RECEPTION TO NEW STUDENTS.

The meeting which was held in Sanders Theatre last night to welcome the incoming freshman class was in every way a success. Addresses were delivered by President Eliot, Governor Greenhalge, Professor Norton, Dr. George Gordon and Professor Shaler, who introcuced the other speakers. The audience was very large and included many upper classmen and many other members of the University as well as freshmen.

President Eliot was the first of the speakers of the evening and after a few introductory remarks by Professor Shaler, spoke in substance as follows:

Fellow students: I think you will remember this coming to the University as one of the most cheerful memories of your whole lives and it will remain to you even when you are old. The admission to Harvard University is an achievement which comes to most of you after many years of toil. This is an influential and powerful society which you have joined, and in this society you share in the hopes and in the honor of the other members. We welcome you to this body of studious and devoted men, and also to something more, to a place more bound up with the traditions of learning and science than any other in America. You have come here for an education. It is an interesting question what do you expect this education to do for you? There is an almost infinite variety of choice in the studies which you may pursue. What do you expect to attain? I will just mention one thing for which you will all strive, no matter by what course of studies. There are two great classes of the human race; first, that great majority which repeats from day to day the same routine of duties, and secondly, the few who can go beyond the present and can disign something and are able to originate. This long and elaborate education should give the power of leadership though it may be in some small field. No education is successful unless it gives this power.

The peculiar policy of the institution is liberty, and its history shows how continuous has been this aim. We value men here for what they are, and you will never again live in such a democracy as exists among the students and officers of this University.

Governor Greenhalge followed President Eliot and was received with much applause. He said: "Gentlemen of the University, it is certainly very agreeable to me to be allowed to participate in extending a welcome to those who enter the gates of Harvard for the first time. It is the famous institution of learning which from the first has promoted the cause of liberty, and the education obtained here is eminently fitted to train men for their future lives in the outer world.

There are certain aptitudes and tendencies which show themselves in everyone and will be developed by college. Let each student have an ideal, and be not discouraged by the words of any cynic. If you are true to your ideals you will be able to confront any difficulties and will in the end succeed.

I hope that state and country and world may find a splendid fruit as a result of your four years in Harvard.

Professor Norton spoke as follows: Young members of Harvard University, it is a pleasure to greet you in the name of the older members.

I think hardly any of you can have entered the gates of Harvard without having observed the liberty which she represents to all connected with her. Another characteristic of the College is the liberality which is displayed by the instructors. You are to enter life and they are to help you.

This liberty and liberality impose on you a very definite responsibility, and it is for you to make the best possible use of the opportunities offered to you. The greatest disappointment of all professors is because of the neglect so often shown by the students. The measure of a good teacher is the amount of interest in themselves which he can implant in his scholars.

I regret to see a man specialize too much and confine himself to one subject. The greatest chance of these four years is to get a large liberalizing view of one's position among mankind.

Dr. Gordon spoke on the religious life of Harvard, calling attention to the fact that it was entirely voluntary. It is the feeling of the authorities that compulsion is degrading when applied to religion. Religion is an essential in itself and is sure, on a voluntary basis, of a permanent life in the University. The cooperation of all new students is desired, that the success of this system may continue.

At the close of the addresses a reception was held of all the students in Memorial Hall.