The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-06-24

great increase in numbers OF students
in tho older colleges and universities.
That this tendency is hopeful lndlca-
ton. of striving on the part of many
towards the light, cannot be denied
but there is in it danger of counter
effects, the chief of which is growing
discomfort. 1t is true that, dlscon-
font is the force which impels pro-
eress but it needs to be curbed ana
guided to prevent reaction and dlSaS-
tor To gain the benefits hoped for
and avert evil consequences, the ratio
of quality to quantity must be pre-
served. The physical man and his
heart and impulses as we'll as his IN
tellect must be trained. His vanity and
self-conceit must be reduced to min
im,lm, without suppression of his indi-
viduality and courageous independ-
ence. in order to raise him above the
level of mediocrity. and fit him for
station or calling in which his ambi-
ton may find satisfaction without do
ing evil to others. 1t is not carping to
say that all collegians are not scholars;
nor is it an appeal to prejudice to say
that a man may be eminent as
scholar and yet be lamentably def
Gent in wisdom. | will give an exam
pie in the following poem which has
a place in a collection of the worlds
best lterature:
Friend. wouldst know why as a
rule
Bcokish learning marks the fool?
'Tis because, though once befriended,
Learning's pact with WisdOm's ended.
No philosophy eer thrOve
In nightcap by the stove.
who the world would understand
In the world must bear hand.
If you're not to wisdom wed,
Like the camel you're bested,
Which has treasures rich, to bear
Through the desert everywhere
But the use must ever lack
OF the goods upon his back"
This poem is the production of a
cultured mind. 1t was written by
Friedrich Martin Won Bodenstedt. a
renowned German scholar, linguiSt
traveller and author. 1t seems incred-
ible that such a man, taking wisdom
for his subject, should have fallen into
the unjustifiable error of attempting to
lay down a dogmatic rule, stigma tizing
men of letters as a class. 1t is not
true that familiarity with books is a
mark distinguishing fools from other
men. The idea is false and akin to
ignorant wholesale denunciatiOn of
lawyers for dishonesty and of Secta-
rians for bigotry. Many lawyers are
dishonest and in every way contempti-
BILE, and yet, as a class, they are the
champions of honor, and the knights
who perpetually battle to redress
wrongs and maintain the rights of
men, taking fees for their services,
when they can get them, but never
abating zeal in the cause of a client
who is poor or weak or deSpised or
wicked. The churches could not sur
vive if it were possible for the bad
ones in their membership to wreck
them. With intolerance of spirit and
unctuous pretences of piety, they
have prosecuted and scouraged and
slaughtered and mathematical, but
through it all they have nurtured
charity and goodness and helped to
regulate the lives of men and women
by the Golden Rule and their con-
sciences. Many college professors and
| specialists in political economy and
| the science of finance become mere
dreamers and theorists. They are SO
blind to actual conditions and the
practical workings of human affairs
| that they never discover errors in the
| theories which they evolve Neverthe-
| less, their pupils generally become