The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-10-26
WHAT THE COLLEGE GAN DO FOR
A MAN.

1t il, of course. much easier for the
college to prove itself helpful to the
strong than to the weak. The strong
men at once and with ease co operate
with the college and the college with
them Such men the college delights
to welcome. They are men whose spirit
is earnest, in whom the search for
knowledge is passion for truth, whose
working power is great, whose apprecia.
ton of the advantages of the college is
warm, who wish to use the college as an
agency for making their powers the
largest, finest and most lasting useful
ness. They are the men the vigor OF
whose intellectual character is welded
to pure moral nature. They have the
self control of age united with the en-
thusasm of youth. These men know
books, but are not bookish; are first rate
scholars in the recitation room, but are
noble fellows on the field; they are collie
gians, but are men; they are men, but
are rot prigs. Such men, we're they
never in college, would become great.
At the other extreme are men for
whom the college can also do much but
they are men quite unlike those OF whom
| have been writing. Among them is
the vain man. 1t is sometimes thought
that the college rather creates than de-
stroys the vanity in its students. But
as a rule the progress of student
through college is measured by the les
SEEMING degree of vanity. One cause OF
vanity is the comparing Of ones self
with smaller men. The vain collegian
usually finds few men smaller than him
SELF Therefore, obliged to compare
himself with larger men, the result is
humility of spirit.
The man of weak will represents a
type about which the college has great
concern. He is easily turned by the
waves of slight influences. His pur-
poses are high, his intentions generous,
his impulses coed. He may possess
large intellectual power. Usually he
|
he has no large, strong, fixed determina-
ton. The one choice which he ought
to have seems to be split up into slivers
of many and small choices. College of
ficers should put themselves into just as
| close personal relations with this man
as they can. The,ma of weak will has
yet a will, and his independence must
be respected. But. without interfering
with his liberty, indeed with full respect
| for his liberty, the college and the col.
| legians my cause that the motives act
| ing upon this man are pure and right;
such an environment will tend to produce
fixedness of choice for the pure ard
right. A similar method of personal as
ISOLATION is to be pursued with the man
whose will is strong, and whose animal
appetites are also strong. The desires
are aspiring, many affections are mighty.
But those appetites All. how they at
times seem to be the very imps of the
| devil sent to drag a human soul into
hell. The soul doesn't want TO be
dragged to this fate, it struggles against
the fiends No false conception of dig
nifty should prevent college officer from
being the Lest friend to spirit in dis
tress and rerplexity. No fear that the
college man is "toadying" should prevent
himself from accepting every possible
| help in lessening or in overcoming temp
| tation.
The man of low ideals is not often
found in college. College associations
are repellant to such a character. But
when he is there found, the college can
do much to form and to reform him, if
he is willing. The excellence of the
highest purposes, the blessedness of
purity. the happiness of righteousness,
the wretchedness of wicke doess-these
are truths which are to become ingrained
into his mental and ethical being. The
methods are not to be of the drastic
kind. Not 80 much through the special
preaching of these truths, but through
the constant pressure of them, are they
to become influential in his character.
| The truth that environment makes char
acter is truth though the truth that
character makes environment is also
true. The college is to make the envir-
onment of the men of low ideals one of
high ideals, one of methods wise in pur-
suing these ideals, and one of motives
strong, and one of conditions ennobling.
| have so far written of what the col
lege can do for the man whose ethical
or ethical intellectual character is the
less worthy. | want TO add word as
to what the college can do for the aver
age man of average mental power, of
average moral qualities. The college,
in word, does this for him; it makes
him something other than the average
man. 1t enriches his life; it deepens.
broadens, heightens his view of truth; it
ennobles his purposes; it strengthens
his will in the choice of the right; it
clarifies his vision of and increases his
love for the beautiful; it teaches him to
think clearly, to Judge justly, to reason
accurately. In the enriching of his own
life the college makes his life of greater
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