August 7, 2020

i’ve not actually been able to find an authoritative text (the versions on the internet are variously punctuated and lineated (how irksome!) but for the time being i use the one that the uva honor committee has on their website (supposing that they ought know something about the tradition.) also realising that i did not have the line right all this time, that it did not say “honour of honours” (superlative) but “honours of Honour” (UVA value personified):

[I]f you live a long, long time, and hold honesty of conscience above honesty of purse;

And turn aside without ostentation to aid the weak;

And treasure ideals more than raw ambition;

And track no man to his undeserved hurt;

And pursue no woman to her tears;

And love the beauty of noble music and mist-veiled mountains and blossoming valleys and great monuments -

If you live a long time and, keeping the faith in all these things hour by hour, still see that the sun gilds your path with real gold and that the moon floats in dream silver;

Then. . .

Remembering the purple shadows of the lawn, the majesty of the colonnades, and the dream of your youth, you may say in reverence and thankfulness:

�I have worn the honors of Honor, I graduated from Virginia.�

from James Hay Jr, The Honor Men, 1903.

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