Its building is nothing but the trust of the generations, which it places as a deposit in your hands. Whoever holds the deposit dear has shared in laying its first stone."

Here the children of the kinder-garten took part in the program of the ceremony, and their angelic voices rose with the twittering of the birds; the sweet melodies and graceful dances were the best expression of childhood's delight and its happiness at the moment it takes possession of a precious gift it has longed for!

Finally Mr. Nasri Maalouf deliv-ered a charming address on the subject "Building from the Foundation," in which he said:

"Such is the mark of those who work for their day, for their morrow, and for the day after their morrow. How much we need to take this wisdom to heart in everything that touches life and passes through our hands in the way of creation and construction — that we not raise the new, leaning for support, upon the crumbling old; that we not put on embroidered new garments over the soiled and threadbare; that we not bandage the wound with a sterilized dressing while beneath the dressing lie germs that ravage the body and carry the causes of death.

How radiant is this truth, which has escaped so many of us and which the minds that established this institution have grasped. How did it slip from our thoughts that whoever wants the taste of grapes must sow their seed, tend the plant, set out the shoots, and then gather the fruit — not turn to the boxthorn and treat it with watering, shade, tillage, and care, hoping to gather grapes from thorns.

Building from the foundation!

In the kindergarten, banners are woven for heroes; in the play-grounds of childhood, the spirit of manhood unfolds; and upon these modest pillars rises the great edifice of the homeland."

He concluded with these words:

"And behold, the mistresses of this institute are like the bees setting out at morning, hovering and circling over the blossoms, going and returning between field and stream, so that the eye sees of them nothing but movement,

activity, and perseverance; then our waiting is not long before the season of the harvest comes, and the veils are drawn back from the combs of honey — and behold, it is a mighty, colossal work, filling the eye and the soul,