Page:The Dedication of Germanic Museum of Harvard University p29.jpg

Rh that men leave behind them. Wealth goes, dominion goes, creeds go; but the arts that the people, who have had wealth and who have had dominion and who have believed in their religion, have created, those have outlasted all, from the remotest ages down to our time. It is because of the arts that we are interested in this or that nation, all whose material signs of existence have long since passed away. Therefore, is it not to the arts that we should refer the young student of the ideal side of life and remind him of the men who, in the midst of prosperity,—kings, nations, republics, whatever they may have been, or individuals,—have used their wealth and power for the creation of these works and have conferred a lasting benefit on mankind?

And so it is that the Germanic Museum has come to be, I believe, a splendid symbol—a splendid statue, let me say,—in the college life of the reality of that spirit. Here the student can go and be inspired by the works of past generations and can study the meaning of an art which was formed and developed and which flourished while the great empire of which it reminds him was still young in its growth and its material development. The student there can see that in the midst of their material needs men stood aside and created or bought or ordered beautiful works for everlasting pleasure. And so he sees in the works of this Germanic race, and more particularly in the works of the later development of it when it is specifically the German race, the ideals of a sturdy people carried out in a sturdy way,—less refined than some, less delicate than some, but lacking never in the power of virility,—the favorite materials for the expression of these ideals being the homely substances by which they were surrounded in their daily life—iron, stone, wood and leather. What nation has ever surpassed the Germans in the works which they have wrought in these materials? And so the student can come to them for constant inspiration, and by having them before him as a visual illustration of the principles which we are endeavoring to teach him we can, through this means, hold on to that ideal side and foster it and develop it.

To you, sir, (addressing Baron von dem Bussche) I should like to express the hope that His Majesty, your Emperor, may be made aware that the magnificent gift which he has conferred