The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-10-26


this free capital of mind the world stands
most in need OF. The day has gone by
when it is possible to do this by the old
discipline of Greek, Latin. mathematics and
English. The circles of liberal studies are
too much enlarged, the area of general
learning too much extended to make II
any longer possible TO make these rev
things stand for ell. An age OF science
has transmitted speculation into knowledge
and doubled the dominion of the mind. The
mind of the modern student must be car
ried through a wide range of studies, In
which science shall have a place not less
distinguished than that accorded literature,
philosophy or politics.
Speaking of the disciplinary" studies
through which a boy is put in his school
days President Wilson said the classical
languages of antiquity offered better dis
cipline than any language of the present
day, except the language OF our own
thought. Drill in mathematics stands in the
same category and the English Is also or
the fundamental group of studies. But the
fundamental studies have widened in our
day, chiefly because science has had its
credentials accepted as of the true patri-
ciate of learning. and il is as necessary
that the lad should be indicted into the
thinking of the modern time as il is that
he should be carefully grounded in the
old. Undoubtedly the fundamental sciences
are physics, chemistry and biology. Physics
and chemistry afford a systematic body OF
knowledge abundant for instruction,
definite almost, mathematics itself; and
biology, young as IL isS has already supplied
us with a scheme of physical life which
lifts its study to the place of a. distinctive
discipline. And there stand alongside OF
these geology and astronomy, whose part
in general culture, aside from their con-
nection with physics, mechanics and chem
istry, is to apply to the mind the stimula-
ton which comes from being brought into
their presence and In some sort into the
comprehension of stupendous. systema-
tiZed physical fact-from seeing nature in
the mass and system of her might and
structure. These, too, are essential parts of
the wide scheme which the college must
| ra1n AraA hon hnxr dAnA rhnon
the manifold discipline of philosophy, the
Indispensable instructions of history and
the enlightenments of economic and politi-
cal study, and to these the modern Ian
guages which are the tools of scholarship,
we stand confused. How to marshal
| this host of studies within a common plan
which shall not put the pupil out of breath?
mo doubt must make choice among
| them, and suffer the pupil himself to make
choice. But the choice that we make must
be the chief choice, the choice the pupil
makes the subordinate choice. Since he cam
| not, in the time at his disposal, go the
| grand tour of accepted modern knowledge,
we who have studied the geography OF
! learning and who have observed several
| generations OF men attempt the journey
| must instruct him how, in a brief space. he
| may see most OF the world. The true Amer
| lean university gets its best characteristic,
| its surest guarantee of sane and catholic
| learning from the presence at its very
heart OF aacollege of liberal arts. Its vital
| union with the college gives II the true uni
versity atmosphere, pervading sense OF
| the unity and unbroken circle of learning
| not so much because OF the presence OF
! great body of undergraduates In search OF
| general training as because of the presence
! of great body of teachers whose lifework
| Ii is to find the general outlooks of knowl-
| edge and give vision OF them every day
from quiet rooms which. while they talk,
shall seem TO command all the prospects or
the wide world.
| The speaker said he would wish to see
every student made, not a man of his task,
but man of the world, whatever his world
may be. so soon as generous friends" he
said, have arranged their finances so as
| to enable them to release enough money
| for the purpose, 1t Is the intention to build
a graduate college, which will be not only
a body of teachers and students, but also a
| college OF residence, where men shall live
| together in close and wholesome comrade-
| ship of learning; a comradeship for the
novice as well as the graduate. No doubt,
| the old, purely literary training made too
much of the development of mere taste,
mere delicacy of perception, but our mod
ern training makes too little.
| There are other things which must be
| supplied our generation besides mere ma
terial success. 1t must be supplied with men
who care more for principles than for mon
| ey, for the right adjustments of life than
| for the gross accumulation of profit. In
America, for every man touched with no.
| bility, for every man touched with the
! spirit of our institutions, social service is
| the high law Of duty, and every American
| university must square its standards by
| that law or lack its national title. 1t is
serving the NATION 10 give men the enlght-
enments of a general training, it is serving
the Nation to equip fit men for thorough
scientific investigation and for the tasks of
exact scholarship, for science and scholar
ship carry the truth forward from genera
| ton to generation and give the certain
touch of knowledge TO the processes of
| life"
| In conclusion President Wilson said every
concrete thing America has done has
seemed to rise out of some abstract prin-
| ciple, some vision of the mind. Her greatest
victories have been the victories OF peace
and of humanity. And in days quiet and
troubled alike Princeton has stood for the
Nations service, to produce men and pa
| triots.