Valedictory to Class of 1940

President Hopkins Expresses the College's Fond Hopes For the Newly Graduated Class, Bids Them Godspeed

(Following is the complete text of President Hopkins Valedictory.)

MEN OF 1940: It is recorded in the Book of Genesis that Adam and Eve heard the voice of God as he walked in the Garden in the cool of the day. It has always seemed to me that there was a little greater sensitivity to spiritual things then than at any other hour of the day. So it seems to me at this moment.

Therefore, now, when in the words of the old hymn, shadows of the evening steal across the sky, we mark this last hour together with simple ceremony. We gather in companionship and friendship as on like occasions men have gathered annually through generations past. Not for now is talk about those things which at other times and in other places crowd out thought of all that we cherish and hold dear. Here on Hanover Plain has been a city of refuge and here within this college is sanctuary. Since its foundation before our government was established, Dartmouth has observed its Commencement seasons in uninterrupted sequence.

Here we have lived free in thought and word and deed. Here tolerance has been offered for a man's difficulties in coming to know himself. Here, guidance could be got concerning how to undertake the search for truth. Here could be found all the learning of the trivium and of the quadrivium—and more.

But even at this moment of emotional stress at the thought of the inevitable break,in relationships we have come to cherish, we strive to remember of the men who have preceded you that a spirit of dependency might have developed from too long acceptance of college experience. And so it might result for you. Hence our sorrow, though sincere, is not lasting, as the procession of life of which you are a part moves on. From the peace and quiet of this hamlet through decades past, thousands of men have gone out, strong to meet the challenges and the satisfactions of toil and struggle and needful service. So you will go out!

Thus it is that we who have followed with eager interest your progress here and shrink from thought of the necessary break of intimacies impending, yet have sense of joy in our confidence about what you may do and in what we believe you may become.

Let us recall the words of Gibran's "Prophet" as he bade goodbye to the people who had given him shelter and had come to love him. Can you give to the College the assurance and the promise he gave to them, "You have sung to me in my aloneness and I of your longings have built a tower in the sky"? Pray God that in the moments of aloneness in which all souls find themselves, this College has had a song for you, as comforting as its longings in your behalf have been deep.

Men of Dartmouth, the College awaits your towers in the sky!