TABLE OF CONTENTS. KES LYED, THAT THE EVIL EFFECTS OF NEWSPAPERS ARE -LFATER PUBLIC LIBRARY 119071 ASTOR, LENOX AND 1899. De Temporibus et Moribus..... E. A. FERRIS, Assistant Business Manager...S. W. LEARNED Business Manager.. VOL. XV. E. WITKOWSKY. OCTOBER, 1885. No. 1. THE SCHOLAR IN PRACTICAL LIFE. A young man destined for active life is often warned against all studies that do not bear immediately on his chosen department. The fineness of mind that is created, or at least increased, by the study of letters is supposed to incapacitate him for the drudgery by which eminence in practical affairs is gained. The justness of such a caution cannot be denied in the case of philosophers such as Pythagoras or Hegel, whose speculative genius carried them far beyond the bounds of common-sense, nor again in the case of scientists like Agassiz, who devoted their whole being to the pursuit of knowledge. But there is another type of scholar which includes those men who, by long and patient efforts, whether under college professors or by themselves, have developed the power to think. In all departments of life there is at least one common agent. The lawyer in his arguments, the statesman in his politics, the merchant in his transactions, all employ one common means in attaining their ends. This is thought, the power of generating and grouping ideas. Who has this power if not the scholar-the man or woman whose method of thinking is so perfected that his thought has precision and intelligible meaning. And with this power many most noble qualities are associated. No scholar has acquired the knowledge that gives him a right to his title without also acquiring the habit of close application and power of concentration of mind which marks the educated will. He has, besides, a taste for sober manners, an ideal sense of honor and a contempt of success when earned by a desertion of these principles. The contour of his mental character is rounded out by moral qualities. Transfer such a man from his library to daily contact with so-called practical men. They may smile at his ideal morality, but they cannot fail to respect it. He may be subjected to poverty, neglect, and discouragement. But give him time to adapt himself to his new circumstances and he will become a power in the community. He will act nobly, because he thinks and feels nobly; he will work effectively because he thinks clearly. His habits of investigation will lead him to make researches where men of shallower intellects have been content with the ways of their grandfathers. It is owing to the superior education of the Germans that they have lately become such formidable competitors to the English in China and India. The advantages a scholar possesses are not solely for the world but also for himself. An enlarged mind embraces greater objects. If worldly wealth and success are wanting he has other means of happiness and dignity. The love of letters fosters an independence and delicacy of mind that act as preservatives against a servile homage to fortune. This refinement removes from both men and women all capacity for the enjoyment of shallow society and empty employments, but does not decrease an interest in public affairs. The scholar may withdraw from the turmoil of party politics but he still makes his influence felt. At crises in national affairs, he comes forward and turns the scale. Few opponents are more powerful than the political men of letters, for so long as the mind governs the world and thought rules action, so long will literature be close to polities." In the struggles of the Commonwealth, Milton left his poetical labors to take a responsible official position and wielded a pen mightier than Cromwell's sword. Mr. Gladstone who stands to-day as England's greatest financier, has brought to his political work the same fire and quick sensibility that he has given to the study of Homeric heroes. It has been urged that the fine sensibilities of a literary woman unfit her for practical benevolence. Yet who was it that answered the cry for help when the yellow fever was raging with all its horrors in the South? Sisters of Charity, a band of women refined and sensitive to the highest degree, yet carrying consolation and substantial aid to even the most degraded. The success of Florence Nightingale resulted greatly from her quick and perfect methods, the manifestations of a well-developed mind. Her knowledge of medicine and music underlay the work of the hospitals at Scutari. Margaret Fuller was the most brilliantly educated American woman of her day, and it was through her that order was brought out of chaos in the Italian hospitals. It often happens that the scholar in spite of his receptive mind, his expanded faculties, and his power of thought, is a failure in practical life. He may lack common-sense--certainly a great essential to success-but this scholarship can neither create nor destroy. Often the failure is only appar His ideal of success is very different from that of the men who strive only for worldly prosperity. Success is the ent. greater than the good effects. attainment of a proposed object, and if in practical life, a scholar aims at ends that others consider unwise, he is still entitled to credit for accomplishing what was attempted. Nor should the world lose sight of the debt it owes to men whose ideals are not solely of mere personal good. M. E. E., '85. RESOLVED, THAT THE EVIL EFFECTS OF NEWSPAPERS ARE GREATER THAN THE GOOD EFFECTS. It was Wendell Phillips who penned these lines: "The millions have no literature, no school, and almost no pulpit, but the press. Not one man in ten reads books. But everyone of us, except the very few helpless poor, poisons himself every day with a newspaper. It is parent, school, college, pulpit, theatre, example, counsellor, all in one. Every drop of our blood is colored by it. Let me make the newspapers and I care not who makes the religion or the laws." And Napoleon said: A journalist! That means a grumbler, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations! Four hostile newspapers are more to be dreaded than one hundred thousand bayonets." And another has said; "After all, the Press is king." Startling, indeed, are these affirmations-but apparently as true as startling. We are convinced of the power of the press when we consider the enormous circulation of our leading papers. The New York Tribune alone issued one hundred and eighty-eight thousand, six hundred copies on the day following the late election. Newspapers fly to the most remote corners of the land, being nowhere strangers. They follow each other in quick succession. New ones are born weekly, semi-weekly, morning and evening. These periodical visitors are everywhere cordially received. They accompany us to the break |