The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-07
graduating class of the Harvard Divinity

graduating class of the Harvard Divinity
School in July of the year following. Both
of these addresses, as has been said, were
epoch-making, in a way, too, that can
hardly be understood nowadays when the
principles they advocated have become so
much a matter of course. The first was
a determined plea for the freedom of
American scholarship from merely servile
dependence on European letters. while the
second demanded with equal boldness that
the spirit of man be set free from the fet-
tiers of established religious dogma
LET me admonish you first of ALL said
Emerson on this latter occasion, Ito go
alone; to refuse the good models, even
those most sacred to the imagination of
men. and dare to love God without medi-
ator or VEIL" Such an admonition might
we'll startle the religious opinion of less
than sixty-fve years ago, far and wide as
the principle has since spread into Ameri-
can life.
There is another movement in Cambridge
which points toward the probability of an
Emerson celebration on the 18th of May,
1903. 1t is hoped then that the new build
ing of the philosophical department, Elmer
son Hail. will at least have reached the
stage when ground can be broken and the
cornerstone laid. The new structure is to
be the home of the department which en-
braces the history of philosophy-or uni
versal knowledge" as it would have been
called in an earlier period of scholarship
of metaphysics, or the theory of knowl-
edge, and of psychology, logic, ethics, aes-
thetics. and the philosophy of science, soci-
ology and religion. The funds necessary to
erect the building are now accommodating
from various private sources in answer to a
statement issued some months ago by Pro-
lessor Hugo Muensterberg, chairman of
the philosophical department. The reasons
given for the name. as stated by him in a
recent announcement. will doubtless afford
good ammunition for those now urging the
proposed Emerson centenary.
HARVARD IDEAL.
I'VE have sought he says-after touch
ing upon the ideals for which the Harvard
department stands in modern thought
'one whose name might give symbolic ex-
preston to this underlying sentiment of
ldeaiism and might thus properly be con-
nected with the whole building. 1t cannot
be technical philosopher. Such a name
would indicate a prejudice for a special
system of philosophy. while we want.
above all. freedom of thought 1t ought
to be American to remind the young
generation that they do not live up TO the
hopes of the school Of philosophy if they
simply learn thoughts imported from other
parts of the world. but that they them
selves as young Americans ought TO help
the growth of philosophical thought Ii
ought to be a Harvard mana man whose
memory deserves that his name be oaily
nm he Inns of
acter and whose writings will remain a
fountain OF inspiration. Only one man
fulfiils all these demands perfectIy--Ralph
Waldo Emerson. 1t is our wish and hope
that the new. dignified, beautiful home OF
philosophy may soon rise as the moral and
intellectual center of Harvard University
and that over its doors We shall see the
name: Emerson Hall-School of Philoso-
ply"
Whether or not the plans for this new
building are far enough advanced to make
1t play part In the proposed celebration,
they are. in themselves. indication OF
the place which Emerson holds I'm the
esteem OF modern Harvard. Now that
the suggestion has been made, however,
there is every reason to believe that this
same esteem. with or without a corner
stone. will make an exception to the Har-
ward tradition-all the more so, as has
been pointed out. because making such an