The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-06-11

or conceive OF any work as especially
theirs, but each, so far as he THINKS at
ALL realizes that the four years spent
within college walls ARE essentially pro-
paratory years. The Undergraduate ex-
istence is at least one OF semi l-seclusion.
10 him the nervous tension OF life Is un-
known. He Is not called 20 minRle con-
stantly In practical affairs lhe ain OF
the active world with its business and
its politics, reaches him only as con-
fused murmur. For him the college Is
life's ante-chamber. i'm which he hrnors
himself for the contests that are TO
follow. Here he finds clothing that he
had previously thought SO lifting and so
beautiful stripped from him. His Ideas
of life and OF the world gradually change;
Old beliefs and old theories that he had
once thought mighty weapons for lighting
life's battles, he discovers are, in reality,
but brittle swords that break with the
bending.
with this stripping process, however,
goes on the arming. Nothing Is given
up but that something better takes its
place. by constant thought and associa-
bodied in the mind. In the records OF
mon who, In the past, have lived and
fought. Inspiration and wisdom based on
deep experience are found. And so, in
the semi -sec.usion OF the college world as
In the wilderness men of old gained their
experience. men Of today acquire the
mental and moral equipment necessary for
life.
Now, IL is plainly evident that not oil
are so favored as is the college graduate.
For the great majority OF men there is no
such preparation for life. IL the weapons
OF the average man DO frail, with thon
he must fight, for they are all he has. His
intellect may not be trained. his ideas
and his theories may be inadequate, or
they may lie wholly false, yet armed with
these, ill-tenpered weapons though they
be, he struggles In the wrrld. IL is with
such men that the college graduate iinds
himself mingliDg. rs through the opening
door of life's ante chamber he passes from
the arming process To the fight
Fortunate IL the graduate that does
not overestimate his own value Fortu-
nate is he, II, as be compares his own ar
NOR with the feebler equipment of those
about him, he does not consider his gilt
tcring trappings far too good for ordinary
use A certain self-esteem he cannot help
but possess. But when true esteem be-
comes inordinato pride; when the gradu-
ate feels himself above and beyond the
common run OF men, then his usefulness
is destroyed, and the world distrusts him.
IL feels Ill at ease with men that think
themselves fit for leadership, but far too
high for guard and picket duty.
"Those, however that exhibit this
spirit, those that have this exalted sense of
their own Importance, arc not the ones that
have fully proflted by their college
course. For no one feels so keenly as the
man that for tour years has thought and
studied faithfully, the insigniflcance of
his own attainments. Upon no one so
forcibly as upon himself has been i'm
pressed the absolute nsed of humility.
He feels that since he has been made the
repository OF much. he is open to the de
mands Of all. He realizes the worlds inn
projections, he is conscious that men are
every day working with false theories and