from the ,google ,print project47 ,,letters ,,from ,a ,,father ,,to ,,his ,,son ,,entering ,,college ,,by ,,charles ,,franklin ,,thwing ,president of ,western ,reserve ,university ,new ,york ,,the ,,platt ,,peck ,,co4 ,copyright1 #aiab ,by ,,the ,,platt ,,peck ,,co4 ,,prefatory ,,note4 ,parts of the letters that make up this little book were read to my own college boys at the opening of a college year4 ,they represent somewhat1 but of course only a bit1 of what ,i believe many a father would like to say to his own son1--as ,i to mine1--when he is entering the most important year of his college life--the ,freshman4 ,those who first heard them1--even though obliged to hear1--seemed to suffer them gladly4 ,they are1 therefore1 brought together1 and sent out to fathers and to sons1 and with a peculiar feeling of sympathy for both the parent and the boy at one of the crises of the life of each4 ,c4 ,f4 ,t4 ,western ,reserve ,university1 ,cleveland4 ,,contents ,,page ,i ,thought #i ,,ii ,the ,essential ,gentleman #bb ,,iii ,health as an ,asset #be ,,iv ,appreciation #bi ,v ,scholarship #ca ,,vi ,the ,intellectual ,life #dj ,,vii ,the ,use of ,time #dc ,,viii ,culture #ec ,,ix ,college ,morals #fa ,x ,weakness of ,character #fe ,,xi ,the ,genesis of ,success #fh ,,xii ,religion #ia ,,letters ,,from ,a ,,father ,,to ,,his ,,son ,,entering ,,college ,my ,dear ,boy3--,i am glad you want to go to college4 ,possibly ,i might send you even if you did not want to go1 yet ,i doubt it4 ,one may send a boy through college and the boy is sent through4 ,none of the college is sent through him4 ,but if you go1 ,i am sure a good deal of the college will somehow get lodged in you4 ,you will find a thousand and one things in college which are worth while4 ,i wish you could have each of them1 but you can not4 ,you have to use the elective system1 even in the ,freshman year4 ,the trouble is not that so few boys do not seem to know how to distinguish the good from the bad1 but that so many boys do not know the better from the good and the best from the better4 ,i have known thousands of college boys1 and they do not seem to distinguish1 or1 if they do1 they do not seem to be able to apply the gospel of difference4 ,you won't think me imposing on you--will you8--if before entering college ,i tell you of some things which seem to me to be most worthy of your having and being on the day you get your ,a4 ,b4 ,the first thing ,i wish to say to you is that ,i want you to come out of the college a thinker4 ,but how to make yourself a thinker is both hard to do and hard to tell4 ,yet1 the one great way of making yourself a thinker is to think4 ,thinking is a practical art4 ,it cannot be taught4 ,it is learned by doing4 ,yet there are some subjects in the course which seem to me to be better fitted than others to teach you this art4 ,i've been trying to find out what are some of the marks or characteristics of these subjects4 ,they are1 ,i believe1 subjects which require concentration of thought2 subjects which have clearness in their elements1 yet which are comprehensive1 which are complex1 which are consecutive in their arrangements of parts1 each part being closely1 rigorously related to every other1 which represent continuity1 of which the different elements or parts may be prolonged unto far reaching consequences4 ,concentration in the thinker1 clearness1 comprehensiveness1 complexedness1 consecutiveness1 continuity--there are the six big ,c's1 which are marks of the subjects which tend to create the thinker4 ,to attempt to apply each of these marks to many different subjects of the curriculum represents a long and unduly stupefying labor4 ,apply them for yourself4 ,different subjects have different worths for the students1 but there are certain recognized values attached to each coin of the intellectual realm4 ,mathematics and pure physics eminently represent the larger part of these six elements which ,i have named4 ,mathematics demands concentration4 ,mathematics is1 in a sense1 the mind giving itself to certain abstract truths4 ,what is ,x#b but a form of the mind8 ,mathematics demands clearness of thinking and of statement4 ,without clearness mathematics is naught4 ,it also represents comprehensiveness4 ,the large field of its truth is pressed into its greater relationships4 ,mathematical truth is complex4 ,part is involved with part4 ,it is consecutive4 ,part follows part in necessary order4 ,it is also continuous4 ,it represents a graded progress4 ,it is1 however1 to be remembered that the reasoning of mathematics is unlike most reasoning which we usually employ4 ,mathematical reasoning is necessary4 ,most reasoning is not necessary4 ,that two plus two equal four is a truth about which people do not differ usually4 ,but reasoning in economics1 such as the protective tariff2 reasoning in philosophy1 such as the presence or absence of innate ideas2 reasoning in history2 is not absolute4 ,i have even wondered how far ,cambridge1 standing for mathematics and the physical sciences1 has helped to make men great4 ,oxford is said to be the mother of great movements1 and it is4 ,here the ,wesleyan movement1 and the ,tractarian movement and the ,social movement1 as seen in ,toynbee ,hall1 had their origins4 ,cambridge is called the mother of great men4 ,is there any relation of cause and effect1 at ,cambridge1 between its emphasis upon mathematics and the sciences and the great men whom she has helped to make8 ,logic is the subject of a course which embodies the six marks ,i have laid down4 ,it demands these great elements in almost the same ways in which mathematics demands them4 ,logic1 in a sense1 might be called applied or incarnate mathematics4 ,the man who wishes to be a thinker should be and is the master of logic4 ,language1 too1 represents almost one half of the course of the modern college1 and it represented more than one half of the course of the older college4 ,what merits has the study of language for making the thinker8 ,the study of languages makes no special demand on the quality of concentration1 but the study does demand and creates comprehensiveness and clearness4 ,the study represents a complex process and requires analysis4 ,the time-spirit has worked and still works in languages unto diverse and manifold forms4 ,languages are developed with a singular union of orderliness and disorderliness4 ,the parts of a language are in some cases closely related4 ,the ,greek verb is the most highly developed linguistic product4 ,it is built up with