swallowed up in ,london1 not knowing a soul1 with no means of subsistence1 and the fun of working till the stars went out4 ,to have known any one would have spoilt it4 ,i did not even quite know the language4 ,i rang for my boots1 and they thought ,i said a glass of water1 so ,i drank the water and worked on4 ,there was no food in the cupboard1 so ,i did not need to waste time in eating4 ,the pangs and agonies when no proof came4 ,how courteously tolerant was ,i of the postman without a proof for us2 how ,m',connachie1 on the other hand1 wanted to punch his head4 ,the magic days when our article appeared in an evening paper4 ,the promptitude with which ,i counted the lines to see how much we should get for it4 ,then ,m',connachie's superb air of dropping it into the gutter4 ,oh1 to be a free lance of journalism again--that darling jade6 ,those were days4 ,too good to last4 ,let us be grave4 ,here comes a ,rector4 ,but now1 on reflection1 a dreadful sinking assails me1 that this was not really work4 ,the artistic callings--you remember how ,stevenson thumped them--are merely doing what you are clamorous to be at2 it is not real work unless you would rather be doing something else4 ,my so-called labours were just ,m',connachie running away with me again4 ,still1 ,i have sometimes worked2 for instance1 ,i feel that ,i am working at this moment4 ,and the big guns are in the same plight as the little ones4 ,carlyle1 the king of all rectors1 has always been accepted as the arch-apostle of toil1 and has registered his many woes4 ,but it will not do4 ,despite sickness1 poortith1 want and all1 he was grinding all his life at the one job he revelled in4 ,an extraordinarily happy man1 though there is no direct proof that he thought so4 ,there must be many men in other callings besides the arts lauded as hard workers who are merely out for enjoyment4 ,our ,chancellor8 7indicating ,lord ,haig74 ,if our ,chancellor has always a passion to be a soldier1 we must reconsider him as a worker4 ,even our ,principal8 ,how about the light that burns in our ,principal's room after decent people have gone to bed8 ,if we could climb up and look in--,i should like to do something of that kind for the last time--should we find him engaged in honest toil1 or guiltily engrossed in chemistry8 ,you will all fall into one of those two callings1 the joyous or the uncongenial2 and one wishes you into the first1 though our sympathy1 our esteem1 must go rather to the less fortunate1 the braver ones who 'turn their necessity to glorious gain' after they have put away their dreams4 ,to the others will go the easy prizes of life1 success1 which has become a somewhat odious onion nowadays1 chiefly because we so often give the name to the wrong thing4 ,when you reach the evening of your days you will1 ,i think1 see--with1 ,i hope1 becoming cheerfulness--that we are all failures1 at least all the best of us4 ,the greatest ,scotsman that ever lived wrote himself down a failure3 ',the poor inhabitant below ,was quick to learn and wise to know ,and keenly felt the friendly glow ,and softer flame4 ,but thoughtless follies laid him low1 ,and stained his name4' ,perhaps the saddest lines in poetry1 written by a man who could make things new for the gods themselves4 ,if you want to avoid being like ,burns there are several possible ways4 ,thus you might copy us1 as we shine forth in our published memoirs1 practically without a flaw4 ,no one so obscure nowadays but that he can have a book about him4 ,happy the land that can produce such subjects for the pen4 ,but do not put your photograph at all ages into your autobiography4 ,that may bring you to the ground4 ',my ,life2 and what ,i have done with it'2 that is the sort of title1 but it is the photographs that give away what you have done with it4 ,grim things1 those portraits2 if you could read the language of them you would often find it unnecessary to read the book4 ,the face itself1 of course1 is still more tell-tale1 for it is the record of all one's past life4 ,there the man stands in the dock1 page by page2 we ought to be able to see each chapter of him melting into the next like the figures in the cinematograph4 ,even the youngest of you has got through some chapters already4 ,when you go home for the next vacation someone is sure to say ',john has changed a little2 ,i don't quite see in what way1 but he has changed4' ,you remember they said that last vacation4 ,perhaps it means that