Parting Counsel

PRESIDENT DICKEY TELLS GRADUATES WORKING ANSWERS MUST BE FOUND

MEN OF THE GRADUATING CLASS: It is now my part for the College and for myself to say to you a final word as members of the College. Today for the first time in years this word can be said without the forebodings of wartime and that, gentlemen, for your College as well as for you is a blessing for which we are thankful.

For many of you this is your second going out from college into the world. Many of you already know from personal experience or observation something of the rewards and sacrifices which go with courage,fidelity, responsibility and humility—the counsels of virtue commonly given men about to enter the world of affairs. Without hesitation I give them to you again and I will but add two other senses which have always served men well in civil and civilized living. They are, first, a sense of proportion in all things, and secondly, a sense of timeliness at all times.

Yours will be, I think, a world in which at least working answers must be found for the implications of expanding democracy and expanding government, nationally, and internationally. I know not what these answers axe, but I am sure they lie ahead, not behind. And I am sure of one thing more—these answers and the answer to your own happiness rest in large measure in your mastering the art and spirit of living with other men just as human—and inhuman—as you and I.

Gentlemen, your College is proud of your accomplishment and confident of your success and happiness, if you will but will them always. And now the word is "So long" because in the Dartmouth fellowship there is no parting.