Chapter VII: Commencements and Addresses

The fine portrait of Mr. Cocke in the Hollins Library, executed by his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Lucian H. Cocke of Roanoke, was formally presented at the Golden Wedding celebration in 1890. Death claimed the brilliant artist in 1899. With keen insight she portrayed her subject at the culminating moment of the final exercises of the Institution. The diploma in his hand is the one which he handed to his daughter, Miss Matty L. Cocke, on the day of her graduation. The artist wanted a real diploma, and by felicitous chance, this was the one supplied. At the time, the owner little dreamed of being her father's successor as President of Hollins Institute.

As now, so during the lifetime of Mr. Cocke, Maytime at Hollins stirred a flutter of excitement in the student's mind. The session's close was drawing near, with its terrors of examinations; its flourish of music, oratory and white dresses; its orderly pomp and splendor. The season brought a new flush of animation and gaiety. There were happy greetings of fathers and mothers. The old girls came, eager for the raptures of re-union. The bright stars shone on dear old Hollins; the blue mountains stood guard round their jewel; and the sky dropped down benediction. Nature and the human heart held high festival on Commencement Day.

Services began with an interesting dramatic presentation, and the Reception to the Senior Class. The Sunday services were conducted by invited ministers. In the days following, came the jollities of Class Day, the joint celebration of the Societies, the Musical Concert, and lastly, the annual address by the President, with the conferring of Diplomas. Of course the programs of the earlier years were not so elaborate as the one just indicated, but the exercises were as vitally interesting and popular. On these occasions many distinguished men delivered strong and eloquent addresses. Woe to the man who ventured to stand before a Hollins audience without honest preparation. Declamatory rhetoric never deceived this group of intellectually alert students. Mr. Cocke drew his ministers for Commencement from the various Protestant denominations, as the students came from all these bodies. Sectarian narrowness never guided his choice, and that spirit never thrived in his school. Christian truth and character were to him the eternal verities, and among all communions he made devoted friends. One of his preachers disappointed him cruelly. That good man made a calamitous mistake. He had fancied that he was to appear before a mountain school, and that almost any sort of a sermon would answer. Lazy unpreparedness meets retribution. Arriving at Hollins, his disillusion was instantaneous, and all that Saturday night he tossed in mental misery. The next morning he appeared in the pulpit with an irrelevant theme, and a profitless sermon. College girls are never profoundly impressed by unctuous platitudes, or by theological combat.

One of the surprises about these years is the small number of Full Diplomas that were given. From 1855 to 1900, Mr. Cocke bestowed this honor on one hundred and twenty-five girls. To secure it the student had to graduate in at least seven of the departments of study. The standards were high, so that to win the Full Diploma, demanded native ability and long, hard work. In the operation of the school's elective system, each girl chose the classes she preferred, and received certificates of graduation as the work in each subject was accomplished. Though, as we have said, Full Diplomas were rare, many girls won these minor distinctions, which also bore the name of Diploma. Many were the students who, coming for one year's course, were stirred by these Commencement occasions to larger views and longer attendance. This imposing pageant of the Finals was apt to awaken in the ambitious, first-year girl, a sense of her intellectual poverty, and to inspire noble resolution for ampler education.

At the close of the session of 1899-1900, Mr. Cocke delivered his 52nd annual address. Sad to say, it was his last. It is a notable and probably an unparalleled fact, that he should, through fifty-two consecutive years, have made the graduation address and have delivered the Diplomas. In these messages he dealt with the many problems of educational theory and practice, never failing to appeal for high and noble standards of living. He counted on his girls as the finest advertisement, and as the most eloquent testimonial of the merits of Hollins. It was no vain reckoning. As a matter of fact, it became no unusual thing for him to hear patrons confess that they had seen Hollins girls and had been deeply impressed by their intelligence, cultured manners and social grace.

Now we yield the platform to the President. There can be no more fitting close of this chapter than a few paragraphs, taken from his annual addresses. The captions are not his, but they indicate the special thought of the passage.

