Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-07-01

from college; with some II ceases even
earlier. Might it not be an idea worth
consideration, that of a post graduate
school, Of course, compulsory at least
for collegians, especially such as have
never studied much anyhow? Let 1t be
called course in the current Of events
academic. The swirl and eddy Of actual
progress might be mitigated somewhat
for such as need it. The demonstration
of motion is the main thing. But this
is tangent; the Gownsman must back
to his theme.
THE vice provostship as at Pennsyl-
l. vania is somewhat unusual office
in our American college organizations.
1t is not the fifth wheel of the wagon,
as some one maliciously called it, al
though fifth wheel is not despicuble
in emergency, as any autoist will in
form you The vice provost Of
Pennsylvania is rather an officer Of liai-
son-to use term which the war pop
ularized for us-the parsonage who
unites and gives cohesion to the several
faculties into which the complicated
organism of large university is certain
to grow. This Office gives to the prov
ostship a larger range and freedom, and
might be developed at Pennsylvania and
elsewhere into still further usefulness.
Nothing could have been more natural
or more fitting, for example, the other
day at Pennsylvania commencement,
when the provost laid aside his author
ity to receive an honorary degree sig
nalizing his laying down of his august
office, than that the vice provost should
take his place and become by that very
circumstance the acting provost. The
vice provostship at Pennsylvania is a
wise provision by which the dangers of
an interregnum are averted and steady
continuance is given to the administra-
ton of the University's affairs.
TN THE personality, too, of DR.. Josiah
i II. Penniman the University is par
ticularly happy at this juncture. All
Pcnnsylvanians know and honor Doc
tor Penniman. He has been for long
years so naturally, so honorably, so
unostentatiously a part of the Univer-
sity that we have to pause to think how
large part has been actually his. The
Gownsman remembers him first as an
underclassman when he had not been
long away from his native Concord, the
home of Emerson and Thoreau. Young
Penniman was studious lad and led
his class easily. But he was not with :
out boyish spirit. The Gownsman re-
calls certain classic practical joke,
which he is not going to tell here; and
to this day he is not quite sure that the
demure young Puritan who sat virtu
ously in the front row was not at the
bottom of it all.
TIME Gownsman has known Doctor
i Penniman since, as graduate stu
dent and young scholar in English Of
unusual promise, as an instructor hold
ing and inspiring his classes and as 9
professor Of that most difficult Of sub
iccts to teach well-literature, as dear
Of the College, and now for years as
vice provost, assistant to DR.. Edgar
f. Smith. For graduate thesis Doc
! tor Penniman chose an obscure and diff
ficult problem in the history of thu
drama in Shakespeare time, known
as "The war Of the theatres" This h
| cleared up, so far as the existing evi
dences make clarifcation possible, ant
his book on the topic with his subse
quent writing on it remains the author
ity on the subject. With much else be
sides Doctor Penniman has since mad
the study of our English Bible espe
cially his own; the Bible as literatur
on the basis of q broad understanding
of its history, its archaeology, its ori
gins and the like. In his recently pub
lished work, "a Book About the Bible,
the author has contrivcd to give us
new portrait of this most famous of al
books, drawn so honestly, so under
standingly and so far above prejudices
theological or other, that Protestan
and Roman Catholic, believer and ag
nostic, have united to praise it,
ONLY he who has tried the doubl
! " life of the scholar and the execu
tive can know the compromises, tn
disappoinments, the adventure of it all
1t is a time -honored practice here i
America for us to train a man to som
; highly specialized piece of work an
then incontinently put him to doin
something else. But it is an abidin
proof of the value of scholarship in
larger sense that men thus specificall
trained, like Provost Smith in chem
, istry and Doctor Pcnniman in English
are the stuff out OF which to make ex
{ cellent executives 1t was a loss
scholarship when Doctor Penniman be
came dean of the college, but it was
gain to the University. 1t was sti
. further loss to scholarship when Doc
, %, DnnniDnnD nulO rUnb his uSnfulnas