The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-06-29
The Functions of a Uni
versity.
Continued from Page One.)

way to produce it. Yet all that we
can do is but little compared to what
he himself can and must do. The
spirit OF the scholars the vital fac
tor i'm the productive scholarship OF
the country.
$50 much for the first function OF
the university, the sending forth OF a
small number of scholars of the high
est rank who will do productive work
of the first class. Now turn to the
second, and what may be called the
normal, function of the college, the
function of turning out each year
many hundreds &C men who shaU
possess the trained intelligence, ana
especially the character, that VIII
enable them to hold Ugh the renown
of this ancient seat of learning by
doing useful service for the nation.
1t is not my purpose to discuss at
length what should be done in Har-
ward to produce the right spirit
among the men who go out of Har-
ward but rather to speak of what this
spirit should be. Nor shall L speak
of the exceptions, the men to whom
college life is Il disadvantage. Ran
dolph, of Roanoke, he of the biting
tongue, once remarked of an oppon-
ent that he reminded him of certain
tracts OF ldllu Which, Ntlc
worthless by nature and became en-
tirely so by cultivation OF course, if
in any individual university training
produces taste for refined idleness
a distaSte for sustained effort, a bar
rem intellectual arrogance, or a sense
of SuDercilious alOOfneSS from the
world of real men who do the world 5
real work, then it has harmed that
individual: but in such case there re-
mains the abiding comfort that he
would not have amounted to much
anyway. Neither college training
nor anything else can do much good
to the man of weak fiber or to the
man with a twist in his moral or in
tellectual makeup. But the average
undergraduate has enough robustness
of nature, enough capacity for enthu-
siasm and aspiration, 10 make it worth
while to turn to account the stuff
that is in him.
"There are, however, two points in
the undergraduate life OF Harvard
about which / think We have a right
to feel some little concern. One is
the growth of luxury i'm the university.
| do not know whether anything we
can say will have much effect on this
point, but just so far as the alumni
have weight | hope to see that weight
felt III serious ana sustained effort
against the growing tendency to lux
ury, and in favor of all that makes
for Democratic conditions. One of
our number, the one whom / think the
rest of us most delight to honor
Colonel Higginson-has given to our
alma mater the Harvard Union than
which no better gift, no gift meeting
a more vital need. could have been
given TO the university. 1t is neither
possible nor desirable to try to take
away all social differences from the
student life; but it is n good thing to
show how unimportant these differ
ences are compared to the differences
of real achievement. and compared
also to the bonds which should unite
together all the men who are i'm any
degree capable of such real achieve
ment; bonds, moreover, which should
also knit these capable men to their
brethren who need their help.
THE second point upon which I
wish to speak is the matter of sport.
Now | shall not be suspected of a ten
dency unduly to minimize the import
ancc OF sport. | believe heartily in
sport. | believe in outdoor games,
and do not mind in the least that
they are rough games, or that those.
VINO take part in them are ocCa-
slonally injured. / have no sympathy
whatever with the overweight senti-
mentality which would keep a young