Sperry Speaks at Radcliffe Services

Dean Willard L. Sperry of the Divinity School warned seniors and candidates for advanced degrees that "making your mental peace with the kind of world in which you are now going is a necessity," at Annex Baccalaureate services Sunday in Harvard Memorial Church.

"Your ability to do so," he went on, "will be the measure of your education, and of your morals, and ultimately of your religion."

Changing World

In a rapidly changing world we cannot know in advance what crises may arise in our lives, he explained, "but at least we should know that in the order of nature they must come to us" and we must be prepared to take them in stride.

"Leaving home and going to college is such an experience," he continued. "Leaving college and going on to graduate study or out into the world is another. Getting married . . . the loss of a job . . . the death of someone near to us . . . They are the times for which we are unprepared," when we loss our mental peace and "make a mess of our lives."

Massive Materialism

Seniors today face several blocks to achieving that inner peace, he added, such as "the massive materialism of our country. . . . George Santayana paid us the compliment of saying that if he looked into the heart of a man and did not find kindness there he would know he was not an American. But our yard-sticks are patterned to measure things rather than ideas."

He also cautioned against the "contagious seduction of the mass movements of our time. They invite you to unload the responsibilities of personal life upon society as a whole. If you are a fellow-traveler you can hand over the direction of your life to some higher-up."

Dean Sperry was assisted by the Reverend Henry B. Washburn, dean emeritus of the Episcopal Theological School.