Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-02-20
TIE HERALD.
FAULTS IN COLLEGE CULTURE.
kills Introduced by the Elective system In
coIleee-Libesal Kducation not Possible
Without Higher Mathematics and
Pbysics.

r.
s,ils Introduced by the Elective system Il
CoIieee-Libesal Rducation not Possible
without Higher Mathematics and
Physics.
The distinguished Boston lecturer
Joseph Cook, while lecturing to /,
large audience in New York recently
dealt some hard blows at the elective
system of study which has of late beer
so popular with university students
The following are Mr. Cooks word,
on fragmeutary college culture:
Sc;pio once had a dream concern
lug the structure of the external uni.
verse and its harmonies. After reading
Ciccro's report of that vision, it was
my fortune, on certain midnight. al
a day of prayer for colleges drew
nigh, to pass through the gate Of
dreams and to have a vision of the
inner universe aud its harmohies thu,
il, OF the laws of culture, the necessary
conditions of its completeness and the
mischief of its Representatives. In
my dream / thought l was in my
study on Beacon Hill, looking out on
land aud sea, and that it occurred to
me 10 arrange my books according to
their topics. The resolution seized
me to try the effect of placing my
volumes on as many different shelves
as there ought to be different branches
in course of liberal education Vol
umes belonging to distinc'ively pro.
fessional studies were not placed iu
this symbolical collection. They stood
on an opposite wall. When all the
books representing a full college cul-
ture were arranged, l counted them
from below upward on fifteen shelves
with these names The Christian
Evidences, Ethics, Metaphysics, G ym
nastios, Music, the Fine Arts, Natural
History, Chemistry, Physics, History,
Political Economy, Languages, Rhe
torc, Logic, Mathematics.
These, in my dream, appeared to
me to be the necessary parts of any
education that deserves to be called
liberal. The dreams of a young man
about fullness of culture are very diff
terent when he is In college, and when
he has been ten years out Of it face ,
face with the real issues OF life. Inow
think that no temptation Of mine in
the university began to be as mis-
chievous as an inclination to omit
certain branches, to make elective, of
tavorites, and so to leave colossal gaps
in my culture. Looking back | see
that even such unimportant work as |
have been endeavorlng to do canuot
afford those gaps, and If in my little
business this is the case, what must
DOT be the necessity of full culture
in the great professions, and in litera
;lre, in science and other regions
where men must be equipped, North,
south, East and West?
tried in my dream, rememb Der, to
leave certain of these shelves vacant.
and the effect was startling. When /
lett out Mathematics as the basis Of
this line of shelves, the whole wall
appeared TO topple, and | saw on the
floor, in my vision, certain imps Of
confusion dancing where the books on
the exact sciences ought to have been
] tried to leave the shelf of Logic
empty, and the imps appeared on it
and made it dancing board. Lam
guages aud Khetoric-these shelves
go together. i found l could not
empty the one without partially emp.
tying the other. When l left out
Political Economy the shelf was swift
ly made dancing board for the de-
mons that support Socialism, Comnu-
nism aud the whole swarm of political
heresies.
You say that / have put into the
list OF necessary college studies some
topics not usually insisted on--for-
instance, the Fine Arts. Well, when
| tried to leave that shelf vacant,
Plato's ghost appeared above the Ii.
brary and reproaohed me in the name
of what he had taught us in his Re.
public reproached me in the mama of
what Goethe used to tell us about his
people being proficient in tho art Of
ugliness reproached me in the name
of all travel, which must know some.
thing of architecture and painting Il it
is to have open eyes; reproached me
in the name of the needs of the ccm-
mon people.
Not to dwell on the effects that |
saw IN my dream, resulting from lpav-
ing the lower shelves empty, let me
describe at least part OF the VISION
when Philosophy and Ethics were
left vacant shelves. The imps here
were more than imps, they were de.
mons. Some OF them Kissed at all
clear conviction Of any kind some of
them, not understanding what axiom.
attic truths are, assumed that there are
none. | found that on those vacant
shelves those demons were dancing
that foster the growth of false philo-
sophical systems and erratic opinion
in every form. A lack of knowledge
Of first principles-empty shelves 10
Metaphysics and Ethics--l found to
be the real source of the agnosticsm
and skepticism and doctrinal ind fer
ence of many in our day, some of
whom are IN the front rank OF litera-
ture and science.
The song of the demons you may
read in Matthew Arnold's "Empado.
Giles on Etna':
The Gods laugh in their sleeve,
To watch man doubt and fear,
Who knows not what 70 believe,
Since he sees nothing clear,
And dares stamp nothing false where he finds
nothing sure"
These upper shelves left vacant,
found myself looking through the wall
into a murky chaos. The topmost
shelf OF all vacant, / found the whole
set of shelves brooded over by smoke
from the chaos, and that hardly any
of the lower shelves were servioeable.
Metaphysics, Ethics, the Christian
Evidences, the top shelves leave
those vacant in our college courses,
aud the result will be that we shall
have plenty of men well trained in all
particulars except in regard to the
highest themes, aud as ignorant on
those topics as the most of us are
concerning reconcile branches of