Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1908-07-10

past anu present, inc loss 10 inc WOIlu
of culture, thought, and beauty, would
, not equal the loss of one small year Of
, Athens, or of one man Of a dozen that
might be named who lived their
life with God in the hills of little
} Judaea.
The time is surely coming when we
can live no more by plumber, but must
set ourselves to build and to plant, and
to renew our life from within. That
time came long since to some of the
lands beyond the sea. When the EN-
pire of Prussia was all battered down
by the onslaughts of Napoleon, when
II, 900 Germans lay dead on the battle
field of Jena and $1,000 were taken
prisoners, in the midst of deepest
humiliation the Prussians founded the
University of Berlin, convinced that
the secret of national renewal lay in
superior intelligence supported by
education, that if the fatherland were
to rise from her degradation it must
be by the force of men who know and
men who think.
The day of our reckoning will also
surely come. We can not much longer
grow rich by devastation, nor even
live by it. Americas wealth must
come from her men, and in the
making of men you must begin at the
top and work down. 1t is the leader
who is all important, and with one
leader whole countryside blooms
fresh in vigorous life.
In the making OF leaders the small
community is of highest importance.
There are strange, personal currents
where masses throng together, draw
ing individuals irresistibly into the
same course of life and thought
Ideas flow from mind to mind :;
beliefs from soul to soul; feelings
from heart to heart. The vast city
concourse, plebeian or proletariat, is
monotonous, stupidity similar, and
tame. In small communities you find
individuality and independence. The
mountains, where men live in hamlets,
have ever been lovers of freedom.
Great men have not risen from the
hordes of Persia, Babylonia, or the
valley of the Nile, where mathemati-
cally the chances were so great. but
from little Greece, tiny Palestine, and
Sequestered England, lands all sepa-
rated into isolated communities by
mountain ranges or indenting seas.
The greater the aggregate, the less the
power and intensity in the individual
man. If you would make a master,
remove him from the confusing, sitting
crush of the masses who are too busy
to think. The city University has its
justification, but the making OF men
of might will remain the honor of the
country College.
For the fulhlment of this high call
ing our resources must be largely
increased. Our productive endow-
ment is but $4,000, and our
entire income but little more than
$4,000 a year. We have less than
a third the endowment Of Williams,
less than fourth that of Amherst, less
than a fifth that of Dartmouth. COL
leges with five times our income are
caring for scarcely more than twice
our number OF students. We are doing
our educational work at cost to the
college of less than $3.50 a year for
each student. l dare to boast that
there is not College in New England
where funds count for more, dollar for
dollar, in educational result.
| In scholarships we are comfortably
well-to-do, but in Professorships we are
distressingly poor. Only one chair is
fully endowed. We have but $40 900
specifically for Professorships, sum
barely sufficient to sustain two men.
Our first and most immediate need is
added endowment for increase of the
teaching force. We should have at
once 100000 for this purpose. We
could then do two things. First,
We could increase the efficiency of our
Professors by narrowing their field.