the delicacy and poise of a child's house of blocks1 yet with the orderliness of a ,greek temple4 ,each letter represents a different meaning4 ,augment1 prefix1 ending has its own significance4 ,i asked a former ,chinese minister to this country what taught him to think4 ,his succinct answer was ,greek4 ,in creating the thinker1 the historical and social sciences have chief value in their complex relationships4 ,select any period of history pregnant with great results4 ,for instance1 select the efflorescence of the ,greek people after the ,persian wars4 ,what were the causes of this vast advance8 ,take1 for instance1 the political and social condition prevalent for thirty years in ,america before the ,civil ,war4 ,what were the causes of this war8 ,or1 take economic affairs--what are the reasons for and against a protective tariff8 ,what are the limitations of such a tariff8 ,such conditions require comprehensive knowledge of complex matters4 ,from such mastery the thinker results1--the thinker of consideration and considerateness4 ,he can perceive a series of facts and the relation of each to each4 ,the law of values of these different subjects in making the thinker1 is that the subjects which demand hard thinking are most creative4 ,easy subjects1 or hard subjects easily worked out1 have little place in the making of a thinker4 ,one must think hard to become a hard thinker4 ,subjects and methods which are hard create the inevitable result4 ,subjects which demand thinking only1 however1 sometimes are rather barren in result4 ,one likes a certain content or concreteness in the thinking process4 ,abstract thinking sometimes seems like a balloon which has no connection with the earth4 ,if a balloon is to be guided1 it must be held down to terra firma4 ,the ricksha men in ,japan can run better if the carriage has a load4 ,the bullet must have weight to go4 ,a subject1 therefore1 which has content may quicken thinking and stimulate thoughtfulness4 ,the thinker is not made1 however1 only by the subjects he studies4 ,in this condition the teacher has his place1 and especially the methods of teaching and the inspiring qualities of teaching which he represents1 have value4 ,the dead lift of the discipline of the mind is liable to be a deadening process4 ,every subject needs a man to vitalize it for the ordinary student4 ,every graduate recalls teachers of such strength4 ,he holds them in unfading gratitude and often in deathless affection4 ,,ii ,the second thing ,i want to say to you is that ,i want you to be a gentleman4 ,how absurd it is for me to write that to you4 ,of course1 you are1 and1 of course1 you will be one4 ,in the creation of the gentleman as well as of the thinker1 the personal equation counts4 ,in fact1 it counts for more in the making of the gentleman4 ,for in this making truth is less important than the personality4 ,in the gentleman intellectual altruism and moral appreciativeness are large elements4 ,one has to see and to understand the personal condition with which he deals4 ,if he is dull1 his conduct is as apt to give unhappiness as pleasure4 ,in order to open the eyes of the heart1 in order to create an intellectual conscientiousness1 the study of great literatures must be assigned a high place4 ,constant and complex needs to be such study4 ,literature represents humanity4 ,the humanities are humanity4 ,literature is style and style is the man4 ,the gentleman as a product represents the homeopathic principle4 ,the gentleman makes the gentleman4 ,certain colleges are distinguished by the type of gentleman which they create4 ,it will usually be found1 on observation or analysis1 that colleges which are distinguished for the gracious conduct of their teachers toward their students are distinguished by the gracious bearing of their graduates4 ,as a gentleman you will be a friend and will have friends4 ,in this relation of friendship in its earlier stages there is no part of life in which it is more important for you to exercise the virtue and grace of reserve4 ,be in no haste to make friends4 ,friendships are growths1 not manufactures4 ,these growths1 too1 are like the elm and the oak1 not like the willow4 ,at this point lies all ,i want to say to you about joining a fraternity4 ,if the men you want to be your intimate friends are members and ask you to join1 accept4 ,if the men you do not wish to be your intimate friends wish you to go with them1 decline4 ,do not join for the sake of a blind pool membership4 ,such a membership is really a sort of social insincerity1 a lie4 ,,iii ,in the assessment of academic values1 give a high place to sound health4 ,the worth is so great that very slight may be the paragraph ,i write you4 ,in the ,egoist1 ,george ,meredith says1 ,health1 wealth and beauty are three considerations to be sought for in a woman1 who is to become the wife of ,sir ,willoughby4 ,wealth and beauty are quite as much out of ordinary results of the education of the ,american college as health should be among those results4 ,one may be sick1 and through sickness become a saint2 one may be sick and through sickness become a sinner4 ,but one cannot be sick and at the same time be as good a worker as he would be if he were not sick4 ,good workers the world needs1 and1 therefore1 men of first-rate health the world needs4 ,if one is to be a great worker1 one must have great health4 ,it is not for me to write as would a physician1 but ,i may be allowed to say that in caring for health1 one should not become self-conscious4 ,let me further suggest3-- ,first--,that you sleep eight hours4 ,second--,exercise at least a half an hour each day in the gymnasium4 ,third--,eat much of simple food2 but not too much6 ,fourth--,don't worry4 ,fifth--,play ball much 7base1 foot1 basket72 but not too much6 ,in a word1 be a good animal4 ,one of my old teachers once said to me after ,i was engaged in my work3-- ,i am sorry to see you looking so well4 ,why8 ,because every man has to break down three times in life4 ,i broke down three times2 ,professor ,hitchcock broke down three times2 every man must break down three times1 and the earlier the breaks come1 the better4 ,there is no need of any man's breaking down1 if he will observe with fair respect the laws of sleep1 exercise and food4 ,,iv ,i also desire that you should be a man of scholarly sympathy and appreciation4 ,i can hardly hope you will be a scholar4 ,yet you may4 ,the scholar seldom emerges4 ,if one out of each thousand students1 entering the ,american college this year1 