Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-07-09


broadcast culture, he must learn the
great languages of the past and the
speech of the leading nations of the
present that he may come into direct
contact with the master-spirits of other
ages and other lands. By thus living,
through their books, in the companion
ship of the wisest and brightest men the
race has Produced. he learns to think as
they thought, to cherish the grand pur-
poses they cherished, and to follow in
their footsteps. Moreover, as the youth
enters upon mature years there are
lessons relating to the practical conduct
of life that demand his attention.
Through centuries of conflict between
man and man, human society has been
led to recognize beneticent system
of morals. Nations, after millenums of
warfare, are celebrating code of laws
that will usher in the millennium of peace.
a complicated civilization brings to the
front vital questions relating to labor,
commerce and government, questions
upon whose proper settlement depends
the progress of the race. 1t is indispen-
| sable that the young man, who is to be-
come a power for good over his fellows,
should learn the wisest rules concerning
human conduct, whether relating to the
individual, to social classes or to nations.
The four years course of study in the
typical New England college has been
arranged to meet as completely as posi-
bic these various needs of the youth. 1t
is not an interchangeable course; it is mod
flied from time to time as new studies de-
mand attention and as new textbooks are
produced. But the controlling aim has
been to adopt a curriculum that shall be
suited to all who desire broad educa-
ton: that shall be complete in presenting
in outline what is most important in
science. in ethics and in literature.
This conception of the college has been
opposed of late by the specialist and by
the advocate of electives. The specialist
claims that to achieve success nowadays
in any profession one must restrict his
attention to some one particular depart
ment: that it is better to know all about
one thing than to know IA little about
everything; that the training of the
mental faculties which is now sought in
the widely scattered studies of the college
may be as well if not better acquired by
working exclusively from the start in
the particular line of ones chosen pro-
fessiOn. The answer is twofold.
In the first place the specialist fails to
see that a broadly developed manhood is
more to be priced than professional skill.
The man of wide culture and of warm
human sympathies outranks him who is
merely an expert in making astronomi-
cal calculations, or whose whole energies
are absorbed in mastering electricity or
in studying fungi. The life is more than
meat and the man than his calling. The
curse of our intense civilization is that ii
stimulates men to sacrifice themselves to
narrow pursuits. We have not only too
many slaves to trade. but too many
slaves to professional work, to science
even and to letters. Such men are simp-
ly machines for doing special kinds of
abnormally devel-
oped in some particular direction, dwarf
ed in others.
Let every man have his special calling,
train himself for it and devote to it his
chief energies; but let him have also his
Notwithstanding where he
can survey with generous sympathy the
laborS of his fellow-workers. Let the
youth spend at least four of his years of
preparation for professional work in OBJ
tanning the most symmetrical develop
ment of his mental powers, and the most
generous acquaintance with those truths
that are of most value to man rs man.
The second answer to the specialist is
dependence of one department of profess
sional thought and work upon the rest.
All truth is one. The sister professions
have ever advanced hand in hand. each
receiving guidance and support from the
others. | admit that there are certain
grades of work TO which this statement is
less applicable. If IA young man purposes
to become a druggist, or dentist, book
keeper or IA surveyor, the training of "A
technical school alone may enable him to
become proficient in his chosen work.
The liberal studies of the college NAV aid
him only indirectly by giving him sharp
ened faculties and manly culture. But
the young man, who has the talent and
the ambition to do tirst-class work in the
learned professions, must indeed restrict
his energies to some special field, but not
exclusively. The scientist who would
explore some limited field of nature is
to do it successfully only after
he has learned more or less of nature in
her entirety. The teacher can do his |
best work only when he has acquired a
view of all human knOwl- |
edge so As to appreciate the dependence !
of one branch upon another and to assign |
to each its proper place and Importance.
The jurist cannot be too familiar with all
tilt plllSS VI uuIldll lIlOuSHl anu lttllnS |
and all the phases of our intricate civiliza-
ton. The preacher becomes the great
of God to man in the present |
century, when his theology is based not
only on the Bible, but also upon the divine |
truth that is revealed in all the sciences |
and in all history. The youth who in |
the present age would do the noblest |
work for God and for humanity, must /
begin by laying the foundations deep and |
wide in a generous acquaintance with /
the great truths, the wise thoughts. the |
useful lessons that human experience /
has furnished. He must ever cherish the |
sentiment of the old Roman. who said
'homo S,m, hamdnj njhH Il ne dijeDUm |
putO.'
But the integrity of the college course .
as it was established by the fathers is .
also endangered by the modern system of /,
electives. We do not object to them al |
together; there are Il few studies in math-
in modern language and in nat
ural history which may properly be made .
optional as requiring for their most sue
cessful pursuit peculiar tastes and talent