You have come to the country of snowy mountains and flowering valleys which perfume our tropical breezes, preceded by the meritorious fame of having preserved always, unblemished during the course of your fruitful life, the reputation and profession of a lawyer, of having penetrated the secrets of the juridical science and of consecrating today all your energies and abilities to the service of your country.
By a happy coincidence, you will find engraved in this parchment as our motto: "Professional Honor, Science, and Country"—the same great ends that have consecrated your life. Never was the diploma bearing this motto conferred upon a more meritorious or greater man.
In science, you have not been the selfish investigator nor in the service of your country have you confined yourself to directing from your place in the Cabinet the important matters of the foreign relations of a world-power.
Knowing that the time has passed for studies merely speculative, and that at the present day every scientific truth cannot be such unless it is applicable, you have most happily found time to scatter the treasures of your studies, either when carrying them as the apostle of peace and concord to other countries, or through your invaluable publications.
The Academy could hardly be indifferent to this phase of your labors, as we owe to it the great satisfaction of knowing you intellectually and personally; and we pay you our profound respect.
Therefore, selecting from among your works the last you have published, entitled The Citizen's Part in Government,[6] it was agreed that we should offer you a translation of the same, in the hope that it may please you as it comes from the able and learned pen of an Academician for whom you have shown particular friendship prior to this time, and who feels for you the just admiration expressed in the eloquent words of welcome that we have all seconded.
We find in this illuminating work of yours the double revelation of the genius that pursues the development of a great idea, and of the generous heart that instills it with an ardor that will make it successful.
I will not take the liberty, Mr. Secretary, of commenting on the selection made by the Academy; but I can assure you that the collection of your lectures at Yale University, appear to me worthy, for the clear observation and teaching they contain, to be designated as the text-book to be read in all schools by youths preparing to exercise the rights of citizenship. Therefore, I beg you, kindly to accept the special copy of this translation presented by the Academy.
Among those who devote themselves to the study of science in general, Mr. Secretary, and more particularly among those who cultivate one special branch, is formed a sort of fraternity of feelings and affections—the fruit of the communion of ideas—and also of respect caused in every really broad man, for the talents and learning of others.
This fraternal feeling has always existed among the jurists of all nations, and in every language there is a word to describe it: compañero, in our Castilian tongue; confrère, in French; and in yours, the most virile and the most expressive, you use the word brother.