should prove to be a scholar1 the proportion is as large as one can hope for4 ,for up to one in a thousand is as big a proportion as the world is prepared to accept4 ,yet it is to be hoped that you and that most men should have appreciation and sympathy with scholarship4 ,you should know what scholarship means3 in work as toilsomeness1 in method as wisdom1 in atmosphere as thoroughness and patience1 in result as an addition to the stock of human knowledge4 ,if you be a laborer in one field1 you should not seek1 and ,i know you will not seek1 to discount the existence of other fields1 or despise the laborers in those fields4 ,if you become an engineer1 you will not condemn the classicist as useless4 ,if you are a ,grecian1 you will not despise the mechanical engineer as crass and coarse4 ,one finds that the best men of any one field or calling are more inclined to recognize the eminence of the claims of other fields or callings4 ,smallness spells provincialism1 and provincialism spells smallness4 ,i have heard one of the greatest teachers of chemistry say that if he were to make a boy a professor of chemistry1 he would1 among other things1 first teach him ,greek4 ,v ,the first principle of college life is the principle of doing one's duty4 ,in your appreciation of scholarship1 your first duty is to learn your lessons4 ,i have known many college men who learned their lessons1 who yet failed to get from the college all that they ought to get4 ,but ,i have never known a man who failed to get his lessons1 whatever else he may have got1 to receive the full advantage of the course4 ,the curriculum of every good college is the resultant of scores or of hundreds of years of reflection and of trial4 ,it represents methods1 content1 purposes1 which many teachers through many experiments of success and of failure have learned are the best forces for training mind and for forming character4 ,but for the student to receive worthy advantage from these forces he is obliged to relate himself to them by hard intellectual attention and application4 ,sir ,leslie ,stephen says that the ,cambridge teachers of his time were not given to enthusiasms1 but preached common-sense1 and common-sense said3 ,stick to your triposes1 grind at your mill1 and don't set the universe in order till you have taken your bachelor's degree4 ,the duty of the ,american college student is no less evident4 ,he is to stick to his triposes4 ,his triposes are his lessons4 ,among the greatest of all teachers was ,louis ,agassiz4 ,a story has become classical as told by the distinguished naturalist1 the late ,dr4 ,samuel ,h4 ,scudder1 regarding the methods of the great teacher with his students4 ,in brief the story is that ,mr4 ,scudder on going to ,agassiz was told1 ',take this fish and look at it4 ,we call it a ,hmulon4 ,by and by ,i will ask you what you have seen4' 444 ,in ten minutes ,i had seen all that could be seen in that fish4444 ,half an hour passed1 an hour1 another hour2 the fish began to look loathsome4 ,i turned it over and around2 looked it in the face--ghastly6--from behind1 beneath1 above1 sideways1 at three-quarters view--just as ghastly4 ,i was in despair4 ,at an early hour ,i concluded that lunch was necessary2 so1 with infinite relief1 the fish was carefully replaced in the jar1 and for an hour ,i was free4 ,on my return ,i learned that ,professor ,agassiz had been at the ,museum1 but had gone1 and would not return for several hours4444 ,slowly ,i drew forth that hideous fish1 and1 with a feeling of desperation1 again looked at it4 ,i might not use a magnifying glass2 instruments of all kinds were interdicted4 ,my two hands1 my two eyes1 and the fish2 it seemed a most limited field4444 ,at last a happy thought struck me--,i would draw the fish2 and now with surprise ,i began to discover new features in the creature4444 ,he listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of parts whose names were still unknown to me4444 ,when ,i had finished he waited1 as if expecting more1 and then1 with an air of disappointment1 ',you have not looked very carefully2 why1' he continued most earnestly1 'you haven't even seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal1 which is as plainly before your eyes as the animal itself4 ,look again6 ,look again6' and he left me to my misery4 ,i ventured to ask what ,i should do next4 ',oh1 look at your fish1' he said1 and left me again to my own devices4 ,in a little more than an hour he returned and heard my new catalogue4 ',that is good1 that is good1' he repeated3 'but that is not all2 go on4' ,and so for three long days he placed that fish before my eyes1 forbidding me to look at anything else or use any artificial aid4 ',look1 look1 look1' was his repeated injunction4 ,doctor ,scudder says that this was the best entomological lesson he ever had1 and a lesson of which the influence extended to the details of every subsequent study4 ,it is the duty of the college student to look at his fish1 to thumb his lexicon1 to read his textbook1 to study his notes1 to think1 and think hard1 upon the truth therein presented4 ,of all the students in the world the ,scotch represent this simple duty the best4 ,the men at ,edinburgh1 ,glasgow1 ,st4 ,andrews and ,aberdeen toil mightily4 ,the duty of learning one's lessons is1 in these times1 opposed by at least two elements of college life4 ,one is self-indulgence and the other is athletics4 ,self-indulgence is a general cause and constant4 ,athletics have in the last thirty years come to be a force more or less dominant4 ,athletics represent a mighty force for collegiate and human betterment4 ,football1 which is par excellence the college game1 is an admirable method of training the man physical1 the man intellectual and the man ethical4 ,but football is not a college purpose2 it is a college means4 ,it is a means for the promotion of scholarship1 for the formation of manhood4 ,when football or other forms of college sport are turned from being a method and a means into being ends in themselves the misfortune is lamentable4 ,at a recent ,harvard commencement1 ,professor ,shaler1 than whom no man in ,harvard was more vitally in touch with all undergraduate interests1 spoke of the harm wrought upon many students through their absorption in athletics4 ,it cannot be denied for an instant that many men are hurt by giving undue attention to sports4 ,of course many men are benefited1 and1 are benefited vastly1 by athletics1 but men who are harmed should at once be obliged to learn the