THIS ONE THING 1889

"I have aimed to implant deep in the hearts of my pupils the
principles and precepts of our holy religion, as taught in the Word
of God. As to those externals of religion which divide the Christian
world into parties and sects innumerable, I have nothing to say; for
our great Law-Giver and High Priest has said, 'The Kingdom of God is
within you,' and unless we are subject to this law, all rites and
ordinances and organizations put together and scrupulously
practiced, cannot save the soul."

REVIEW OF FIFTY YEARS JUNE, 1896

"Our trouble has been all during these fifty years, to secure
equipment. Had this been furnished, the history of the school would
have been far more satisfactory. The success of the school in 1852
and years following, gave a wonderful impetus to girls' schools in
Virginia. Many chartered schools came into existence during that
decade. Some of course proved failures, and others exist to this
day.

"The annual registers of pupils during the entire existence of the
school, aggregate 6,689. It has been almost exclusively a boarding
school, and as such has led in numbers all the schools of Virginia.
Its contributions to the teaching profession have been most valuable
and probably more numerous than that of any other Virginia school.
It has educated many daughters of ministers of different communions,
free of charge for tuition. It has aided large numbers of indigent
girls. Its graduates are in all parts of this country, North, East
and West as well as in the South, where they are numerous. Some six
or eight are in foreign mission fields. The school has far surpassed
my own expectations and has been a surprise to the general public.

"As soon as we took charge in 1846, and became acquainted with the
surroundings and prospects, we saw clearly that the school could not
live with a merely local patronage. It was almost wholly a boarding
school, and it must draw its pupils from a broad area. The necessary
steps were taken to make its advantages known in all parts of
Virginia, and that patronage was sufficient for our limited
accommodations until the close of 'the war.' We often declined
applicants for want of proper accommodations. But after Virginia had
been devastated by two contending armies within her borders for four
years, we had to look to still broader fields for pupils. It was
about the year 1870 that we first made known the advantages of the
school in other states, and now a majority of our pupils come from
other sections beyond our state lines. This patronage, with more
ample equipment, might be greatly increased, and with broader and
more ample facilities, it might be made the most prominent school
for girls in all the South. Its country location, its invigorating
atmosphere, its mineral waters, its glorious mountain scenery, all
combine to bring to it increasing numbers from different and
distinct sections. The great boarding schools for girls in the
North, in which millions are invested, are in the country.

"My life has been one of unceasing work and energy, of constant
cares and anxieties, and of a deep sense of responsibility. I have
only laid a foundation on which the next generation may build. Will
Virginia, the most desirable State in the Union for institutions of
learning of every grade and class, seize the opportunity and again
advance, through educational channels, to the leadership of States,
and inaugurate an era of greater glory and higher destinies for this
great American people? Oh, that she may be wise to discern the
ominous signs of these times and seek through great schools for
young men and young ladies, a power and progress which shall far
eclipse her pristine glories!

"And now, at the close of fifty years' connection with this school,
I can, without reservation or modification, say I have done all I
could to conduct and perpetuate an Institution which might prove a
blessing to the people without distinction of sect or class, and an
honor to my native State. And this, too, on the very basis I found
it standing when I took charge."

EDUCATIONAL THEORY

JUNE, 1893

"These graduates are not confined to a single Christian
denomination; they have come from all denominations. And this is, in
my judgment, the true ideal of a Christian school. I have often said
that the associations of a school for young ladies, properly
conducted, are worth more to them than any single department of
study. They learn so much from contact and association with each
other.

"Certainly a school for young ladies should not aim to send forth
all its pupils of exactly the same type. Its facilities and
associations should be such as to give ample scope for individuality
of development, and that genuine sympathetic contact and impress,
which lifts the less cultured to higher walks and ways, and
impresses the more fortunate with their duty to the needy and
dependent, often the most deserving, and often reaching, under such
influence, the highest stations of life.

"The school from its beginning has maintained and made prominent one
feature so culpably neglected, and even opposed by most schools for
girls. It has maintained a broad and elevated course of study and
fixed high standards of graduation. This has been done with special
reference to the demands of that class of girls who propose to make
teaching their profession or business in life. And most abundantly
has it been rewarded in this effort. Its graduates are in great
demand and many of them hold elevated positions as teachers. But
there are other courses in addition to that required for full
graduation. These are intended to meet the varied wants of other
classes of students, who, from feeble health, inadequate means or
mere preference, decline to pursue the full course.

