The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-12
SEATTLE. SUNDAY, JULY 1s.
COLLEGE BOYS AND COLLEGES.


COLLEGE BOYS AND COLLEGES.
The commencement season is about
over, and the worth of college education
to the graduate is timely subject of dis
cussion, meaning by college education
academic training as distinguished from
that of technical institute where specific
training for special pursuits is afforded.
How much the college is worth TO the
man depends on the man rather than on
the college. If the man has an eager, in
satiable thirst for knowledge which does
not depend for its stimulus upon daily
marks or the stress of periodical examina-
tons, he can doubtless get good deal out
of an inferior college, poorly equipped with
good teachers and anchored to per-
nicious methods of so-called higher
education that severely tests the
memory compared with the powers
of understanding. If the man has not
this thirst for knowledge and love of books,
the best college in the country is wasted
upon him. Every child must be taught
of necessity the rudiments of reading,
that are absolutely essential to the conduct
of ordinary life, but beyond that, so-called
higher education is wasted upon a young
man who has not the thirst for knowledge;
the taste and reverence for learning and
good books for their own sake. If he has
this thirst he will be sure to get the knowl
edge with or without the help of col
lege; if he has not this thirst for knowl-
edge and taste for books he will never get
II through college, although, to be sure,
he may learn and memorize enough peri
odicaliy to secure his diploma and sport
his degree.
Given the thirst, whether the man should
60 to college to quench it is practical
question of private circumstances, oppor-
tunities and obligations for each man to
settle for himself. This is a serious ques-
ton for young man to settle who has to
hoe his own way in the world in these
days Of increasing severity of competition
In the wrestle for the prizes of life. The
four years spent at college stand for time
say, between II and q, that could be most
valuably employed by young fellow who
proposed to follow business career; and
even If the young fellow did not mean to
be business man it is by no means GER
tain that he would decide wisely to go to
college; for he inevitably would become
part of life that is not without serious
distractions, which more or less handicap
man who seeks to become as thorough
ascholar as is possible in the four years he
surrenders to the college.
Nor is 1t equally desirable of two bright
boys that both should go to college. Good
minds may be broadly divided into the
executive and the contemplative; the boy
whose natural sphere is to create and
organize the materialities of life, to act,
to do something in business, society and
politics from manhood to the grave, stands
for what is termed executive taste and
ability; the boy whose natural habit is to
think rather than to organize, apply and ex-
ecute for the working world the thoughts
OF others; that is, the boy of imaginative,
critical quality, who is absorbed in the
spiritualities, actual and presumptive,
rather than in the utilitarian Municipalities
of the life; able dreamer and elo-
quent critic, teacher and preacher, rather
than an energetic, eager, irrepressible doer,
hustler and rustler at all times, this boy
stands for what we mean by the contem-
plative as separated from the executive
mind. To the boy of executive tempera-
ment the college could not give as much
AZ to the other boy; and the four years
spent In college might be real loss to
him, while they might be real gain to his
more contemplative, imaginative and
spiritual brother. The question whether
to go to college or not is therefore largely
question of taste, temperament and
future purpose in life even when the bows
are both able and both honorably anxious
to put their talent to the best use, where.
from honorable and upright Investment.
it will the soonest declare the largest divi-
dend.
To go to college because you can afford
to go, if you have not the thirst for knowl-
edge and high purpose in its attainment,
10 folly. 1t is the presence of the idle sons
of the rich in Harvard that is today ex-
erting vicious influence upon the atmos-
phere OF that great college The Boston
correspondent of the Springfield Repub-
Iicdn. speaking of Harvard, says that the
worst evil there is ''the lowering of the
moral and intellectual standard by the
admission and residence there of so
many youths of great wealth, who
have no ambition for scholarship.
but so TO college to get the brevet
of degree and to have q good time ~
Another evil consequent upon the presence
Of the young nabohs is the existence of /.
great gulf between the richer and the
poorer members who enjoy charity scholar
ships. The same trouble is present in the
great fitting schools, such as Philips Exc
ter academy, with its $50 students, of which
the same authority says: ats students
show the same increase as at Harvard Of
the wealthy. vicious and thoughtless. who
gamble, get drunk, make rows in
the quiet old town OF Exeter, and in other
ways lower the moral tone Of the school. ~
1t was not always so with this institu-
ton. In Harvard of $40 there were no
athletics; no gymnasium; no boating;
there was but very little football. baseball
or cricket, but in compensation there was
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