lesson of learning their lessons4 ,that is the chief lesson which they ought to learn4 ,,vi ,in the appreciation of scholarship is found the strain of intellectual humility4 ,the scholar is more inclined to inquire than to affirm4 ,he is more ready to ask ,what do you think8 than to say ,i know4 ,he is remote from intellectual arrogance4 ,humility means greatness4 ,cockiness is a token of narrowness4 ,the ,socratic spirit of modesty is as true a manner of wisdom as it is an effective method of increasing wisdom4 ,the man who has an opinion on all things1 has no right to an opinion on any one4 ,this intellectual sympathy and appreciation should take on esthetic relations4 ,you should be a lover of beauty as well as of wisdom4 ,good books1 good pictures1 good music1 good architecture1 should be among your avocations4 ,read a piece of good literature every day4 ,see a good picture or a good copy of one every day4 ,hear some good music every day4 ,the chapel service may give it to you4 ,and see a piece of good architecture every day4 ,some of the college buildings can give it4 ,alas6 many do not4 ,such visions and hearings will soak into your manhood4 ,all this is only saying lead the life intellectual4 ,you should not only be a thinker1 you should be thoughtful4 ,you should be a man of large thoughtfulness4 ,you should be prepared to interpret life and all phenomena in terms of the intellect4 ,many of our countrymen are intelligent4 ,they know a great deal4 ,they have gathered up information about many things4 ,this information is desultory1 unrelated4 ,their minds are a ,brummagem drawer4 ,here1 by the way1 lies the worthlessness of ,president ,eliot's list of books to the untrained mind4 ,to the educated mind such books mean much2 to the uneducated1 little4 ,yet1 as a college man1 you may know less than not a few uneducated people may know4 ,i don't care4 ,the life intellectual is more and most important4 ,,vii ,i also want you to go from the college a good combination of a good worker and a good loafer4 ,to be able to loaf well is not a bad purpose of an education4 ,the loafing that carries along with itself the freedom from selfishness1 appreciation of others' conditions1 and gentlemanliness1 is worth commending4 ,loafing that follows hard work and prepares for hard work is one of the best equipments of a man4 ,loafing that has no object1 loafing as a vocation1 is to be despised4 ,the late ,professor ,jebb wrote to his father once from ,cambridge1 saying3-- ,i will read but not very hard2 because ,i know better than you or any one can tell me1 how much reading is good for the development of my own powers at the present time1 and will conduce to my success next year and afterwards2 and ,i will not identify myself with what are called in ,cambridge 'the reading set1' i4 e41 men who read twelve hours a day and never do anything else2 7#a7 because ,i should lose ten per cent4 of reputation 7which at the university is no bubble but real living useful capital72 7#b7 because the reading set1 with a few exceptions1 are utterly uncongenial to me4 ,my set is a set that reads1 but does not only read2 that accomplishes one great end of university life by mixing in cheerful and intellectual society1 and learning the ways of the world which its members are so soon to enter2 and which1 without the pedantry and cant of the 'reading man1' turns out as good ,christians1 better scholars1 better men of the world1 and better gentlemen1 than those mere plodders with whom a man is inevitably associated if he identifies himself with the reading set4 ,i rather like the loafing which young ,jebb indulged in1 but ,i fear it is a type of the life which some college men do not follow4 ,they are inclined to look upon the four college years as a respite between the labor of the preparatory school and the labor of business1 or rather they may look upon the four college years as a life of professional leisure4 ,i am glad you cannot1 even if you wished to1 and ,i know you do not wish to1 think of college as either respite or leisure4 ,whether the college is wise in allowing such loafing1 it is not for me now to say1 but ,i can trust you to be the proper kind of loafer as well as of worker4 ,indeed1 ,i want you to have good habits of working4 ,in such habits the valuation of time is of special significance4 ,for time is not an agent4 ,it does nothing4 ,as a power1 time is absolutely worthless4 ,as a condition1 time is of infinite worth4 ,mark ,pattison1 the rector of ,lincoln ,college1 said3 ,time seems infinite to the freshman in his first term4 ,but let me add that to a senior in his last term time is a swiftly moving opportunity4 ,the need of time becomes more and more urgent as the college years go4 ,when ,jowett was fifty-nine years old1 he wrote3 ,i cannot say vixi1 for ,i feel as if ,i were only just beginning and had not half completed what ,i had intended4 ,if ,i live twenty-five years more ,i will1 ,dei gratia1 accomplish a great work for ,oxford and for philosophy in ,england4 ,activity1 temperance1 no enmities1 self-denial1 saving eyes1 never overwork4 ,on his seventieth birthday ,jowett made out what he called his ,scheme of ,life4 ,it was this3-- ,,eight ,,years ,,of ,,work4 #a ,year--,politics1 ,republic1 ,dialogues of ,plato4 #b ,years--,moral ,philosophy4 #b ,years--,life of ,christ4 #a ,year--,sermons4 #b ,years--,greek ,philosophy2 ,thales to ,socrates4 ,i turn over the last pages of ,jowett's ,life and ,letters1 and ,i find a list of his works4 ,is there a moral philosophy in the list8 ,no4 ,a life of ,christ8 ,no4 ,a treatise on ,greek philosophy8 ,no4 ,but ,i do find a volume of college sermons1 published since his death1 and also a new edition of his ,plato4 ,one of the most pathetic things in the volumes that cover his life is the constant reference to agenda--things he was to do4 ,but the agenda rapidly become nugae--impossibilities--and the reason was simply1 as it ever is1 the lack of time4 ,to save time1 take time in large pieces4 ,do not cut time up into bits4 ,adopt the principle of continuous work4 ,the mind is like a locomotive4 ,it requires time for getting under headway4 ,under headway it makes its own steam4 ,progress gives force as force makes progress4 ,do not slow down as long as you run well and without undue waste4 ,take advantage of momentum4 ,prolonged thinking leads to profound thinking4 ,steamers which have the longest routes seek deepest waters4 ,let me also counsel you to do what must be done sometime as soon as possible4 ,thus you avoid worry4 ,you save yourself needless trouble and waste4 ,you also have the satisfaction of having the thing done which is a very blessed satisfaction4 ,i would have you spring to your work in the mood and the way in which ,j4 ,c4 ,shairp1 in his poem on the ,balliol ,scholars1 spoke of ,temple3-- ,with strength for labor1 'as the strength of ten' ,to ceaseless toil he girt him night and day3 ,a native ,king and ruler among men1 ,ploughman or ,premier1 born to bear true sway3 ,small or great duty never known to shirk1 ,he bounded joyously to sternest work-- ,lest buoyant others turn to sport and play4 ,therefore1 do not be a slave4 ,go at your job with enthusiasm4 ,to get enthusiasm in work1 work4 ,work creates enthusiasm for work in a healthy mind4 ,the dyer's hand is not subdued to its materials2 it is strengthened through materials for service4 ,,viii ,you will soon learn1 my son1 that college men are1 as a rule1 sound in body1 sane in mind1 in heart pure1 in will vigorous1 keen in conscience1 and filled with noble aspirations4 ,such men usually interpret life1 both academic and general1 in sanity and in justice4 ,yet1 despite these happy conditions1 there does prevail a danger of college men making certain misconceptions of college life4 ,a misconception which is more or less common among students you will soon have occasion to see relates to the failure to distinguish1 on the one side1 knowledge from efficiency1 and on the other1 knowledge from cultivation4 ,in the former time1 the worth of knowledge1 as knowledge1 was emphasized in the college4 ,the man who knew was regarded as the great man4 ,to make each student an encyclopedia of information was a not uncommon aim4 ,it is certainly well to know4 ,scholarship is seldom in peril of receiving too high encomium4 ,yet1 knowledge is not power4 ,sometimes knowledge prevents the creation1 or retention1 or use1 of power4 ,the intellect may be so clogged with knowledge that the will becomes sluggish or irregular in its action4 ,knowledge1 however1 is always to be so gathered that it shall create power and minister to efficiency4 ,the accumulation of information is to be made with such orderliness1 accuracy1 thoroughness and comprehensiveness1 that these qualities shall represent the chief and lasting result of knowledge4 ,facts may be forgotten1 but the orderliness1 accuracy1 thoroughness and comprehensiveness in which these facts have been gathered are more important than the facts themselves1 and these qualities should1 and may1 become a permanent intellectual treasure4 ,these qualities are elements of efficiency4 ,they are forces for making attainments1 for securing results4 ,the student1 however1 while he is securing the facts which lead to these qualities is in peril of forgetting the primary value of the qualities themselves4 ,on the other side1 the student is also in peril of failing to distinguish between knowledge as knowledge1 and knowledge which leads to personal cultivation4 ,what is cultivation1 and who is the cultivated person8 ,some would say that the cultivated person is the person of beautiful manners1 of the best knowledge of life's best things1 who is at home in any society or association4 ,such a definition is not to be spurned4 ,for1 is it not said that ,manners make the man8 ,manners make the man6 ,that is1 ,do manners create the man8 that is1 ,do manners give reputation to the man8 that is1 ,do manners express the character of the man8 ,which of the three interpretations is sound8 ,or does each interpretation intimate a side of the polygon8 ,i know of a man put in nomination for a place in an historic college4 ,the trustees were in doubt respecting his bearing in certain social relations4 ,as a test1 ,i may say1 he was asked to be a guest at an afternoon tea4 ,rather silly way1 in some respects1 wasn't it8 ,i doubt if he to this day is aware of the trial to which he was subjected4 ,the way one accepts or declines a note of invitation1 the way one uses his voice1 the way one enters or retires from a room may1 or may not1 be little in itself1 but the simple act is evidence of conditions4 ,for is not manner the comparative of man8 ,i would not say it is the superlative4 ,others would affirm that the cultivated person is the person who appreciates the best which life offers4 ,appreciation is intellectual1 emotional1 volitional4 ,it is discrimination plus sympathy4 ,it contains a dash of admiration4 ,it recognizes and adopts the best in every achievement1 in the arts of literature1 poetry1 sculpture1 painting1 architecture4 ,the cultivated person seeks out the least unworthy in the unworthy1 and the most worthy in that which is at all worthy4 ,the person of cultivation knows1 compares1 relates1 judges4 ,he has standards and he applies them to things1 measures methods4 ,he is able to discriminate and to feel the difference between the ,parthenon and the ,madeleine1 between a poem of ,tennyson and one of ,longfellow4 ,his moral nature is fine1 as his intellectual is honest4 ,he is filled with reverence for truth1 duty1 righteousness4 ,he is humble1 for he knows how great is truth1 how imperative1 duty4 ,he is modest1 for he respects others4 ,he is patient with others and with himself1 for he knows how unattainable is the right4 ,he can be silent when in doubt4 ,he can speak alone when truth is unpopular4 ,he is willing to lose his voice in the choir invisible when it chants either the ,miserere or the ,gloria in ,excelsis4 ,he is a man of proportion1 of reality1 sincerity1 honesty1 justice1 temperance--intellectual and ethical4 ,the college man is in peril of forgetting the worth of cultivation4 ,knowledge should lead to cultivation1 but1 as in the case of securing efficiency1 the mind of the student may be so fixed upon processes as to fail to recognize the importance of the result as manifest in the cultivation of his whole being4 ,in the case of both efficiency and cultivation1 the student is to remember there is no substitute4 ,intellectual power cannot be counterfeited4 ,any attempt1 also1 to secure a sham cultivation is foreordained to failure4 ,,ix ,the student is also too prone to distinguish between academic morals and human morals4 ,as a student1 he may crib in examination without compunction4 ,as a student1 he too often feels it is right to deceive his teacher4 ,students who are gentlemen and who would as soon cut their own throats as steal your purse1 will yet steal your office sign or the pole of your barber4 ,in such college outlawry