Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-09-26

canoe Of the subject. and Of Its worth to
him personally and to the great world OF
men. Only the student who achieves this
appreciation really learns how to study
and what study is for.
MEN NEVER DUPLICATED.
Your work in the world will be like
the work OF no other man that has lived
| before you or that will come after you.
The great God never duplicates men,
nor their opportunities. nor their duties.
| You may learn from many, you may re-
ceive suggestions from n thousand, but
you must at last stand upon your own
feet In place where no one has ever
been before you and work out your own
problem and achieve your own destiny.
1t 10 therefore necessary that you learn
method, the method of using the mind
| in the problems of life, the method OF
| arriving at truth in the department OF
knowledge which you will be called up
on to use. This. and nothing less than
| this. Is what | mean by the phrase "how
to study" 1t is II task for an entire
| college course. Successfully pursued, It
justifies n four years course as pre-
paration for further professional study.
1t may be fairly expected as the result
of conscientious and sympathetic atten-
ton to duty In college, and 1t alone
justifies the labor and the sacrifice
necessary for II college education.
| wish there were less notion of get
ting through subjects and more idea OF
mastering subjects. Each one Of the five
topics of study in your work Is an In
| vitation and an opportunity to become
acquainted with the work of masters In
some important field of human activity.
1t Is "a subject you are asked to study.
not so many pages of a particular book,
not the opinions of certain man, or
the extracts from a field Of knowledge
which some textbook writer or your in
structor have chosen to place before
you.
| | confess ! often feel resentment when
a student complains that an examination
presented a question or problem which
he did not have in class. Such an objec-
ltion makes me feel that | am taken for
the master of an elementary school, not
the official OF an institution Of higher
, education When a man comes up for n
, degree in a German university he is
examined on subjects, not on dozen
books which have been doled out to him
in series of lessons, or on the lectures
in particular number of courses.
MUST RAISE THE STANDARD.
The problems of America are not less
, difficult than the problems OF Germany.
The need of men OF mind in this new
world. with it's rapid present formulation
of civilization destined to affect pro-
foundry the oncoming centuries Is not
less but greater than in the fatherland
of education. If we are to produce the
mr. raic no Ri ha
world demands knowledge of subjects and
does not stop to ask whether the topic
has been presented in class. If the col
lege is to train men for life in the world,
II must make them competent. not merely
TO reproduce what has been given them,
:, hut to acquire facts and principles In
: various fields Of knowledge. whether they
have been taught them or not. and to use
: them as occasion may demand.
. Education vastly enlarges moral and
spiritual responsibility Many do not
know how scholars have struggled for
| their truth, and how the martyrs of
. science have suffered for their visions
- They read the words, hut they are only
" dead letters to them: but you are in
vited into the laboratories to work theil
thoughts out after them and thrill with
= them at the vision OF their truth. You
are brought into realization OF what
II meant to work out an Attic tragedy
or n drama of great Shakespeare. Epor
, you, therefore, rests the responsibility
of ambition and endeavor for that quality
of manhood. a college education tells
you how big thing 1t is to be a man
1t should lift the level of your life &c
the level Of the great souls that have
Re wrought out the good Of this world.
1t college education gives the conscience OF
r a man some tremendous things to work
10 upon. 1t enlarges vastly the reponsibiIi
II ties of his life. 1t summons him to live
It not by the standards of the street, no
10 according to the meagre ethical ideal.
1t which have been formulated into statutes
,e but according to the lives and achieve
p mcnts and visions of the worlds mighty
ID spirits.
OYSTER HAS FEW DUTIES.
The development of conscience Is tn,
greatest gain from college training
Duty is blessing. An oyster has few
duties and is not much OF creature
&c but man has many and is at the othe
'e end of the scale. The more duties a maj
80 has the more man he is. The more yol
- get out of college the larger will b.
~ larger the privileges OF your manhood
We want at Mlddlebury a college whc
- sends out men and women Of large obi
- cation to the world, who will assum
large duties and who dare assume no les
,s because Of their vision of the meaning
-, of humanity as it has been wrought GU
IN | by the worlds masters. There must be
~ Middlcbury stamp as unmistakable as tn
n. inscription on the coinage of the nation
~ 1t must include the spirit Of bold attack
40 the courage that despises no feeble in
~ strument If it be the best at hand tn
resolution of large achievement in what
II ever be ones sphere OF life. Our grad
NJ yates not a few of the past ll3 years hav
AZ 1t is for us In these perilous days OF ex
se pansion to see to 1t that We keep true
pr There must be no lowering of the stand
W ard. either In scholarship or In charac
" ter, with the increase Of numbers and tn
n enlargement OF material equipment You
M instructors are minded rather to enhanc
re the difficulties of a college course In thi
town, and to be more resolute In purgin
from our numbers those who will not re
j.. spond to the Middlebury appeal for hig
4" ambition and earnest work. The ney
~ regulations placed In your hands are a
:. indication OF this purpose. They deman
- much more constant attention to dut
=" than has heretofore been required
!. II u-C