Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1908-07-03

is that he is not pursuing truth, bu
acquiring facts, classifying and labelling
items of knowledge, which is not the
Requirement of truth, but the stufine
of a museum. Truth is vital and per.
sonal; 1t is fact which finds its way to
the soul of man and nourishes his
spirit. There is no assurance of per-
sonal worth in the mastery of any
quantity of physical fact. There is NO
real victory of the spirit in science,
however perfected.
If life is worth the fight, if there is
any hope for us beyond these few
years of struggle, it is not through the
telescope and the discovery of new
stars, nor yet through increased domin-
ion over the matter and forces of the
earth, but rather through communion
with human spirits of such grandeur
and worth that life as they reveal it to
us is inherently majestic and grand,
and perchance also immortal. If, in
the face of encouragement and the
thousand difficulties of life, the heart
of us is still to rule in courage, if
manhood is not to perish but to
increase in honor and heroic hold on
right, the hope once more is in knowl-
edge of human life, the good and the
great who have lived our life nobly
and conquered all baseness.
The religious spirit, therefore, which
impels man to seek his highest per.
sonal good, is present and permanent
force in education. 1t serves to hold
us fast to those earnest studies of the
human spirit, in its noblest manifesto
tons in all forms and in all ages,
which develop personal power and
teach the old-time triumphs OF men
who knew their worth. My funda-
mental need as man is not to know
how things are made and put together,
nor how they act and react on one
another, but rather how l, physically
the veriest atom of the universe, may
rise superior to the entire sum of the
mass of matter, and be myself, despite
the boundless universe of form and
stuff. Therefore l must study chiefly
the victors who have gone before me {:
l must study history, because it is the
story of victors in the realm of action !;
l must master the literature of great
peoples, that from them l may draw
in the courage by which they over
came; l must study religion also,
because it is the work of heroes of
belief, and faith, in this world of diff
Guilty, has helped men most to
overcome.
We learned long since that we can
put nature under our feet, and we
have consumed no little useless energy
of late in glorying in that triumph.
For how vain is the victory while the
contest is still so terrible within our
own soul, while millions of our broth
ers go down under the onslaught of the
same old passions that have cast down
many mighty since the days of Samson
and David. Humanity's contest is
within, and the weapons that tell are not
carnal, not physical they are the truth
the prophets have forged out of life !;
the songs the poets have opened their
hearts to hear the visions the martyrs
have caught from God the words of
spirit and life which men of thought
and insight of all creeds and times have
written for the learning of those who
would hold their human heritage. We
Will not let go our grip on that which
is high, and our upward striving
manhood chains us to the humanities,
in whose pursuit alone we can keep
to our human estate.
These same religious forces, the i'm
pulse to permanence, worth, and the
attainment of blessings, which, as l
have shown, are realities which will
always exert their power, indicate the
spirit in which all studies should be
pursued and the object and purpose
which must be sought in them. All
branches of knowledge should be fol-
lowed in a college in humane spirit
and unto n hur,ao aoJ IT. .I