you look less like your father4 ,think that out4 ,i could say some nice things of your betters if ,i chose4 ,in youth you tend to look rather frequently into a mirror1 not at all necessarily from vanity4 ,you say to yourself1 ',what an interesting face2 ,i wonder what he is to be up to8' ,your elders do not look into the mirror so often4 ,we know what he has been up to4 ,as yet there is unfortunately no science of reading other people's faces2 ,i think a chair for this should be founded in ,st4 ,andrews4 ,the new professor will need to be a sublime philosopher1 and for obvious reasons he ought to wear spectacles before his senior class4 ,it will be a gloriously optimistic chair1 for he can tell his students the glowing truth1 that what their faces are to be like presently depends mainly on themselves4 ,mainly1 not altogether-- ',i am the master of my fate1 ,i am the captain of my soul4' ,i found the other day an old letter from ,henley that told me of the circumstances in which he wrote that poem4 ',i was a patient1' he writes1 'in the old infirmary of ,edinburgh4 ,i had heard vaguely of ,lister1 and went there as a sort of forlorn hope on the chance of saving my foot4 ,the great surgeon received me1 as he did and does everybody1 with the greatest kindness1 and for twenty months ,i lay in one or other ward of the old place under his care4 ,it was a desperate business1 but he saved my foot1 and here ,i am4' ,there he was1 ladies and gentlemen1 and what he was doing during that 'desperate business' was singing that he was master of his fate4 ,if you want an example of courage try ,henley4 ,or ,stevenson4 ,i could tell you some stories abut these two1 but they would not be dull enough for a rectorial address4 ,for courage1 again1 take ,meredith1 whose laugh was 'as broad as a thousand beeves at pasture4' ,take1 as ,i think1 the greatest figure literature has still left us1 to be added to-day to the roll of ,st4 ,andrews' alumni1 though it must be in absence4 ,the pomp and circumstance of war will pass1 and all others now alive may fade from the scene1 but ,i think the quiet figure of ,hardy will live on4 ,i seem to be taking all my examples from the calling ,i was lately pretending to despise4 ,i should like to read you some passages of a letter from a man of another calling1 which ,i think will hearten you4 ,i have the little filmy sheets here4 ,i thought you might like to see the actual letter2 it has been a long journey2 it has been to the ,south ,pole4 ,it is a letter to me from ,captain ,scott of the ,antarctic1 and was written in the tent you know of1 where it was found long afterwards with his body and those of some other very gallant gentlemen1 his comrades4 ,the writing is in pencil1 still quite clear1 though toward the end some of the words trail away as into the great silence that was waiting for them4 ,it begins3 ',we are pegging out in a very comfortless spot4 ,hoping this letter may be found and sent to you1 ,i write you a word of farewell4 ,i want you to think well of me and my end4' 7,after aome private instructions too intimate to read1 he goes on73 ',goodbye--,i am not at all afraid of the end1 but sad to miss many a simple pleasure which ,i had planned for the future in our long marches4 4 4 4 ,we are in a desperate state--feet frozen1 etc41 no fuel1 and a long way from food1 but it would do your heart good to be in our tent1 to hear our songs and our cheery conversation4 4 4 4 ,later--7it is here that the words become difficult7--,we are very near the end4 4 4 4 ,we did intend to finish ourselves when things proved like this1 but we have decided to die naturally without4' ,i think it may uplift you all to stand for a moment by that tent and listen1 as he says1 to their songs and cheery conversation4 ,when ,i think of ,scott ,i remember the strange ,alpine story of the youth who fell down a glacier and was lost1 and of how a scientific companion1 one of several who accompanied him1 all young1 computed that the body would again appear at a certain date and place many years afterwards4 ,when that time came round some of the survivors returned to the glacier to see if the prediction would be fulfilled2 all old men now2 and the body reappeared as young as on the day he left them4 ,so ,scott and his comrades emerge out of the white immensities always young4 ,how comely a thing is affliction borne cheerfully1 which is not beyond the reach of the humblest of us4 ,what is beauty8 ,it is these hard-bitten men singing courage to you from their tent2 it is the waves of their island home crooning of their deeds to you who are to follow them4 ,sometimes beauty boils over and them spirits are abroad4 ,ages may pass as we look or listen1 for time is annihilated4 ,there is a very old legend told to me by ,nansen the explorer--,i like well to be in the company of explorers--the legend of a monk who had wandered into the fields and a lark began to sing4 ,he had never heard a lark before1 and he stood there entranced until the bird and its song had become part of the heavens4 ,then he went back to the monastery and found there a doorkeeper whom he did not know and who did not know him4 ,other monks came1 and they were all strangers to him4 ,he told them he was ,father ,anselm1 but that was no help4 ,finally they looked through the books of the monastery1 and these revealed that there had been a ,father ,anselm there a hundred or more years before4 ,time had been blotted out while he listened to the lark4 ,that1 ,i suppose1 was a case of beauty boiling over1 or a soul boiling over2 perhaps the same thing4 ,then spirits walk4 ,they must sometimes walk ,st4 ,andrews4 ,i do not mean the ghosts of queens or prelates1 but one that keeps step1 as soft as snow1 with some poor student4 ,he sometimes catches sight of it4 ,that is why his fellows can never quite touch him1 their best beloved2 he half knows something of which they know nothing--the secret that is hidden in the face of the ,monna ,lisa4 ,as ,i see him1 life is so beautiful to him that its proportions are monstrous4 ,perhaps his childhood may have been overfull of gladness2 they don't like that4 ,if the seekers were kind he is the one for whom the flags of his college would fly one day4 ,but the seeker ,i am thinking of is unfriendly1 and so our student is 'the lad that will never be told4' ,he often gaily forgets1 and thinks he has slain his foe by daring him1 like him who1 dreading water1 was always the first to leap into it4 ,one can see him serene1 astride a ,scotch cliff1 singing to the sun the farewell thanks of a boy3 ',throned on a cliff serene ,man saw the sun hold a red torch above the farthest seas1 and the fierce island pinnacles put on in his defence their sombre panoplies2 ,foremost the white mists eddied1 trailed and spun like seekers1 emulous to clasp his knees1 till all the beauty of the scene seemed one1 led by the secret whispers of the breeze4 ',the sun's torch suddenly flashed upon his face and died2 and he sat content in subject night and dreamed of an old dead foe that had sought and found him2 a beast stirred bodly in his resting-place2 ,and the cold came2 ,man rose to his master-height1 shivered1 and turned away2 but the mists were round him4' ,if there is any of you here so rare that the seekers have taken an ill-will to him1 as to the boy who wrote those lines1 ,i ask you to be careful4 ,henley says in that poem we were speaking of3 ',under the bludgeonings of ,chance ,my head is bloody but unbowed4' ,a fine mouthful1 but perhaps ',my head is bloody and bowed' is better4 ,let us get back to that tent with its songs and cheery conversation4 ,courage4 ,i do not think it is to be got by your becoming solemn-sides before your time4 ,you must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by4 ,yes1 but some of them are golden only because we let them slip4 ,diligence--ambition2 noble words1 but only if 'touched to fine issues4' ,prizes may be dross1 learning lumber1 unless they bring you into the arena with increased understanding4 ,hanker not too much after worldly prosperity--that corpulent cigar2 if you became a millionaire you would probably go swimming around for more like a diseased goldfish4 ,look to it that what you are doing is not merely toddling to a competency4 ,perhaps that must be your fate1 but fight it and then1 though you fail1 you may still be among the elect of whom we have spoken4 ,many a brave man has had to come to it at last4 ,but there are the complacent toddlers from the start4 ,favour them not1 ladies1 especially now that every one of you carries a possible marechal's baton under her gown4 ',happy1' it has been said by a distinguished man1 'is he who can leave college with an unreproaching conscience and an unsullied heart4' ,i don't know2 he sounds to me like a sloppy1 watery sort of fellow2 happy1 perhaps1 but if there be red blood in him impossible4 ,be not disheartened