Academical Degrees and Titles

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Excerpt from Academical Degrees and Titles: An Address at the Eighth Annual Commencement of the College of St. James, MD., July 27th, 1854 We have just been engaged in our annual ceremony of conferring academical degrees. Is this a mere ceremony? A form without meaning or substance? We do not so regard it, and I may venture to say that no one present felt it to be entirely an unmeaning form, though, no doubt, some such thought may have crossed the minds of more than one here to-day. For this and some similar reasons, I have thought it well to say something now on the subject of "Academical Degrees and Titles." Are these then, after all, only gewgaws, unbecoming the practical reality of our generation? What is the meaning and what the use of degrees and titles? Much or none, as the case may be. But, whether much or none be their value, any effort to abolish titles is all in vain. The use of them is a necessity of our nature and of our circumstances. Men cannot and will not do without them. No men ever really abolish titles among themselves, though they often make it a point of pride or of conscience not to adopt those sanctioned by ordinary use. Practical, sensible men, on the other hand, do not overvalue titles, they try to make them real and to confer them with some due consideration to merit and appropriateness. They aim to control, not to abolish what men must and will have and use. "But this" (some one is saying) "is only an American feeling." Certainly not. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.