James McCosh

By Robert Bridges (1844–1930)

President of Princeton University. He died on Nov. 16, 1894.

YOUNG to the end through sympathy with youth,

Gray man of learning—champion of truth!

Direct in rugged speech, alert in mind,

He felt his kinship with all humankind,

And never feared to trace development

Of high from low—assured and full content

That man paid homage to the Mind above,

Uplifted by the “Royal Law of Love.”

The laws of nature that he loved to trace

Have worked, at last, to veil from us his face;

The dear old elms and ivy-covered walls

Will miss his presence, and the stately halls

His trumpet-voice; while in their joys

Sorrow will shadow those he called “my boys!”