by ideals of perfection which can be achieved only by those who run away4 ,nature1 that 'thrifty goddess1' never gave you 'the smallest scruple of her excellence' for that4 ,whatever bludgeonings may be gathering for you1 ,i think one feels more poignantly at your age than ever again in life4 ,you have not our ,december roses to help you2 but you have ,june coming1 whose roses do not wonder1 as do ours even while they give us their fragrance--wondering most when they give us most--that we should linger on an empty scene4 ,it may indeed be monstrous but possibly courageous4 ,courage is the thing4 ,all goes if courage goes4 ,what says our glorious ,johnson of courage3 ',unless a man has that virtue he has no security for preserving any other4' ,we should thank our ,creator three times daily for courage instead of for our bread1 which1 if we work1 is surely the one thing we have a right to claim of ,him4 ,this courage is a proof of our immortality1 greater even than gardens 'when the eve is cool4' ,pray for it4 ',who rises from prayer a better man1 his prayer is answered4' ,be not merely courageous1 but light-hearted and gay4 ,there is an officer who was the first of our ,army to land at ,gallipoli4 ,he was dropped overboard to light decoys on the shore1 so as to deceive the ,turks as to where the landing was to be4 ,he pushed a raft containing these in front of him4 ,it was a frosty night1 and he was naked and painted black4 ,firing from the ships was going on all around4 ,it was a two-hours' swim in pitch darkness4 ,he did it1 crawled through the scrub to listen to the talk of the enemy1 who were so near that he could have shaken hands with them1 lit his decoys and swam back4 ,he seems to look on this as a gay affair4 ,he is a ,v4,c4 now1 and you would not think to look at him that he could ever have presented such a disreputable appearance4 ,would you8 7indicating ,colonel ,freyberg74 ,those men of whom ,i have been speaking as the kind to fill the fife could all be light-hearted on occasion4 ,i remember ,scott by ,highland streams trying to rouse me by maintaining that haggis is boiled bagpipes2 ,henley in dispute as to whether1 say1 ,turgenieff or ,tolstoi could hang the other on his watch-chain2 he sometimes clenched the argument by casting his crutch at you2 ,stevenson responded in the same gay spirit by giving that crutch to ,john ,silver2 you remember with what adequate results4 ,you must cultivate this light-heartedness if you are to hang your betters on your watch-chains4 ,dr4 ,johnson--let us have him again-- does not seem to have discovered in his travels that the ,scots are a light-hearted nation4 ,boswell took him to task for saying that the death of ,garrick had eclipsed the gaiety of nations4 ',well1 sir1' ,johnson said1 'there may be occasions when it is permissible to1' etc4 ,but ,boswell would not let go4 ',i cannot see1 sir1 how it could in any case have eclipsed the gaiety of nations1 as ,england was the only nation before whom he had ever played4' ,johnson was really stymied1 but you would never have known it4 ',well1 sir1' he said1 holing out1 ',i understand that ,garrick once played in ,scotland1 and if ,scotland has any gaiety to eclipse1 which1 sir1 ,i deny----' ,prove ,johnson wrong for once at the ,students' ,union and in your other societies4 ,i much regret that there was no ,students' ,union at ,edinburgh in my time4 ,i hope you are fairly noisy and that members are sometimes let out4 ,do you keep to the old topics8 ,king ,charles's head2 and ,bacon wrote ,shakespeare1 or if he did not he missed the opportunity of his life4 ,don't forget to speak scornfully of the ,victorian age2 there will be time for meekness when you try to better it4 ,very soon you will be ,victorian or that sort of thing yourselves2 next session probably1 when the freshmen come up4 ,afterwards1 if you go in for my sort of calling1 don't begin by thinking you are the last word in art2 quite possibly you are not2 steady yourself by remembering that there were great men before ,william ,k4 ,smith4 ,make merry while you may4 ,yet light-heartedness is not for ever and a day4 ,at its best it is the gay companion of innocence2 and when innocence goes-- as it must go--they soon trip off together1 looking for something younger4 ,but courage comes all the way3 ',fight on1 my men1 says ,sir ,andrew ,barton1 ,i am hurt1 but ,i am not slaine2 ,i'll lie me down and bleed a-while1 ,and then ,i'll rise and