STUDENT ORATION

 Excerpt from a Harvard student oration which won the Detur Book Prize in 1796 (from Teddy Delwiche)

        No employment can furnish so much useful knowledge and wisdom, in the same time on so easy terms, as the study of HISTORY. This comprehensive science presents to view the vast theatre of elapsed time. The mighty revolutions which have varied the face of the world, the rise and fall of states and empires, the triumph of knowledge and the mist of ignorance pass in succession before the eye. In the course of a few days we live over ages, learn their manners, gain their experience, and enjoy the fruits of their labors, without sharing their toils and troubles. If fame can make a man live after his death, history gives him life before his birth….