he loses no sense of self-respect1 and in no degree the respect of his fellow students4 ,let us confess at once that in what may be called academic immorals there is usually no sense of malice4 ,this condition does create a distinct difference between academic and human ethics4 ,let the distinction be given full credit4 ,yet1 be it at once and firmly said1 a lie is a lie1 and thieving is thieving4 ,the blameworthiness may differ in different cases1 but there is always blameworthiness4 ,be it also said the public does not usually recognize the distinction which the student himself seeks to make4 ,the public becomes justly impatient with1 and more or less indignant over1 the horseplay1 or immoralities which students work outside1 and sometimes inside1 college walls4 ,the student is to remember that before he was a student he was a man1 that after he has ceased to be a student he is to be a man1 and while he is a student he is also to be a man1 and also before1 after1 and always he is to be a gentleman4 ,such irregular conditions belong1 of course1 to youth as well as to the student4 ,the irreverence which characterizes all ,american life is prone to become insolence1 when1 in the student1 it is raised to the second or third power4 ,the able man and true--student or not a student--of course presently adjusts himself to orderly conditions4 ,the academic experience proves to be a discipline1 though sometimes not a happy one1 and the discipline helps towards the achievement of a large and rich character4 ,x ,another misconception made by the student is also common4 ,it is a misconception attaching to any weakness of his character4 ,the student is inclined to believe that there may be weaknesses which are not structural4 ,he may think that there may be some weakness in one part of his whole being which shall not affect his whole being4 ,he may believe that he can skimp his intellectual labor without making his moral nature thin1 or that he can break the laws of his moral nature without breaking his intellectual integrity4 ,he may think that he can play fast and loose with his will without weakening his conscience or without impairing the truthfulness of his intellectual processes4 ,he may imagine that he is composed of several distinct potencies and that he can lessen the force of any one of them without depreciating the value of the others4 ,lamentable mistake1 and one often irretrievable4 ,for man is a unit4 ,weakness in one part becomes weakness in every part4 ,in the case of the body1 the illness of one organ damages all organs4 ,if the intellect be dull1 or narrow in its vision1 or false in its logic1 the heart refuses to be quickened and the conscience is disturbed4 ,if the heart be frigid1 the intellect1 in turn1 declines to do its task with alertness or vigor4 ,if conscience be outraged1 the intellect loses force and the heart becomes clothed with shame4 ,man is one4 ,strength in one part is strength in1 and for1 every part1 and weakness in one part results in weakness in1 and for1 every part4 ,for avoiding these three misconceptions1 the simple will of the college man is of primary worth4 ,if he will to distinguish knowledge from efficiency1 and knowledge from cultivation1 if he will to know that the distinction between academic morals and human morals is not so deep as some believe1 and if he will to believe in the unity of character1 the student has the primary help for securing a sound idea and a right practice4 ,,xi ,i write to you1 my boy1 out of the experience and observation of thirty years in which ,i have followed as best ,i could the careers of graduates of many of our colleges4 ,the other afternoon ,i set down the names of some of these graduates of the two colleges which ,i know best4 ,among them were men who1 fifteen or thirty years after their graduation1 are doing first-rate work4 ,they are lawyers1 editors1 physicians1 judges1 clergymen1 teachers1 merchants1 manufacturers1 architects and writers4 ,as ,i have looked at the list with a mind somewhat inquisitive ,i have asked myself what are the qualities or conditions which have contributed to the winning of the great results which these men have won4 ,the answers which ,i have given myself are manifold4 ,for it is always difficult in personal matters to differentiate and to determine causes4 ,in mechanical concerns it is not difficult4 ,but in the calculation of causes which constitute the value of a person as a working force one often finds oneself baffled4 ,the result frequently seems either more or less than an equivalent of the co-operating forces4 ,the personal factor1 the personal equation counts immensely4 ,these values we cannot measure in scales or figure out by the four processes of arithmetic4 ,be it said that the causes of the success of these men do not lie in their conditions4 ,no happy combination of circumstances1 no windfall of chance1 gave them what they have achieved4 ,if those who graduated in the eighth decade had graduated in the ninth1 or if those who graduated in the ninth had graduated in the earlier time1 it probably would have made no difference4 ,neither does the name1 with possibly a single exception1 nor wealth prove to be a special aid4 ,nor have friends boosted or pushed them4 ,friends may have opened doors for them2 but friends have not urged them either to see or to embrace opportunities4 ,these men seem to me to have for their primary and comprehensive characteristic a large sanity4 ,they have the broad vision and the long look4 ,they possess usually a kind of sobriety which may almost be called ,washingtonian4 ,the insane man reasons correctly from false premises4 ,the fool has no premises from which to reason4 ,these men are neither insane nor foolish4 ,they have suppositions1 presuppositions1 which are true4 ,they also follow logical principles which are sound4 ,they are in every way well-ordered4 ,they keep their brains where their brains ought to be--inside their skulls4 ,they keep their hearts where their hearts ought to be--inside their chests4 ,they keep their appetites where their appetites ought to be4 ,too many men keep their brains inside their chests3 the emotions absorb the intellect4 ,too many men put their hearts inside their skull3 the emotions are dried up in the clear air of thought4 ,too many put both brains and heart where the appetites are3 both judgment and action are swallowed up in the animal4 ,but these men are whole1 wholesome1 healthy1 healthful4 ,they seem to represent those qualities which1 ,james ,bryce says1 ,archbishop ,tait embodied3 ,he had not merely moderation1 but what1 though often confounded with moderation1 is something rarer and better1 a steady balance of mind4 ,he was carried about by no winds of doctrine4 ,he seldom yielded to impulses1 and was never so seduced by any one theory as to lose sight of other views and conditions which had to be regarded4 ,he knew how to be dignified without assumption1 firm without vehemence1 prudent without timidity1 judicious without coldness4 ,they are remote from crankiness1 eccentricity4 ,they may or may not have fads2 but they are not faddists4 ,not one of them is a genius in either the good or the evil side of conspicuous native power4 ,they see and weigh evidence4 ,they are a happy union of wit and wisdom1 of jest and precept1 of work and play1 of companionship and solitude1 of thinking and resting1 of receptivity and creativeness1 of the ideal and the practical1 of individualism and of sympathy4 ,they are living in the day1 but they are not living for the day4 ,they embody the doctrine of the golden mean4 ,each of these men has also in his career usually more than filled the place he occupied4 ,he has overflowed into the next higher place4 ,the overflow has raised him into the higher lock4 ,the career has been an ascending spiral4 ,each higher curve has sprung out of the preceding and lower4 ,from the attorneyship of the county to service as attorney of the ,state1 and to a place on the ,supreme ,bench of the ,united ,states3--,from a pastorate in a small ,maine city to a pastorate suburban1 and from the pastorate suburban to a pastorate on ,fifth ,avenue3--,from a professorship in an humble place to a professorship in largest relations3--,from the building of cottages to the building of great libraries and museums4 ,this is the order of progression4 ,i will not say that any of these men did the best he could do at every step of the way4 ,some did2 some did not1 probably4 ,but what is to the point1 each did better than the place demanded4 ,he more than earned his wages1 his salary1 his pay4 ,he had a surplus2 he was a creditor4 ,his employers owed him more than they paid him4 ,they found the best way of paying him and keeping him was to advance him4 ,such is the natural evolution of skill and power4 ,the only legitimate method of advancement is to make advancement necessary1 inevitable1 by the simple law of achievement4 ,the simple law of achievement depends upon the law of increasing force1 which is the law that personal force grows through the use of personal force4 ,hiram ,stevens ,maxim in the sketch of his life tells of his working in ,flynt's carriage factory at ,abbot1 ,maine1 when a boy of about fifteen4 ,from ,flynt's at ,abbot he went to ,dexter1 a large town1 where he became a foreman4 ,he presently went to a threshing machine factory in northern ,new ,york2 thence to ,fitchburg1 ,mass41 where he obtained a place in the engineering works of his uncle4 ,in this factory he says he could do more work than any other man save one4 ,thence he went to a place in ,boston2 from ,boston to ,new ,york1 where he received high pay as a draughtsman4 ,while he was working in ,new ,york he conceived the idea of making a gun which would load and fire itself by the energy derived from the burning powder4 ,from work in a little place in ,maine1 ,maxim1 by doing each work the best possible1 has made himself a larger power4 ,furthermore1 these men represent goodfellowship4 ,they embody friendliness4 ,the late ,robert ,lowe 7,viscount ,sherbrooke7 was at one time esteemed to be the equal of ,john ,bright and of ,gladstone in oratory1 and their superior in intellect4 ,he died in #ahib unknown and unlamented4 ,he failed by reason of a lack of friendliness4 ,lowe was once an examiner at ,oxford4 ,into an oral examination which he was conducting a friend came and asked how he was getting on4 ,excellently1 replied ,lowe1 five men flunked already and the sixth is shaky4 ,ability without goodfellowship is usually ineffective2 good ability plus good fellowship makes for great results4 ,in this atmosphere of friendliness1 these men are practising the ,golden ,rule4 ,they are not advertising the fact4 ,they do much in this atmosphere of friendliness for large bodies of people4 ,they follow the sentiment which ,pasteur expressed near the close of his great career3 ,say to yourselves first3 ',what have ,i done for my instruction8' and1 as you gradually advance1 ',what have ,i done for my country8' until the time comes when you may have the immense happiness of thinking that you have contributed in some way to the progress and to the good of humanity4 ,but whether our efforts are or are not favored by life1 let us be able to say when we come near the great goal3 ',i have done what ,i could4' ,they have done much for the individual1 for the local neighborhood4 ,they have given themselves in numberless services1 boards1 committees1 commissions--works which count much in time and strength4 ,these services constitute no small share of the worth of a commonwealth1 of a community4 ,to one relation of these men ,i wish especially to refer4 ,this is their relation to wealth4 ,some of these men are business men4 ,wealth is one of the normal results of business4 ,some of these men are professional men4 ,wealth is not the normal result of professional service4 ,but the seeking of wealth has not in the life and endeavor of these men played a conspicuous part4 ,if wealth is the primary purpose1 they keep the purpose to themselves4 ,they do not talk much about it4 ,but most of them do not hold wealth as a primary purpose4 ,rather their primary and atmospheric aim is to serve the community through their business4 ,the same purpose moves them which also moves the lawyer1 the minister1 the doctor4 ,life1 not living1 is their principle4 ,to one further element ,i must refer4 ,it comprehends1 perhaps1 much that ,i have been trying to say to you1 my son4 ,these men kept1 and are keeping themselves to their work4 ,they do not waste themselves4 ,they are economical of time and strength4 ,the late ,provost ,pepper of the ,university of ,pennsylvania said 7in a manuscript not formally published73 ,many can do with less than eight or even seven hours of sleep while working hard1 provided they recognize the increased risk2 that while running their engine they take more scrupulous care with every part of the machinery4 ,machine must be perfect1 fuel ditto2 everything must be sacrificed to the one point of keeping the