Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1922-06-16

. 49, Oil uHuCl SIduullB vi LHc present
And the present is to be used not
again as an end in itself, as the mater
lallst would tell US, but to prepare for
a better future.
! But the animating principle is char
acter We shall not use the knowledge
OF the past Alright without it We shall
not use the knowledge of the present
Alright without it, To know the past
merely for its entertainment leaves US
amused, perhaps, but useless. To know
| the present and see no obligation in it,
makes us positively dangerous, able to
invent submarines and aeroplanes and
to use them only for the destruction Of
human life, the sinking of passenger
ships and the bombing of defenselesS
cities. The world today is suffering
acutely from the enlargement of its
powers, without the corresponding
growth of character. He who wields
great powers should have a great heart.
Otherwise it is like dynamite in the
hands Of a child, or the modern ma
chine gun in the hands Of a savage
The most important step in educa-
ton is not theoretical or practical
knowledge, but the training of the
mind to the right uses of these things
And this, man gets, not from his own
unaided innerself, but from communion
with the Highest.
We may in four years time help a
man to a better knowledge of the past
and 50 to a right conception of himself
in relation to that and to the present.
By music, by art, by literature, by ac-
quaintance with great principles and
their history, the cave man may be-
come the polished gentleman By ex-
pert knowledge of science in all its
branches, the polished gentleman may
make himself more comfortable in the
world, bridge the rivers, light his cities,
span continents, and level or tunnel the
with forces beyond himself he will re-
vert to the cave man. only a more
dreaded and awful cave man with his
superstititions and fears magni6ed, and
his lusts and cruelties more intense
Instead of killing at the distance OF
the hurled stone, he will kill his foes,
not one or two at a time, but by the
score, or the hundred, fifty or sixty
miles away unless with added skill ha,
come an enlarged sense of obligation,
not to his own clan or nation, but TO
mankind
This the religion of Jesus Christ
alone can do. And for that reason we
place this at the center of the educa-
tionll program. The Persian5 called it.
telling the truth We call it knowing
the truth and being set free thereby .
Education is emancipation But the
which alone counts is the
of self which comes
through the formation of Christian
character
Thus far we have spoken of educa-
ton as a whole While what has been
said has, we hope, a bearing upon this
College, it is not amiss to say some
hing concerning Middlebury College
tself which is, as we fondly think, in
some respects unique, with a distinct
mission to this corner of the world, and
many unusual qualifications for the
discharge of this mission
The institution, like the individual,
S also called upon at times to make a
iecision and, while a decision may be
made in the individual and Circum-
changing conditions may
equire a reCasting of plans. We he
ieve that such a time has come for
his College It has had a noble career.
t is to have, we foudly and rightly
lope an even nobler future as its ira
IitlOnS grow older and its numbers in
rease and its wealth becomes greater
But it must not drift Circumstances
must not be allowed to determine what
IS future is to be This must be de-
ermlned by itself 1t must set a goal
t it is to reach anything worth while
Md of late years the events we have
'een passing through have FASTENED
processes which were once slower We
re living at a more accelerated pace
ided thereto by the things We 50 Il:
akenly call time-saving inventions
But we are not concerned with edu-
alton as whole for the moment,
much as we are with this old and loved |
which lays such a strong
old on the affections of all its children
What is to be Middlebury's future
What, for a moment before we LOOK |
head, has been its past' Recently, |
4 second hand book store where |
HANGED to be, | found on the counter
copy of Timothy Dwight's Travels |
nd reread the account of that memoir
BILE trip when he visited Middlebury |
nd met, in a house within a stones
brow of where we are today, group |
ministers and famed into action |
heir thought concerning some sort of |
II institution of learning How the
,Ollege has grown since then, and what /
-rides have been taken! Are they to |
o on, and what is the future to be?
hat there is growing need for colleges |
evidenced by the ever increasing |
umbers that knock at their doors for
Omission
The growth of the College has indi-
ited another change. 1t is not per
APPS so much a change as an und0ing |
a change, made nearly forty years
go. In those days when students were H
w and the movement collegeward y
as slight, our fathers opened the
oorS to women. The first two genera
onS knew Middlebury only as a mems
Dllege. The last third OF its career
as seen il ShPltPrinp women This was