, 1880-04-11
rHE YALE COLLEGE CONTROVERSY.

|
| It strikes us that the fuss in Yale College
over the use Of Spencer's Sociology as Il
textbook is tempest in teapot that can
be easily allayed. Lest some Of our read
| ers may be unfamiliar with the circuln-
stances, we state them briefly. Prof. Sum-
ner, occupying the Chair of Political and So
cial Science, has been using Herbert Spen-
GERS ''Study Of Sociology" as a textbook,
moved thereto not alone by his own broad
and liberal thought, but because there is no
other work on social science, as he claims,
which is available for use as textbook.
President Porter, who is a conservative in
theology and thought, advised its disuse
upon the ground that it was fippant and
sneering, and that it's theology-or, rather,
want of theology-was corrupting and dam
gerous i'll its Influences upon the students.
The communication between the President
and the Professor was polite and
friendly, but the Professor firmly de-
clined to cease using it, intimating
that if he was forced to do SO he should re-
sign. AS the book is only studied between
January and Easter, the issue has been
dropped for the present. The book has not
yet been excluded, though President Porter
remains Of the same opinion in regard to it.
Should the issue be raised again next winter,
it will unquestionably go before the Board of
Trustees for settlement, and, as eleven out Of
the nineteen Trustees are orthodox clergy
men, it Is likely that President Porter will
carry the day. All that has really been de-
yeloped, therefore, is the existence Of two
opposit tendencies of thought in the manage
ment Of the College, the one conservative
and the other liberal. In the correspondence
which originally passed in regard to the
matter, and in subsequent Interviews, the
characteristics Of the two factions are clearly
observable. The liberals object to the ac-
ccptahce of assertion, which rest on
faith alone with the same unqucstioning u.s.
sent which they would accord to the demon
strable truths Of geometry" Tie conserya-
tiyes, on the other hand, contend that the
book is ofFensiyely irreligious, that the Col
lege is religious Institution, and that they
are responsible for the religious ideas and
biases which students may have, and hence
they must express their disapprobation
tt8wben the standing Of tile College is
menaced, or its attitude towards Christianity
Is made ambiguous" They believe that in-
tellectual culture and moral feeling are close
1y related; and hence that the teaching at
Yale, il not distinctly Christian, at least
shall not be anti Christian. AS one of tie
conservative Professors stated in an inter-
view: t. can accept evolution as one of Gods
methods, but will not admit that dull force
alone has transmitted primeval clay into
complex organisms. I AM ready to admit
scientific investigation III any department Of |
the College; for If the: Christian religion can
not stand the light Of truth, then l shall con-
clude that it is itself untrue. haveno fear |
that God will not be able to take care Of the |
faith lie has established, and I fully expect !
that returning wave Of callner reason en-
lightened by faith will sweep back the ire
ligious doctrines Of the eyolutionists, the
biologists, and the sociologlsts." Meanwhile
the liberals are not only sure that the doc
trines OF evolution, biology, and sociology I
will not be swept away, but that they will
sweep away orthodoxy, or, at least, that
phase Of orthodoxy which Is supposed to
dominate in Yale College.
Whatever else may happen, one thing Is
certain: in this controversy either theology
3r materialism, so far as they appertain to
1 <&AN SOa4C6Cs MILL LIN " 5O W IA40 fAA4~ |
There can be no compromise without a sac
iflce Of truth, or what Is accepted as truth;
md, though the situation now looks peace
ul, when the issue breaks out again it will
70 desperately fought over. 4 theological
'ias is the most unrelenting of all human
conditions. Its demand is always uncondi- I
ional surrender. Its war cry Is, "Beliere as
do or be damned" It may be assumed, not
nly that it will not judge fairly Of an alien
elief, but that its prejudice alone will
cad it to declare the anathema mar
natl,a. But equally those who have
hakcn of an old belief and adopted
new one, are as iconoclastic, dogm attic, and
in their assertion and practice as |
yer was Calvin or Knox. Modern science
! by no means serene in its methods or slow |
its assaults. SPENCER, Tyndall, Darwin,
huxley. and'all the other leaders Of modern :
houg1it are as bitter in their prejudices, as
nrelentfng in their blows, and as dogmatic I
! their convictions is any OF the old cut-and- i,