fight againe4' ,another piece of advice2 almost my last4 ,for reasons you may guess ,i must give this in a low voice4 ,beware of ,m',connachie4 ,when ,i look in a mirror now it is his face ,i see4 ,i speak with his voice4 ,i once had a voice of my own1 but nowadays ,i hear it from far away only1 a melancholy1 lonely1 lost little pipe4 ,i wanted to be an explorer1 but he willed otherwise4 ,you will all have your ,m',connachies luring you off the high road4 ,unless you are constantly on the watch1 you will find that he has slowly pushed you out of yourself and taken your place4 ,he has rather done for me4 ,i think in his youth he must somehow have guessed the future and been fleggit by it1 flichtered from the nest like a bird1 and so our eggs were left1 cold4 ,he has clung to me1 less from mischief than for companionship2 ,i half like him and his penny whistle2 with all his faults he is as ,scotch as peat2 he whispered to me just now that you elected him1 not me1 as your ,rector4 ,a final passing thought4 ,were an old student given an hour in which to revisit the ,st4 ,andrews of his day1 would he spend more than half of it at lectures8 ,he is more likely to be heard clattering up bare stairs in search of old companions4 ,but if you could choose your hour from all the five hundred years of this seat of learning1 wandering at your will from one age to another1 how would you spend it8 ,a fascinating theme2 so many notable shades at once astir that ,st4 ,leonard's and ,st4 ,mary's grow murky with them4 ,hamilton1 ,melville1 ,sharpe1 ,chalmers1 down to ,herkless1 that distinguished ,principal1 ripe scholar and warm friend1 the loss of whom ,i deeply deplore with you4 ,i think if that hour were mine1 and though at ,st4 ,andrews he was but a passer-by1 ,i would give a handsome part of it to a walk with ,doctor ,johnson4 ,i should like to have the time of day passed to me in twelve languages by the ,admirable ,crichton4 ,a wave of the hand to ,andrew ,lang2 and then for the archery butts with the gay ,montrose1 all a-ruffled and ringed1 and in the gallant ,st4 ,andrews student manner1 continued as ,i understand to this present day1 scattering largess as he rides along1 ',but where is now the courtly troupe ,that once went riding by8 ,i miss the curls of ,canteloupe1 ,the laugh of ,lady ,di4' ,we have still left time for a visit to a house in ,south ,street1 hard by ,st4 ,leonard's4 ,i do not mean the house you mean4 ,i am a ,knox man4 ,but little will that avail1 for ,m',connachie is a ,queen ,mary man4 ,so1 after all1 it is at her door we chap1 a last futile effort to bring that woman to heel4 ,one more house of call1 a student's room1 also in ,south ,street4 ,i have chosen my student1 you see1 and ,i have chosen well2 him that sang-- ',life has not since been wholly vain1 ,and now ,i bear ,of wisdom plucked from joy and pain ,some slender share4 ',but howsoever rich the store1 ,i'd lay it down ,to feel upon my back once more ,the old red gown4' ,well1 we have at last come to an end4 ,some of you may remember when ,i began this address2 we are all older now4 ,i thank you for your patience4 ,this is my first and last public appearance1 and ,i never could or would have made it except to a gathering of ,scottish students4 ,if ,i have concealed my emotions in addressing you it is only the thrawn national way that deceives everybody except ,scotsmen4 ,i have not been as dull as ,i could have wished to be2 but looking at your glowing faces cheerfulness and hope would keep breaking through4 ,despite the imperfections of your betters we leave you a great inheritance1 for which others will one day call you to account4 ,you come of a race of men the very wind of whose name has swept to the ultimate seas4 ,remember-- ',heaven doth with us as we with torches do1 ,not light them for themselves4 4 4 4' ,mighty are the ,universities of ,scotland1 and they will prevail4 ,but even in your highest exultations never forget that they are not four1 but five4 ,the greatest of them is the poor1 proud homes you come out of1 which said so long ago3 ',there shall be education in this land4' ,she1 not ,st4 ,andrews1 is the oldest ,university in ,scotland1 and all the others are her whelps4 ,in bidding you good-bye1 my last words must be of the lovely virtue4 ,courage1 my children and 'greet the unseen with a cheer4' ',fight on1 my men1' said ,sir ,andrew ,barton4 ,fight on--you-- for the old red gown till the whistle blows4