New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-27

college has not improved in the last
reperation. Students know more.
They think less. They arc more men
Of the world, less men Of the book.
Their interests have become 6iversi-
6sd. and arc less concentrated upon
things scholastic. Interests athletic,
fraterual, journalistic, consume time
and strength. at is too bad to ask
these men 70 study Greek. They have
too many things to do" said my friend,
the late Thomas Day Seymour, Of
Yale. This condition becomes signif-
can't when it is compared with the pro-
fessional school. Enthusiasm, quick
ening labor, there abounds. The pro-
fessional student finds that he has
mind and finds interest in using that
mind.
The causes Of this condition are
manifold. One cause which is less
cause than a condition, and perma-
nent condition stands in the very
foreground. It is the fact that hu,,
mapity is not now, never has been ana
possiblv never will be primarily intel.
iectual. The intellect Is not the cnlei
element in man-logiealiy as well as
cbronolOgically II is not. Man Is emo
tiopal rather than intellectual. nc
heart is more important than the intel
lect. The will, some would arnrm, Is
vocre important than the heart. One
does not forget PasCaFs remark, that
the heart has its reasons which the
reason knows not of. One recalls
Schopenhauer's great contention that
the will is God.
Allied with this permanent condition
of humanity is the fact that the gen
GRAFTON is materislistic in its ordinary
coneeptions snd ideals. In its deepest
convictions the generation rs nooiy
ideslistic. Spirituality is and must DC
tbe fundamental element in every great
oeneration. But in its workaday pur-
noses and atmospheres the generation
is concerned with the lust of the tesh.
the lust of the eye and the PRIDE OF
life. With such conceptions the col
lege world is sympathetic. The eX-
trsmural and the intramural world are
essentially one. The idols of the mar
ket place arc set up in academic chap-
els. This materialistic mood manlIests
itself in atmospheres and condltlohs
and also. be il said, IN one particular
form. This particular form hes III me
number OF college men VINO are enter
ing business. The change IN the poPu-
larity of different vacations CHOSEN Dy
graduates is interesting
In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries the ministry was chosen b.
the largest number. In or by the MID
die Of the last century the ministry
was supplanted by the law. In the
last decades the law has been supplant-
I'D bv business. Now, the simple TACT
IS that business is more Of an eXecu-
tive or administrative affair and less
If an intellectual one than either the
legal or the clerical calling. Therefore
college men purposing to enter bust
ness are less inclined TO live laborious
intellectual days. Such a mercantile
or industrial purpose tends 20 lower
The intellectual standard OF academic
living.
Effect of Luxury and Liberty.
II is also to be added that the in
crossing liberty Of the life of the stu
dent has had, in certain respects,
similar influence. AZ once one must
discriminate. This enlargement of op-
4he intellectual life Of the ablest and
most thoughtful men. It has enabled
these men to take swifter pace, un-
trammelled by the slower walk Of the
majority. i has blessed the upper
fifth. But for the other four-tifths 1t
has been an opportunity Tor indulg-
ence in concerns which no courtesy
would allow one to designate as intel
lectual. Liberty may result III an IN"
tellectual levellng down as well as IN
an intellectual dwelling up. In college
men, as in most men, is found certain
prayitation which pulls down, unless
there be mighty supports and upward
fittings.
II nav be Just to say that the in
creasing luxury of college life has
worked toward the same result. Ages
Of luxury are not ages Of great INTEL
lectual achievement Humanity's ten
denotes and laws of casualty are not
damned up by the shutting Of college
rates. The age is luxurious without
college walls, and it cannot help being
somewhat luxurious, therefore, within
college walls. For most college men
the effect of luxury does not stand Tor
the life OF thought nor of thoughtful
ness. A mother had furnished the
rooms Of her son about to enter college
in expensive elabOrateness. Inc iather,
himself a graduate forty years before,
came to the college to see the result.
He walked through and looked over the
study, the bedroom and the bathroom.
lie saw; he was moved. Presently he
rushed into the hall Of the dormitory
and said in eagerness, "That is not a
college room" He remembered the
rather bare walls and the rather bare
floor, with simple but most comfortable
belongings, of his own twoScore years
before. lie we'll knew that college
room is not parlOr.
But independently OF and apart from
the community's movement, colleges
themselves may do much. Academic
authorities may create atmosphere.
Academic officers may make conditions.
The emphasis which professors and
presidents place on scholarship, on in
tellectual concerns, has much value.
The colleges were made religious train
ing schools for the church by the en-
phasis placed on religion. Talks, ad-
dresses, admonitiOns, given IN season
and perhaps more out of season, helped
TO constitute the college religious.
Every emphasis it is easy to overdo.
Zeal without knowledge becomes gush.
Put nevertheless college authorities
may. BY speech. by writing, illustrate
that the college represents an intel
lcctual force, an intellectual condition