The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-08-02
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF COL
LEGE LIFE TO RESPONSIBLE
TIES AND AMBITIONS OF MEN
By W. A. HARPER, President of Elon College, n. c,

The college graduate has attained
= worthy ambition. an ambition en-
tertained four years before realization
And wrought out In anxious JOY and
aweet fellowship during the interven-
Ing days and months. Every such
person on graduation day enters upon
q new responsibility amid strange sur
foundings. but he enters upon it as
one of marked and favored section
Of our people. looked to by all with
large expectation Of great service--an
expectation resting on a sure foun-
dAtion. One of each six hundred of
eur population enters college: one in
about twenty-five hundred graduates
from college. II college aducation
mean anything, the fortunate man
and woman who have achieved 1t
certainly have u tremendous lead in
The race of life.
Large Expectations.
And We know from experience that
they do have this advantage and that
they retain ii The few supermen,
who, like Lincoln. can mount to great
ness without college education by
their very sewness. establish beyond
doubt the universally of the prtnci-
pie Their examples can Inspire Us 10
do our best. but We cannot afford
to emulate their lack of education be-
cause we cannot be sure We are as
endowed
were sure of f.. education would help
us TO achieve greater things ard good
judgment. would suggest that we
avail ourselves of II When We con
slider that practically all the great
names of American history past asld
present. represent the colleges IF the
land either as full graduates or AS
those who dropped out begin to
understand the real meaning al the
commencement occasion and To ap-
precinte why the people generally take
such deep cereern in Il They know
and SO do we that the college grad
uafss are the destined leaders Of the
ton and that our couutrSs hope
cenfers IN them. The college grad
mates hold in their hands the key q
,ur future national prosperity and 10
them our eyes anxlQus}y tUTn with
hope &8A5! confidence.
What college should DO.
But why What does the college
eur sieuium do for a man that his
chances " leadership and usefulness
are so enormously multiplied Is he
pot the same man at the termination
pf the course as at the beginning .
X not. what has produced the alf-
ference. for ne looks much the same
This In ar engaging theme. one that
has been q scussed on many occasions.
knd with r}ucn disagreement among
kha doctors The best that ear be
Hone Gnder such circumstances is to
give expression tn ones own faith,
based on experience and observation.
Judged by this norm. the college
rourse fits man for leadership in
lies work by giving his life perspec-
hive. by charging the horizon az his
vision, by cuitiyating proper habits
pf work and thought by revealing
eorrect notions of God and things d.
eine, the whole resulting in that
finest OF noble developments-~Chri
kian character.
We have the same need for perspec-
Tive in life as in art-~-for life is art,
nYt In its highest. hottest form. The
Egyptian educational system did not
held this exquisite product, else
Moses had not made such a failure
BIZ his first effort 70 help his ens!aved
brethren. The forty years spent in
The land Of INDIAN corrected the de-
Feet and he became In consequence
The greatest law ~giver of history. The
college curriculum IL made up OF
languages, sciences. mathematics. his
Tory and philosophy. and these color
Ing the life by inperceptible grada-
lions yield a perspective that supplies
beautiful symmetry and sanity To
every act or Judgment We may
not be able TO detect the manner in
which the result is achieved, but its
achievement we cannot doubt IN
The study of languages and literature.
he college man not only becomes IN
contact with noble thoughts couched
IN powerful phrase. but he lives life
under all the conditions that Try
mems souls His experience Is thus
many times enlarged and he Is given
scale by which TO weigh the con-
heQuences OF any proposed Ene ~
conduct ar system of human uplft,
Bciences of the natural order nor
bhiy bring him face TO face with the
rArts Of the visible creation, but with
ne Invisible Creator of the world. and
ina BILE him To think Gods thoughts
hitter Him The man who studies
natural sciences under proper
teacher and does not become more
aexout of heart and consecrated or
lie mus, he duh and unresponsiVe
indeed, Sciences of the social oroer
Introduce him to all the experiment
ktion Of the race in its long. hard
struggle for Justice and righteousness
IN. peace in political life and equip
him with the most reliable weapons
BIZ successful warfare against auack
political nostrums and the social pan
aceas SO plentifully proposed ~
1cmaxogues and cnfriatans ana ~
Fh.ch many noble-hearted men with
ess clarified perspective are easily
ured into hurtful schemes of poll
ical and social chicanery Mathe-
mates trains him to exactness OF
linking and to look for definite re-
sults from composition of definite
sorces The man who. knows his
geometry and his calculus VIII not
,e easily m.sled in any crisis. how
Aver, trying il may be. History has
shown him the passions of men in
III relationships and enabled him to
'orecast the future in terms OF the
1ast Philosophy has opened up TO
him the enhancing vistas OF mems
hopes and ne who has strolled
through Its glimmering labyrinth can
rot be other than nobler man for
nis experience. The college curri-
tuium therefore is seen to be sane
kttempt largely successful In thou
ands Of cases. to bring the experience
4 the worlds past TO bear with all
Is lessons OF upiift and caution upon
he college students present. so as
D give him firm grasp on life In
= ncblest aspects. and to restrain
m from being swept along In the
kE1Nf ~ ev4ry silly sohaHAA fAr the