New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-06-11
EopE OF TIE COLLEGES.

This Is the season when ambitious youth In
American colleges receives vast amount 81
useful and judicious advice. Each Sunday dur
ing tho remaining weeks Of June there will be
bacCalaurcate sermons and addresses before re-
ligious societies with special counsel for grad
uatiug students who are about TO begin their
appointed work in a busy world that already
seems overcrowded with young men. IL would
be neither practicable nor opportune TO aScer'
tain how deep aud permanent is the impression
produced by these annual dissertations on the
elements Of Success and tho opportunities OF In
telligenL manhood. 10 il 10 be apprehendCd
that the bacCalaureate appeals are generally re-
earded as ono Of the customary functions Of
commencement week, and that the great body
of American students are not directly inIlu.
enced by wise counsel which is designed TO
promote serious reflection. At the same timo il
will be readily conceded by all who are con-
yersant with tho steady progress Of higher cd
wadon In the best colleges that there has never
been time when students we've 10 we'll pre-.
pared TO dispense with advice from their in.
structors, and TO adapt themselves without de-
lay or loss Of power to the serious business Of
life
II is not the habit Of college alumni Of ton,
twenty or thirty years standing 10 deplore the
degcreracy Of undergraduates or TO affirm the
superiority Of old-timo METHODS Of instruction.
On the contrary, all wel.informed graduates
OF the leading universities frankly admit TINT
tho facilities for receiving n comprehensive ed
ucadon have greatly increased since their own
time; that the colleges with their added wealth,
institutions professorships and appliances are
doing more thorough work than formerly and
that tho students themselves arc mnnlicr, more
thoughtful and more sensible fellows than
they were on their day Of graduation.
Tho best proof Of the progress OF higher cd
uCadon in our country Il offered by tho students
who are emerging ovcry year from the col
leges. They are more practical In their ideals,
have more accurate sense Of the limitations
of such knowledge as they have acquired, and
are moro competent 20 adjust themselves to the
conditions OF their opening careers than older
generations OF students have been before them
This Improvement In the students OF 10. day
and no graduate Of twenty years standing
can return TO o college commencement and scan
the faces and bearing Of the class of 1873 with.
out being impressed by it's not wholly 10 BIO
attributed to tho progress Of the institu-
tons. IL Is largely one Of the results Of the
general diffusion Of education, in consequence
Of which the limitations and practical value Of
an academic course are clearly discorned A
college education was once regarded rs so much
working capital or stock in trade for business
or professional career. Now 10 Is looked upon
~ part Of the general equipment or prepare
ton which q man ought 10 have In order 20
enable him to find out what no Is fitted for, and
what he ought not, as we'll as what he ought, TO
attempt 10 accomplish. man who has learned
TO perceive his limitations Is fairly we'll ed
watcd for life in a practical, workaday world.
American students are steadily gaining those
qualities Of practical wisdom and essential man
Illness which are needed for tho more complex
and artificial conditions OF existing civilization.