"It well becomes _me_ to tread with modest and tremulous steps in a path consecrated by the luminous career of such men as the brothers Smith, an Alexander, a Hoge, and a Cushing. 'There were giants in the earth in those days--mighty men, even men of renown.' But they have gone, as we trust, to adorn higher spheres of usefulness and glory, and to shine in the firmament of God: whilst the radiance of their characters, still not lost to earth, lingers, like the setting sun-beams, on the high places of Hampden Sydney. They have _all_ gone save one, at whose feet, as the Gamaliel of the Church, it has been my distinguished privilege to sit, and to whose masterly management of the young mind I am much indebted for whatever of mental furniture I possess. I enter upon my duties, however diffident, with the unblenching purpose of doing what I _can_ to promote the best interests of the Institution over which I am called to preside. True, with a body and a mind partially wrecked by the arduous labors of past years and by successive attacks of prolonged illness, I cannot promise much. But I come to the performance of my new duties cheerfully, and with the frankness and integrity of a man in _sober earnest_ to do what I can. "Knowing and admiring, as I always have done, the noble generosity of the Virginian character, I throw myself unreservedly upon the clemency, and I expect the prompt, cordial, _efficient_ co-operation of this honorable Board of Trustees. I do more. With a heart still bleeding under a recent and final separation from that beloved people, whose sympathies and prayers have been the solace of my past life for years, I throw myself upon the kindness of this privileged Christian community. Most gladly would I find a _home_ in their affections. Most devoutly do I hope for and desire the sustaining influence of _their_ sympathies and of _their_ supplications to heaven in my behalf and in behalf of this Institution. Let all the pious and prayerful join with me to-day, in a renewed consecration of this College to God, under the deep conviction that 'except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain.' With such for my allies, and God as my help, I shall enter on my labors with the assurance that the inspiriting motto--'_nil desperandum est_'--is far more applicable to Hampden Sydney than it was to the republic of Rome in the zenith of her glory." EULOGIES ON MARSHALL. 1. _Judge Story's Discourse_. 2. _Binney's Eulogium_.