James C. Bruce
Published: 2017-12-04
Total Pages: 32
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Excerpt from An Address Delivered Before the Alumni and Graduating Class of the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, on the Afternoon of June Third, 1841 There is one feeling of disappointment, which every young man, who-exchanges the seclusion of a college for the hustle and business of the world, is bound to meet and endure. He finds the weapons of col lege warfare are not those precisely suited to collisions with men in active life. His Diploma, for which he so long labored, and for which he burned the midnight lamp, and surrendered so many hours, which in vain allured him to idleness and pleasure, he finds entitles him. To but a small share of the honor and consideration of the world, which he had fondly anticipated. He comes at length to see. In it but the cer tificate from his masters, of an apprenticeship honorably ended, author izing him to commence work on his own account. His classical lore which was to be the open sesame to honor and consideration, he carries to a market where few appreciate, and stillfewer will purchase. His small stock of literature and science, which he has collected with toil and gloated over with the feelings of the miser, when he surveys his hidden gold, is converted by the disenchanting touch of the world, into rubbish and stone, not equal to the purchase of one poor penny's worth of bread. He finds that all these things have no exchangeable value, though his after experience teaches him, that they are not with out their use. The mental training which he has received in'their ao quisition, has imparted powers which properly exercised, may enable him to win any prize which he may choose to run for; as the exercise of the chase, where the deer or the boar is the only enemy, may so strengthen the thews and sinews, so nerve the courage, and so sharpen the sagacity, as to qualify the Vota'ry, for the more severe and arduous duties of war. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.