Three years ago on March 20 Charles William Eliot stepped out on the temporary wooden platform in front of University Hall to face three thousand students filling the quadrangle from John Harvard's statue to the steps of Hollis Hall. To them he left his last legacy of advice, wisdom garnered in ninety years of life.

The upright figure of that day is now a memory. In part it will be the purpose of the memorial service eight days hence to commemorate that memory. But the service will be more than a commemoration. It will express that spirit which was so strong in Eliot, which is the unifying force binding together all members of the Harvard community. He himself expressed it on that last public appearance in the Yard:

"The spirit of Harvard is wonderfully permanent in spite of the great variety of views, opinions, and practices in public and private life on the part of its graduates the same identical spirit, the same purpose to do one's best to serve human welfare throughout our country."

The memorial service will be a rededication to that purpose in Eliot, which was, is, and must continue to be Harvard's.