The times., 1901-05-24
Advice TO Grnduntes.

This IS time of year when many
thousands of young men and women
are standing. as their graduation es
says will put it, on the threshold Of
life. and about to go forth into the
world like young bears, with all their
troubles before them. They may have
thought themselves in trouble before
now; but the sternest threat Of faculty,
the deepest slough of despond into
which they may have wandered in the
struggle with trigonometry or Horace,
is a pleasant pastime compared with
the dismalness of that day when, after
they have been six months or so out
of school. some one confronts them
with the comment:
Seems to me you ought TO be doing some
thing with your education"
Getting an education is expensive,
but 1t is nothing at all compared with
the problem of discovering what to do
with it after it has been. in the current
phrase, finished" In this connection
1t is not uninstructive 10 note a para
graph in a book recently published and
containing many Of the orations of Ed
ward ]. Phelps, former United States
Minister to England. This particular
oration was addressed to the graduates
of a law school, but it viii do just as
well for a high school. or any other
institution which processes TO fit people
for the duties Of life.
Mr.. Phelps said to the budding law
yers, among other things:
The opportunity to take a high place is GER
tzinly going 70 be given 10 you, II your life is
spared. 1t IS not so material, therefore, how
soon il Is coming. as whether you VIII be ready
TO meet it when it does come.
''The great requisite. as it seems to me. the
one that Is, in its perfection. have often
thought the very rarcst intellectual quality
most assidu0usy cultivated is intel
lectual honesty ! mean the faculty OF
seeing things just as they are-unmoved by pre-
iudice or passion, or excitement, OF ClalnoT-
seeing them, and reaching conclusions In regard
10 them, in a Straightforward and direct n
stead OF a circuitOus way"
The orator then went on to explain
this quality Of intellectual honesty in
all its bearings, and to show how nee
essary It is 10 greatness. 1t is refresh
ing. in these days Of doubt and inde-
cision-and possibly there has been no
tiRe in the history of the world which
did not seem, TO those who lived in IT.
one In which the truth was hidden in
a mist Of false conclusiOns-to find so
straightforward an assertion as this. 1t
will be observed that Mr.. Phelps does
not insist on absolute knowledge Of the
abstract truth-that would be a super
l.,
teIlectual honesty is the faculty Of
straightforwardness. This trait is not
one which the world naturally asso-
ciates with lawyers, although, If all
sides Of the case were known, it might
be found that the lawyer was often
more honest and truthful than his
client, though not seeming so. When
man is wrought up into a passion
Of hate and contempt, and the person
to whom he is talking falls to agree
with his statement of the case. and
even sees something to be said on the
other side he is quite apt to accuse his
auditor of double-dealing and lack Of
honesty, when, as matter of fact, the
shoe is on the other foot. The man
whose business it is to weigh evidence
and calculate probabilities often sees
much more in a case than the casual
or interested observer, and he is thus
obliged To hedge and qualify his state
ments in way which seems like quib-
bling.
Nothing is more certain however.
than that greatness depends more on
Intellectual honesty than on auv other
quality. Sooner or later a mans worth
is likely to be accurately measured by
his fellow-citizens; and If they feel
that they cannot trust him-that he is
not candid with them-there is some
thing wanting in that mans character.
The salient trait Of every great leader
has been his ability TO make people be-
lieve in him, in his power of reaching
right and wise conclusions, and his hon