Ohio History Journal

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The Century and Its Lessons

The Century and Its Lessons.             27

 

of the distinguished gentlemen whom we have assembled here

to greet.

This city of ours has in time sent forth her sons and daugh-

ters, who, with willing hands and strong hearts, have engaged in

founding other cities and States, thus following the noble ex-

ample set by their ancestors. Many of these sons and daughters

have returned in response to invitations cordially extended; and

I desire to say to them, as well as the strangers within our gates,

we extend a thousand hearty, cordial welcomes to you all.

This gavel, which I hold in my hand, and with which this

assembly was called to order, is of some historic interest; the

wood of which it is made is a portion of a log taken from one of

the first cabins built for the French emigrants at Gallipolis.

This wood is emblematical of the trials, suffering and hardships

endured by our forefathers in making possible the great advance

in the arts and sciences made by their descendants, this advance

being fully represented by the beautiful silver binding of the

gavel and the inscription thereon.

Again, I bid you all thrice welcome.

At the conclusion of this address, a selection of music was

given by the band, after which Mayor Bradbury introduced Dr.

N. J. Morrison, of Marietta College, who spoke on the topic "A

Century and its Lessons."

 

 

THE CENTURY AND ITS LESSONS.

 

Each century of human history is marked by a train of

peculiar events, characterized by its own peculiar spirit, gives

birth to its own family offspring of ideas, and bequeaths to after-

ages a heritage of peculiar and instructive lessons.

Thus the philosophic historian characterizes one century as

an age of intellectual and political decadence and another as an

age of intellectual and political renaisance; this century as a

period of Augustan brilliancy in Letters and that as a period of

Invention and Discovery.

And so we call the Eleventh Century of our era the " Age

of the Crusades," when a wave of religious and martial fanatic-

ism swept from West to East over all Europe and culminated in