The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-04
STUDENTS MUST
 LEARN TO THINK
President HadIeys Tells Yale Freshmen
 Not to Follow Crowd at College.
DISGRACE DUE TO DRIFTING

. '.
 New Haven, Oct. 4.-President Ar freshmen yesterday on the occasion of their first appearance in the college chapel since their advent at the Uni |versity. Dr. Hadley urged upcn the new collegians the duty of learning to think of the consequences of actions and of guiding their conduct with a view to such consequences. He point ed out the evil which came from '.tak- ing one'ss ease and going with the crowd'' in colleges in after life, and warned the young men that such drift ing fixed upon them the habit of mental irresponsibility," adding that disgrace is ten times oftener the re- suit of care1essness than of intentional badness.'' President Hadley said in part:
 There are two sides to a mans re- ligious life: an emotional side and an intellectual side His heart and his mind must act together. He must in tend to follow the right as he sees it.; I it as it is.
 ls'It is not enough to intend to do right It is not enough to do right when we happen to see it. We must arrange to see things as they are; we
 must think out the; consequences of | l 'I am particularly glad to say this at the opening of the college year, be- cause no small part of the work of a good college is to teach it's students to use their brains about matters of mor- ality and religion.
 s.The American college undertakes to 1 train it's students for the duties of a free citizen. As long as a boy re- I mains in school he is protected by school supervision. His hours of work I,i toc ,c,i iav~ eof frnT d a Ito day. He learns to subject himself 1 to discipline; to act and think and feel I in the way that the community re- | quires. In after life. on the other
 hand, the boy has no such guidance If he wants to disobey the rules o1 I conduct set by the community, no one will stop him until he has gone far or the road to ruin. If he wants to ques- tion the traditional principles of con- duct or alter the rules of public opin- ] ion, he is given a free hand to do this j-with the chance of immeasurable le good to himself and others if he does 1 it in the right way, immeasurable lharm to himself and others if he does it in the wrong way. To train lts | members for the exercise of this free dom of action and opinion is the high est and noblest function of a college. l tIn school we are kept up to the per. formance of certain moral duties ane l restrained from the commission of va
 
 coming to college we came to place
 where no one will restrain us except T by wholesome advice, or keep us III : to our duty except by the influence ot companionship and example. w Il have a chance for acts of folly whicf I we shall afterward regret. We have
 a chance for the thoughtless commis , sion of acts of disorder and for tht
 infraction of the rules of morality
 There is only one way to prevent these
 l +, inc iS n iT1x
 "It is easy to enter into the life O.
 the college so fully that we follow ths
 crowd in whatever it does. The prob
 abilities are that we shall not be call
 ed to account the first time, nor th' second The probabilities are that tn crowd will not do anything very bae the first time nor the second. But tn, harm shows sooner or later; and ol the whole the boy is more fortunat' q who is called to account promptly ant l brought face to face with the req character of what he is doing than tn one who escapes so long that he ike
 upon himself the habit of mental ir responsibility. The practice of tax
 crowd may or may not bring it's pen atty today. It must bring it's penalt. . sooner or later.
 .These temptations which now mee us are essentially the same in kind a
 those which will meet us in our severa : lines of business and professional work ]. If we take life easily and shift upol the crowd the responsibility whicl each man ought to assume for himself . we are preparing to succumb to life trials. Professional disgrace is tel , times oftener the result of carelessnes , than of intentional badness. Nobod ever intended to go to jail; nobod ever intended to lose his position il . society by forfeiting the respect of hi I fellow-men. The criminal and the out i cast became criminal and outcast b
 following the lines of least resistance
 tby not thinking of consequences;sb b
 lnot really knowing what they did