The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-04-20
DR.. OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
TALka~ZO YALE STUDENTS or
THEB0YSANBGIRLSOF TO-DAY.
Bsyv Asa Taught in School That Their
first Duty 10 % he ~ Near the Head
- Their Qass - Possible-IIarvafd's
Hegiect Of Moral Training Criticised.

N%ass - FOsohDfC-thaEvbfui
Negiect Of Moral Training Criticised
INV HAVEN. Conn. April is.-The Rev
DR.. Edward Everest Hale OF Boston spoke
to thb young men of Yale University to-day
Ia .BatteI Chapel on DUTY: The Training
for IT. Hundreds could not get into the
chaISl President Hadley introduced the
preacher. In the course Of his sermon DR.
Hale touched upon the lack OF moral train
ing b ME universities in this country, anc
made 80 pe references to Harvard Univer.
sity when he was an overseer there. He
also critic ed the management Of the public
schopls. I've eaids
'Asgentle man Of large opportunities OF
observation .said to me not long ago that the
young people ofiour time think they have
no duties. Hu said that they are not edu-
catod to the s,mse OF duty. He has had in
come ways mich wider opportunities to
observe life in our time than I have. He
Is man who does his own duty steadily.
bravSly aud With Elccess. He said he was
trained 10 do this In his childhood and that
the Children Of opr time are not trained 30.
Il 1m- glad to say that think this is an
over-statement. think II Is q bad over
statement should not say that the chill
dren of:oof time have no training In duty.
Still. am afraid that the idea OF such train
ing as the findamen lal part OF education IL
not a central as 1t was a hundred years ago.
Undoubtedly 200 years. ago the central
idea was that ohildrPn should be trained
to obey God. am afraid that In the aver
age school now that itiea Of duty Is not pre-
sented as the centre.
Il should say that the boy Is told first
that he must be near the head Of his class;
or. ina Latin school, that he must know what
verbs govern the accusaaive and what the
geni1ve; and that succss In such enter
prisee%iS the central thing. I am afraid
that, ~ tie average school, training to duty
a. duty Is put of to soma particular day OF
the ueek, perhaps as the study Of English
grammar at the school went to was pushed
into aistolen half hour on Saturday morning
"A 8aatAsrn- gentleman who after~ard
was =. Cabinet officer In the Confed-
eracy said in my hea ring once that
the trouble with the Northern children
was that they were grateful to the State
and 20 did not care anything about their
fatherA-8n mothers. 'Ha said that the
State gave them their education and that
- . Consequence they were gratef vi to
the town In which they lived or the State
WHOM tncy HNcu, WLlIc tQeIT IalDeT0
and mothers they had no regard at all.
It TUNED out afterward that this man
was IN orphan who had heen picked I'D
IN the street, educated at an orphan asylum
and never knew what q father or mother
was. q Still the man stated a result Of public
educafion which I have noted since with
Il think that the average boy or girl
under our trimming has a oonoeited notion
with regard TO his Importance. The city
Of Boston spends millions of dollars for
the Sdhcation Of him and her. It gives
him 1ot sir hours what is almost a palace
with the house in which he lives
the other eighteen hours. Now. observe
Often that the boy thinks Of himself more
highly shAn he ought to think. This re-
suits. F believe. largely from this determi-
nation Of the city to provide for him. Now,
for nan to think more highly of himself
than. - ought to think Is about The worst
thinssthaE can happen to him. and IN pro-
portiouuss, y poor boy or girl docs lapse
into staAAs phase OF depruvity. In that pso-
p 9T,t ts -, the the. ides Of duty As the centre
"A pathetic Illustration Of the case
speak ;0 came to publlc-epirited Boston
MANI wo years ago. He had for four years
sustsa9ed In .women's colleges sixteen
Il car public schools. I suppose he had
spent $4,000 IN their college education.
When. At their several colleges, they took
theif deefees one Of the sixteen invited
him ~ bet commencement. exercises. The
otheE Gteen received his benefaction as a
thing OF course aid forgot his existence.
Now fsupposel these girls neglected their
manj5est duty because the public always
had stfken care Of them, and they sup
posed u was somebody's business to do so.
selv9I In an organization which they call
the Knot Horrors which exists apparently
for The purpose OF stealing fruit and break
ing Glass in the neighborhood OF the square
o *ho ass nan ls h ssy 81 the 1 APass
fratstntty, feel that In their education,
a. nay friend said. the idea Of duty is
ma I q. back little into the school
tie bad Of his class, because he i a bright
boy. IN 60 over to the university and ask
who fecefts t,e highest honors Of the
Harxxrd College. Cum Laude Maxma,
find isist the same thirgrthst is. intellect
its bokory. and that virtually no inquiry is
made as to the moral character of the per- |
son honSred. When I was en- overseer Of
the college man was turned out OF the |
ciotSes There was punishment s Tor n moral
delinquency. When inquired whether |
any effort had been made in the college to |
him IN keep ng the eighth COM !
OF the decalogue, found that I
the efforts Of Harvard University in that |
direction were confined to saying to him |
that IL he choet to attend chapel for thirteen !
minutes every day he would have a certain !
chance to know what were God'e comm ands; |
but he reed not 60 unless he wanted to-
And this was the whole Of the moral training
we may say what we choose In ridicule
or contempt Of the mechanical aide of |
Puritan training, as 1t shows itself in the
transitions. What you and know IL that
snddeh Of them lived to Gods glory to
give a moral element to the whole ie0is-
[stipn Of the infant State, and that the hope
full 'element that we now call public spirit
wa4 the dominant element. They saw
that we must not read the Sermon on the
Mount in tho public schools for fear that
L may shock the prejudces Of q pupil
ipst from Arabia who took the examins-
lion ~ the beginning Of September All
The eAms.it would be pity II the arabian,
Or the Bulgarian or the cappadocian should
grow up In the public school, or In any
school, or In any schoolless home without
what transpired in Palestine in
those years when the well beloved Son OF
of God went about doing good. In Judd's
novel Margaret storms out her bfttAr