Clarum et . . .

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High on a platform from left to right sat these men in the front semicircular row: the President of the Board of Overseers of Harvard (Dr. Wigglesworth), the President of Yale (Dr. Angell), the Governor of Massachusetts (Dr. Cox), the Chief Justice of the U. S. (Dr. Taft), the President of the Associated Harvard Clubs (Dr. Greve), the President Emeritus of Harvard (Dr. Eliot), a Justice of the Supreme Court of the U. S. who is President of the Harvard Alumni Association (Dr. Sanford), the President of Harvard (Dr. Lowell), a Harvard Dean (Dr. Briggs), an undergraduate (Mr. MacVeagh), a Unitarian divine (Dr. Peabody.)

They made speeches in the following order, saying in part:

Dr. Sanford: "We have met to celebrate the 90th birthday of Dr. Charles William Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard University,— clarum et venerabile nomen . . . All these assembled here salute you. . . . We rejoice that you are still clad in your shining armour. . . . Your voice is calm in a hurried and restless age. ... It is my privilege to present to you ... a copy of the new Alumni Directory, bound in crimson leather, containing the names of all living Harvard men, numbering more than 43,000. . . . We trust that it may . . . breathe to you their prayer that your years may be long in the house of your fathers, and that your paths may be those of pleasantness and peace."

Dr. Lowell: ". . . from first to last, Dr. Eliot has been an educational warrior. . . ."

Dr. Wigglesworth: "Dumas was once asked by a lady how he managed to grow old so gracefully. . . . He replied: 'Madam, I devote my whole time to it.' You, Mr. President, have never devoted any part of your time to growing old; you have devoted the whole of it to useful service and continuous development . . .

The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night. . . .

Of you too, sir, it may be said: 'In disaster, calm; in success, moderate; in all, himself.' "

Dr. Briggs: ". . . of your personal kindness I might say much. . . ."

Dr. Angell: "For threescore years and ten you [Dr. Eliot] have played a part in the development of our national education, and for 45 of these years, from the moment when you assumed the Presidency of Harvard, men have recognized in you a leader without peer. You have been the apostle of responsible freedom."

At this point, the Bishop of Massachusetts (Dr. Lawrence) stepped forward from the back row to say that anonymous friends had given $1,250,000 to Harvard.

Dr. Cox: ". . . One who believes that the welfare of mankind is the first concern of men. . . ."

Mr. MacVeagh: "Their [Harvard undergraduates'] one regret is that they can not greet you in this building. Yet there is no building that could withstand the shock of their greeting. And so they are now gathering outside ... to give you a fitting reception in their own barbaric way."