(Cheers.)
Never in my life have I had such testimony to the school which I cared so
much for, as the testimony you have given to-night. We get our
reputation in the English world, but what is that compared to the inner
life to which you have borne witness. What signifies it whether we know
much or little in comparison with the fact that we have a character of
life which you like. It is life answering unto life across all those
ties, both of nationality--for I grieve I cannot speak in your native
tongue--and also of distance which set gulfs between man and man, but
cannot separate life when it is true. (Hear, hear.) If your life is
true, and our lives are true, then it flows across and we meet as
to-night one united body of living men. (Cheers.) And this is what
gives a peculiar value to our being here. You know as none can know what
this school is. We came among you as strangers, and you looked upon us
with the eyes of strangers; we stayed among you as friends, and we part
from you as friends. (Cheers.) Everybody knows that the one thing on
earth which makes life pleasant is the friendly atmosphere in which men
live--the one thing that makes it hateful is to be surrounded by
thoroughly bitter hearts.
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