New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-03-10
ON THE USES OF WALLS.
MENTIONS. PROPERTIES AND Es-
TABLISHED CUSTOMS.


Writing for a college magazine President Hazard
of Wellesley has some suggestive comments "on
the Of walls:
we talk about the delightful repose of study.
but in this country have comparatively little
Of that feeling. There are so many subjects
to investigate, much stretches before US. the
horizon OF the New World is so boundless, that
have the exharation and the excitement of study
rather than the repose, which is the traditional
academic atmosphere. And I have been wonder
ing if the actual Enclosures which one sees in the
English university buildings have something to do
with this-if the sense of physical confinement and
physical rest, with the impossbility of passing
beyond bounds and beyond gates, may not have
something to do with the feeling Of mental
quietude.
Conventions, proprieties established custom hem
England in perhaps few other countries of the
world. In America so TO the other extreme. If
a thing is conventional we apt think that it
is uncouth and old fashioned, which must be set
aside for something newer and better. A short
series of years sees an entire revolution in whole
modes of living. Families leave the places of their
birth and are scattered over immense areas of
country. We break down our walls.
The whole question is of subtle adjustment.
When think of the walls of Algerian house
hold. for instance. where the closely
shut behind their verandas, very souls revolt
from such servitude and cry out for freedom and
for the power Of growth. That is extreme
But go a little the other in America. where
new: where the minds grasp only exceeds
its reach, but its reach is far greater than that
OF previous generations. We must back to
something like 4 just mean. and in this world
where the spirit. after all. has to have outward
habtation and n home, wise boundaries and lin
tied spaces form element of great strength.
This is only a plea that walls have their uses,
that conventions usually established IN some
right idea that what has been custom for any
length of time cannot be lightly overthrown. We
can, like the snail, carry our house with us. The
walls do not stay in the same places. But with
out some boundary, without some limitation, should
not dssipate energies and frtter away our
time? In a students life much depends upon a
right Of time and upon the choice of direction
/ in which the mind shall be used. Has sCien-
tifc turn, is ii rather the literary side that
development should be sought? There instantly Is
( boundary. not perhaps a wall Of solid masonry.
1 through which one may not lOok-for in these days
: some converse must be had with things outside
( own special sphere
so. in the eager days Of youth. with question
after question lying before unanswered. all linn
itatlons are sometimes burdeUsomc The soul beats
against the bars of its earthly tabernacle; others
experience has little weight except eXter-
nal fact, really touching the personal life
il is such times that established custom, the
hedging in of tradition is most helpful It
may be widen our boundaries. that our
gardens are too small that only ourselves find
room and comfort in them Then walls Al
gerian walls the sheltering protection of Eng
lish gardens. For, while we live must grow