"The school has accomplished far more than its early founders aimed
at or even dreamed of. They looked to local demands and a limited
sphere. But its influence has been felt not only through Virginia,
but throughout the South and West, and even from the great North,
pupils have sought and enjoyed its advantages. Graduation from
school does not imply full and complete knowledge on any subject or
in any department of learning. The object of true scholastic
training is, first, to discipline the powers, and, second, to open
to pupils the sources of knowledge. In these processes, of course,
much information is imparted; but to stop here and read and study no
more, would be fatal to a high and commanding success in life. You
must read and read systematically and continuously. You must keep up
with the progress of the times, and times are in quick movement in
this day...."

SECRET OF SUCCESS

1855

"If you would have your minds well disciplined and well stored with
useful information, you must be willing to retire, for a time at
least, from the enticing and distracting scenes of the busy world,
and in the quietude of academic life, devote your powers to those
labors which alone can secure the desired boon. Here the work must
be done, here the foundation must be laid, upon which your future
attainments and your future eminence must rest. Neglect this
preparation, and you can have no well grounded hope of rising to
distinction in society, or of exerting an influence which shall
leave a record of your name and your deeds upon the hearts and
memories of those who shall come after you....

"The secret of success is the ability _to fix the attention on one
subject at a time...._"

CREATIVE WORK

1862

"I urge you to cultivate a taste not only for literature, but for
_making literature_. The literature of a country determines its
institutions, its social conditions, and its destiny. It is really
its inner life whence its external manifestations spring."

LITERARY TASTE

JUNE, 1894

"Many a wise man has said repeatedly: 'Let me go into a young lady's
parlor and examine the literature which lies on her table, and the
books which fill the shelves of her library, and I will tell you all
about her; the secret thoughts which habitually haunt her
imagination, the purposes, the ambitions, the affections, good or
bad, which agitate and fill her heart; the scenes, the sights, the
objects, the aims which thrill her soul--all this I know from the
companionship amid which she delights to linger and live, and with
which she delights to commune.' Young ladies, when you reach home
and unpack your trunks, will you take out the text books you have
studied in this school, one by one, and place them on the highest
shelf of your library and in the far corner, and with a scowl on
your face say to them, 'Now, you go and stay where I put you; you
have cost me weeks and months and years of toil, of anxieties, of
troubles, vexations and tears, but you have at last given me my full
diploma and I want nothing more to do with you'! Are you going to
speak thus to your best friends, who have done more for you than
father and mother?

"Are you going to turn your back upon, and quit the company of, the
only true aristocracy of all the ages and all countries, and seek
lower associations? These people are not upstarts; they have lived
and still live in all ages and countries; they have been the
intimate and loving companions of kings and queens; of emperors and
statesmen; divines and poets, scientists and linguists, and all the
great of all the earth and every clime and kindred.

"Again, the Good Book says, 'Where there is no vision the people
perish.' This was spoken most probably in regard to the ancient
prophets and seers who received the divine light from the great
original source, and reflected it from their own hearts and minds on
a benighted race.

"But has not the great Inspirer of light and knowledge, since that
remote past, raised up other prophets and seers and imparted other
visions that the people might not perish? These great men are among
us; they do not compel, but they invite companionship; they say,
'Come, go with us, talk with us, commune with our spirit, drink with
us of the clear, cool springs of nature; the journey is pleasant and
the scenery is grand; come, go with us and we will do thee good.'

"Will you reject the invitation and decline the association? So,
young ladies, as I said in the beginning, from a literary
standpoint, from a social standpoint, from a business standpoint,
and from the standpoint of philanthropic and Christian usefulness,
your future position and success in life depend upon the company you
keep. Under the great principle of the freedom of the press, the
newspaper has become a universal institution in
America,--omnipresent, and almost omnipotent. The result is that the
vast constituency of our great government are better informed on
current events all over the land and all over the world, than any
people on the earth.

"But the curse of the land is this: We spend too much time on this
and kindred literature; this habit enfeebles the mind, contracts the
vision, and suppresses high ambitions in the fields, the vast and
elevated fields of broader, more solid, more useful and more
permanent knowledge. Our people are making the most marvelous
progress on all lines of human thought and effort, but on none more
rapid than that of science and literature. The spirit of the nation
seems to be a consuming ambition to lead the world in thought, in
intellectual development, and in products of the brain of men. To
keep in harmony with this spirit, you, young ladies, must rise above
the plane on which so much of our literature moves and study the
works of great minds."

