L'Envoi

Harvard, this is goodbye. This is my last word to you who for three years have been my home, and it is your farewell to me and those thousands like me who first entered your portals in a day of peace, eager to explore that ever broadening horizon which you offered. It is more your farewell than mine, for you know as I do that the exodus is all but complete. Those who enter in my departing footsteps will not see the vistas I saw. You have not shuttered your windows, yet vision is obscured; the scene has changed.

Harvard, it is fitting that this should be. I have no longer the single eye, the courage, to tread your walks. You belong to this new generation as surely as you belonged to me. You are theirs by the right of service, the same right by which you were mine. In serving them you serve me, and there is no other way.

And yet, Harvard, my days here are not without meaning. You have shown me a tradition of humane service, and that tradition is mine. You showed me the wisdom of the ages, and that wisdom is mine. You have shown me dignity in all peoples, and that dignity is mine. All this is part of me. You have given me a goal which will not be attained, but you have shown that only as I strive for this goal will my life be worth the living.

Because you have taught me this, the victory will be ours. And I shall return, or if not I, others will come to you for the same lesson, which is Veritas.