X sea^13 - Villanova University Digital Library

THEY
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THE V I L L A N O V A N 27
Our Honored Dead
" To live in hearts
We leave behind, is not to die.'^
sleep! Long ago "taps" sounded To go back in spirit to the dark, struggling
over their graves; the roll was called and days of 1842 seems an easy matter, if we simply
no answer was heard save a sigh of sorrow try to realize the buying and selling of property,
from a loyal heart. With sweet resignation, the founding of churches and colleges; but there
yea, with a joy that only Faith can give, the is a greater, deeper lesson behind this catalogue
ever-busy pens were laid aside, the well-worn of events. Our founders possessed energy, unbooks
closed forever. Their influence can never
die. "They that instruct many to justice, shall
shine as stars for all eternity."
Were we to becom.e so hard as to forget Villa-
daunted courage, and the true spirit of sacrifice.
W^hat though all their work at first seemed
doomed to failure? A few years after the erec-
tion of one of their churches in the City of
nova's heroes of the past, the very stones, the Brotherly Love, they gazed upon a mass of ashes
trees, the walks, the architectural monuments and ruins. The infant college was guarded lest
of devotion and love, would arise in one accord the bigots fulfill the threat they had made of
to remind us of their noble work and our rank demolishing it. The struggles, the growth in
ingratitude. poverty and want, the period of war—these
There is a clear method of procedure open things can only be imagined,
when one attempts to trace Villanova's external We are sure of this. They of the past are our
history. We can settle with more or less accu- heroes. To them we ov/e the Villanova of today,
racy almost every event of importance to our To imitate their virtues, to make their influence
Alma Mater. But who of us can trace her spir- continue to live in the Villanova of the future.
itual history? Who can tell with anything but
speculation the story of a soul? From results we
may truthfully infer that the story is a good, a
noble one; but none, save God, can understand
the details of that inner life.
IT
is with relucLance that we bid farewell to
the graduating class of 1918. W'e rejoice
with them on their success. May the future
hold for each of them places of trust and honor
The Vhxanovan will lose some of her most
staunch supporters and energetic workers with
the passing of the Class of 1918. The same
spirit of loyalty that has animated our efforts
while in college, we feel sure will be manifested
by us as members of our alumni. It is not sufii-
cient support, it is not loyalty to Alma Mater,
Our Graduates
is our work. Will we accomplish as much in
the future as they did in the past five and
seventy years? May they live in our hearts
and our lives and our work, for that "is not to
die". Requiescat in pace.
''But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
Shall wholly do away I ween,
The marks of that which once hath been.'"
Joseph T. O'Leary, '18.
to give nothing but a smile of approval to her
works. We want wide-awake, live members;
loving, devoted sons; generous, self-sacrificing
workers.
While struggling to climb the ladder of fame
and success, let not a Villanova man forget Villa-
nova's enterprises. Our part is as necessary as
another's. We are responsible to a great extent
for her advancement. Has she been a generous,
kindly, fostering mother to us? Are we. Class
of 1918, to be called her loyal children? By our
fruits we shall be known.
Joseph T. O'Leary, '18.