A MUTUAL, JOINT-STOCK WORLD IN ALL MERIDIANS

You here may not want to be reminded of this, but very soon now, you graduates will begin bringing children into the world, children some of whom will live to see the year 2100. That's already a "now" long enough to give pause. Those children will see a world that is surely warmer and more crowded than this one. How else will it seem? That is for us, and for you, to determine, and that will be the real test of the value of what you and we have done here these last four years. Have we taught you to think in the long now? Have we taught you to forget the name of the thing you see, to forget what you think you know and see what is? Have we taught you to promote civility, to build civilization among peoples, rather than merely to oppose barbarism?

I hope we have . . .

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