Could our rusted and tired prose but rise to the top of the foam

I WAS DOING SOME RESEARCH FOR A FRIEND TODAY on Kemper College in St. Louis, Mo., founded in 1840 and closed four years later due to financial problems. I came across this dedication speech by the man who founded the college. It points out yet again how eloquently our forbears spoke and wrote.

 "Our motto must be – peace, and to our posts … the wind of persecution may howl a hurricane, and the lightning of malice may fall upon us, but if our good ship be tight and free, our gallant mast may be bent but not broken. And like the proud eagle soaring aloft, she will ride the billow to its top of foam, and glory in the strength that overcomes the storm."

Wow. These were the the noble words of Joseph McDowell, a professor of surgery who presided at the cornerstone-laying and remained as head of Kemper College, which after its closing morphed into another medical institution.

--BAS