TRUE CULTURE

1870

"The great mistake which so many make and which satisfactorily
accounts for their want of success, is that they regard the mere
accumulation of facts as the sole object of scholastic study;--that
knowledge may be stored in the mind as we gather grain into a
garner, and this, too, without regard to its character or quality,
or the order in which the deposits are made. We have aimed, young
ladies, to give you a better theory of education, and a more
enduring foundation of scholarship....

"The great object of that culture and training which courses of
scholastic study afford, is to assist the mind in the processes of
its own development; to give to its searchings after truth and its
toils in the fields of literature, direction and system; to enable
it to think, to reason, to solve; to give it scope and expansion
that it may successfully grasp both the theoretical and the
practical of life and advance to those objects and destinies which
its very structure implies and foreshadows...."

BROAD SYMPATHIES

JUNE, 1892

"I would remind you, young ladies, that you go forth into life at a
time when society is advancing on all lines of progress. In breadth,
variety and thoroughness of literary and scientific knowledge, we
are no less a marvel to ourselves than the wonder and admiration of
the oldest civilizations of the world. This American people proposes
to hold no inferior rank in the world-wide race for the greatest and
grandest results in material development and production. This the
most casual observer beholds all around him in every-day life. But
when we come to review, critically and comparatively, the rise and
progress of American learning, we see one determined and steady
advance towards the highest standards the world has ever known. In
the production and giving forth of all kinds of literature, this
people aspires to the highest place; to the most advanced
achievements that bless society and adorn life.

"And shall our own section and people continue heedless and
oblivious of this throbbing, restless, inspiring energy to rise to
the very acme of literary fame and glory? We blush to own that,
thus far, we have made but a feeble response to the high and
honorable calling. When the poison diffused through the channels of
a false and envenomed literature during the last generation, South
as well as North, shall have spent its force, and the prejudices and
passions that literature engendered and fostered shall have given
place to just and generous award, then, and not until then, will the
whole people and the outside world be prepared to receive and
appreciate a truthful revelation, and do mental honor to all, of
every section, who from their standpoint and environment, and with
the light that shone upon their pathway, lived and labored for great
ends, and the same ends. That record will show that not only under
Southern skies, but throughout the nation, in national Senate, in
Northern cities, even in Western wilds, Southern counsel has
contributed in full proportion to the great results which today
astonish the world. And furthermore, it will show that Northern
energy, foresight and enterprise have made their deep and
ineffaceable mark on the whole country in its educational and
religious work, its business, political and social life, and its
institutions. The gigantic struggle which occurred on this continent
just before your eyes opened on the light of day was the result of
a misunderstanding; a family quarrel on a grand scale, such as more
than once has occurred in the land of our forefathers. But even when
the conflict rose to its most fearful height, deep down in the
heart, this people were one. They are now one, and may the high
council of Heaven ordain that they shall never be other than one.

"Young ladies, suffer no sectional jealousies or narrow prejudices
to find a resting place in your bosoms. They dwarf your souls, they
contract your minds. Love your country in all its sections and broad
limits and constituent elements, and contribute your best energies,
in appropriate spheres, to its high and grand mission."

CONFIDENT HOPE

APRIL, 1862

"You go forth at a dark and threatening hour.... When the great
plans of His far-reaching and comprehensive providence shall have
been accomplished, in the stupendous conflict which you now behold,
He will speak peace to the troubled waters, and there will be peace.
Till then let us wait with calm resignation and abiding confidence
in His designs of mercy.... This providence, however complicated and
strange, leads only to some good and grand result, opening up new
channels of usefulness to the virtuous and the good, and saying to
the faithful--nations as well as individuals: 'This is the way, walk
ye in it.'"

GUIDING PURPOSE

1901

"For many years it has been my earnest desire to so conduct the
affairs of the institution that whether I was present or absent,
there should be no abatement in the earnest purpose and devotion to
duty which I have sought to make a part of the atmosphere of
Hollins."