The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-04-21
Advice to Boys Preparing for College.

You have formed the resolution to 90 to.
college. Well. what want specially to ad-
wise you is-stick to it. Don't let anything
short Of dire necessity or sacred duty tempt
you to give it up. 1t Is nearly the most i'm
portant resolution respecting your future
lives which you can possibly torn. But be-
tween now, and the time at which you are
planning to enter college, you will probably
be visited by number OF tempters, who
will try to induce you to surrender the plan
altogether, and, by Just cutting across lots,
to plunge at once into the occupations which
is to be your main business IN life.
OF these temDters the first bears the plain
old name of "LazinesS." She will come aud
tell YOU all about the drudgery of 4 college
life; four years Of hard work in study, four
wears of slavery to term-timeS, to the chapel
bell, two hours for Rotations to tutors and
professors, to dry and tiresOme books: while,
on the other hand, by going ct once into
your fathers bank, or your uncle counting
room, or your cousins factory, or into some
other agreeable place that is already waiting
for you, you will get rid, at one stroke, of
all that weary nuisance OF a scho0l-b0ys
work, and have much easier time OF it al
together.
Even while this plausible tempter is talk
ing with you, there will be knock at your
door, and a second tempter will come in,
and tell YOU many really pleasant things.
Her name is "Hurry-tO- be- Rich" She
doesn't appeal to Incidence; she even tells
you frankly that what she has for you to do
means harder work, longer hours, and closer
confinement than college boys have to put
OPP with. But she tells you that what peo-
pie need in this world, IN order to make
themselves comfortable and truly respected,
is money, and plenty of it; that she hap
pens to know of one particularly hne chance
for making a fortune in few years; that
perhaps by the time you shall have got
through college this opportunity may no
longer be open to you so that now Is the
money; and the four years spent in college
would be really waste Of botl. You will
be just four years longer detained from the
enjoyment OF riches which you hope to ac-
ouire What is there in college course to
compensate for that? Nay, she assures you
that If you only will take her advice, by the
time the other fellows shall be merely getting
their sheepskins, you will be well advanced
on the high road TO fortune, and will be
Just so much ahead of them.
This charming person will not get through
with her appeal before she wilt be joined by
a third tempter more artful still. Her name
is, indeed, a very queer one; 1t is, whats
the User" She carries around with her an
elegant portfolio filled with portraits OF noted
men VINO nave won splendid successes in life
without ever going to college.-Preatl lawyers,
physicians, statesmen, politicians, editors,
bankers, merchants, railroad kings, and so
on and so on; and she shows them to you
and says,-'There, you see? Why go TO
college at all? These men never did. Why
fool away four or five years in grinding over
Latin and Greek and trigonometry and
paleentology and all the other ologies and
osities? These men have got on tolerably
well without all that. All this talk about
higher education, about liberal education,
is nonsense What's the Usen
For NV part il must concerning all
these portraits of men who have been very
successful in life, without ever having gone
to college, that happen to know personally
some OF those very men, and have heard
several OF them declare that instead of being
glad that they had never had a collegiate ed
ucation, they themselves regarded It as one
of the serious misfortunes OF their lives that
they did not have it.; and that il they could
live their lives over again, they would not
fail to get it.
For, after an abe man has won a certain
degree of success without liberal education,
he comes up to point where he feels the
need of that larger grasp of knowledge and
of principles, that symmetrical training of
all his powers, that mastery of wide and var
ious learning, which would enable him to
put his success to the highest uses, both for
further influence, and for his own real enjoy
ment of life. His success has brought hlm
| close to grand opportunity, which his lack
| the most of. l do not deny that ability and
| perseverance may win great success even
| without the help of a liberal education; but
| / do say that in all cases that very success
would probably be as great in degree, and
certainly higher in quality, and more varied
! in range, If the man who achieved it had en-
| joyed and used early opportunities for the
largest training of his faculties. What is the
use of going TO college, If men can get on
| very well without it? Very much use. For
tnose same men would have got on still bet.
ter with 1T; they would have done more for
4 hers, too.
Now, suppose that we turn to the argu.
ment that all the time spent in college is so
much precious time lost from the great bust
ness of making money, and therefore, that
| it is best not to 60 to college. To begin with,
| should like to say that argument is foun-
ded on low and false view of life. and es-
pecially of the relation of money to honor,
usefulness and happiness.
i admit that money enough for plain liv-
ing, without anxiety, is good thing; and
that poverty is an occasion of much distress;
| but deny that wealth is necessary for true
| dignity, or the respect of sensible people, or
for ones own happiness.
However, we will pass that by, and come
| to the argument itself. deny the force OF
it. 1t is not true; and for at at least these
three reasons. Q) lfbusiness success depends
in any considerable degree on intelligence,
then the time spent in fully developing ones
Intelligence can hardly be a waste even as
regards that business success alone. t2) A
| man who begins business after he finishes
bis college-course is still young enough to
make all the money be can possibly use OF
| need in life; and he has this additional adj
| vantage, that his good education will enable
him both to enjoy and TO employ his wealth,
1 when he does acquire it, better than he could
| without that good education. (3) But even
| though it were true-which it is not-that q
man will make less money in life by going
TO college than by not going there, it would
| still be better for himto go to college. A good
education with less money is far richer
| treasure in life, and will give one a far no.
bier and happier existence, than money with
| out that good education.
To earnest and energetic boys, who are in
| cliDed to take generous and high-minded
view of life not mere mercenary and petty
one, say-stick to your resolution OF going
| to college. Stick to IL through thick and
| thin. Stick TO IL through all interruptions
| and hindrances Stick TO 1t through poverty
/ and debt and sickness and disbursement
Stick to it in spite of siren voices calling you
| away to immediate self-indulgence, or to the
| adoption OF scheme Of existence which may
| offer gIittering inducements to you, bat
( which will not permanently satiGfY you.
don't belIeYo that them exists snyUhoze o.