Kansas University Weekly.
247
"REFRESH ME WITH A NOBLE THOUGHT."
A member of the Weekly staff who finds it easier to ask questions than to answer them, circulated the following request in the University the past week:
Please write below, in your own words, for publication without signature, the grandest thought that has ever entered your mind.
The responses obtained are given below.
Professors of language:
The possibility of direct personal knowledge of and communion with the great Source of all that is highest and best in human life.
Knowledge is co-eternal with the soul.
The universal reign of law; the unity of the universe; the identical nature of atomic, planetary, human and devine love; the universal tendency upward.
My brother man.
Seniors, Juniors and graduates:
I do not have a soul; I am a soul.
My grandest thought came to me while studying astronomy: the planets have been swinging in their mighty orbits for ages, each one deserted and alone. We might imagine how eagerly they would try to "speak each other in passing," where their orbits draw near each other, and ask for news from the infinite realms of space.
The infinity of space.
"Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit."
There is no limit to man's progress except that which his own indolence assigns him. He may go on to perfection.
That God and Nature haromonize; that all is one, and that multiplicity and confliction are but the results of our limitations.
The angel took the man by the hand and led him off through space and showed him planet after planet, world after world; each greater and grander than the last. The man's mind could not comprehend the greatness of it all. "Infinite, indeed, is the universe of God!" The angel was silent, but led him onward, past
star after star, past suns and solar systems whose planets were suns with satellites. The man saw them all as shadows of light. He lost even the consciousness of their being. He only felt their vastness. Again he cried "Infinite, indeed, is the universe of God!" The angel held his peace, and flew faster and farther. The man saw nothing, thought nothing, but followed his guide on through the haze of eternal space. He did not ask again. But the angel turned and saw that the lesson was well learned. He put his supporting arm around him and said: "Infinite, indeed, is the universe of God!"
Law students:
A time to come when neither war nor wrong, pride nor price shall dominate; when loathsome avarice and vain ambition shall flee from the minds of men, and modest charity and tender love be ushered in; when mawkish sentiment and mildewed creed cease to be and sober sense shall reign supreme.
Somewhere, somehow, the spirit of man lives forever, free from vexation and doubt; to die is landing in the immortal realm.
I am offered a liberal education and I will make the most of it.
The thought that all phenomena must be reduced, ultimately, to mental phenomena.
New members of Phi Beta Kappa:
That I am kin to every created thing, animate and inanimate,—yea, even to the Creator himself!
The final destiny of every soul is the ultimate harmony with and incorporation into the Good, the True and the Beautiful.
God is love.
I am only a very insignificient part of God's living creation, yet I exert an influence on the whole which will last throughout eternity.
Freshmen:
The wisdom of the Creator as shown by the immensity and complexity of the universe and the creation of a creature, man, with soul to appreciate and enjoy the beauty and granduer