machinery running thus3 ,subjection of carnal1 emotional excesses2 certainty that no weak spots exist2 diet1 especially too much eating1 too fast eating2 stimulants1 tobacco1 open-air exercise2 cool-headed1 almost callous1 critical analysis of oneself1 one's sensations and effect of work on the system2 clear knowledge of danger lines2 result1 avoidance of transgressing1 and immediate summons at right time4 ,these men are men of self-restraint4 ,they are like rivers having dams1 keeping their waters back in order that the water may be used more effectively4 ,they are free from entangling alliances4 ,they are not men of one thing2 they are often men of two1 three1 a dozen things4 ,but one thing is primary1 the others secondary4 ,they may have avocations2 but they have only one vocation4 ,this one thing ,i do4 ,i have already quoted from ,pasteur4 ,of him it is said by his biographer3 ,in the evening1 after dinner1 he usually perambulated the hall and corridor of his rooms at the cole ,normale1 cogitating over various details of his work4 ,at ten o'clock he went to bed1 and at eight the next morning1 whether he had had a good night or a bad one1 he resumed his work in the laboratory4 ,his wife wrote to their children3 ,your father is absorbed in his thoughts1 talks little1 sleeps little1 rises at dawn1 and in one word1 continues the life ,i began with him this day thirty-five years ago4 ,learn from the ,frenchman1 my boy6 ,keeping themselves at their one work these men embody a sense of duty4 ,i find they have a conscience4 ,their conscience is not worn outside1 but inside1 their bosom4 ,they make no show of doing what they ought4 ,they simply do what they are called upon to do--and that is all there is to it4 ,it was said of a first scholar in an historic college that he was never caught working4 ,these same men may1 or may not be caught working1 but they do work1 and their work is a normal and moral part of their being4 ,but your face1 my son1 is rather toward your own future than toward the past of other men4 ,but your own future is as nothing save as it touches other men4 ,therefore1 do have an enthusiasm for man as man4 ,enthusiasm for humanity has its basis in love for man as man1 in a belief in the indefinite progress of man and in a determination to promote that progress4 ,in a posthumous romance of ,hawthorne the heroine points out to her lover the service which they will give to mankind in successive endless generations4 ,in one age1 poverty shall be wiped out2 in another1 passion and hatred and jealousy shall cease2 in a third1 beauty shall take the place of ugliness1 happiness of pain1 and generosity of niggardliness4 ,in reality1 not in romance1 every student is to feel a passion for human service4 ,these toiling and tired brothers and sisters are to be loved1 not with a mere emotional affection1 but with a mighty will4 ,one is to adopt the principle of ,gladstone and not of the ,marquis of ,salisbury in relation to humanity4 ,the student also is to believe that the human brotherhood is capable of indefinite progress4 ,the law of evolution makes the belief in human perfectibility easy2 the principles of religion make the belief glorious4 ,slow is the progress4 ,one generation turns the jack-screw of uplifting one thread2 but it is a thread4 ,humanity does rise4 ,linked with this love for man and the assurance of his progress the college man is to determine himself to advance this progress4 ,whatever his condition1 whatever his ability1 he is to do his part4 ,as is said in that noble epitaph to ,wordsworth1 placed in the little church at ,grasmere1 each is to be a minister of high and sacred truth4 ,i want you to come out from the college with a determination to do something worth while4 ,it is rather singular how political ambitions have ceased among graduates4 ,some say all ambition has ceased among college men4 ,i do not believe it4 ,the softer times may not nurse the sturdier virtues2 but men are still men4 ,the words which ,stevenson wanted put on his tombstone3 ,he clung to his paddle1 and the words of ,george ,eliot3 ,don't take opium1 and the words of ,carlyle3 ,burn your own smoke1 are still characteristic of college men4 ,men are still moved by the great things1 and by such inspiration they are inspired great things to do4 ,,xii ,i am not1 ,i think1 going too far if ,i refer to one very personal matter1 my son4 ,i mean your relation to the ,supreme ,being4 ,that ,being may be conceived under many forms1 as ,love1 as ,omnipotent ,force1 as ,omniscient ,knowledge1 as ,perfect ,beauty1 as ,absolute ,right4 ,the college man interprets the ,supreme ,being under at least one of these forms2 and he may be able to interpret him under all of these forms4 ,to this ,being he should relate himself4 ,let the college man learn1 and learn all2 but he should not neglect to learn of the ,divine ,being4 ,the college man should love1 and love every object as it is worthy of loving2 but he should not decline to love the ,supreme ,being4 ,for ,he is ,supreme4 ,the college man is to follow the wisest leadership1 to obey the highest principles1 to give himself to the contemplation of the sublimest2 but his following1 his obedience1 his self-surrender are to bring him to and keep him with the ,being ,supreme4 ,religion thus broadly interpreted makes a keen and mighty appeal to the college man4 ,let the college man be religious2 let not the college man have a religion4 ,let religion be a fundamental element of his character1 and not a quality of his changing self4 ,his religion1 like that of every other man1 should first be human1 not scholastic2 first essential and natural1 not arbitrary4 ,be religious4 ,it sounds almost goodish1 but ,i know you do not think it such4 ,be religious4 ,relate yourself to something4 ,relate yourself to some ,what4 ,or relate yourself to some ,who3 beyond whatever your eye sees or your hand touches4 ,i do not care how you put it4 ,if ,i were a ,buddhist1 ,i would say1 worship ,buddha4 ,be what the great image at ,kamakura represents4 ,if ,i were a ,mohammedan1 ,i would say1 follow the teachings of the ,koran1 and pray4 ,i am1 and you are1 a ,christian4 ,therefore ,i say3 ,love your ,god4 ,follow the example of the ,christ4 ,be one of that company who accept his guidance and are seeking to do his will in the bettering of the world4 ,good-bye1 dear boy1 ,i have written too long1 but it has done me good to write4 ,if it does you a quarter of the good to read1 ,i shall be grateful4 ,good-bye4 ,,your ,,father4