Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-20
CIVILIZATION is BASED -.
ON FIVE INSTITUTIONS
Family, Property, State, Church and
University Held Foundation by
Columbia Head.

nolo ) ulGrOouCGlOn 10 MS ESSAYS Ia
Criticism" where he describes in i'm.
mortal phrase his oxford, spreading
her gardens to the moonlight and whis-.
Eering from her towers the last en-
chantments of the Middle Age. -
home of lost causes and forsaken be-
liefs and unpopular names and impoSsi-
BILE loyalties.'
One night many years ago stood On
the balcony of my chambers in Wor-
cester College and looked out upon the
garden that stretched under the light
of the full moon. and heard the clock
in the tower strike midnight. could
not refrain from whispering to myself
with really deep feeling those sentences
of Matthew Arnold and rejoicing that
I had some conception. some expert
ence, of what it all meant.
This new country of ours is new only
on the map. 1t is as old as the Oldest,
as it is the inheritor. the direct inheri-
tor, of all the accomplishments of the
past and Of this great and determining
tradition.
Two Types of Settlers.
When this Atlantic Coast of ours was
settled there came here two types of
men. The one type, coming into what
Is now New England and into what Is
now Virginia, brought with them the
appreciation of learning and formal
education as then existed in Great
Britain. In consequence Massachusetts,
Bay and Virginia gave rise almost inn
mediately to Harvard College and to
William and Mary.
These middle colonies, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, settled it
tie later, were colonized primarily by
men engaged in commerce, men in trade
for Fur, men who were looking, as men
still look as they go about the world If
Asia and Africa and Latin America, for
new forms Of natural resource and
wealth. The consequence was that in
these middle colonies 1t was some time
before there was anything correspond
ing to Harvard College and, later, Yale
College, on the one hand. and William
and Mary on the other. Finally, about
the middle of the eighteenth century,
these colonies seemed to have been
seized at one and the same time by the
ambition to found seats of learning
In consequence. Benjamin Frankli1's
College of Philadelphia, now the Uni
versity Of Pennsylvania: the college Of
New Jersey, now Princeton University,
and Kings College, in the Province Of
New York, now Columbia University,
came quickly into existence within ten
or dozen years Of each other.
There is a curious fact about this
Kings College in the Province Of New
York. It's charter was granted only
after long. eager and sometimes acri-
monious debate as to what should be
its theological relationships. They
quarreled violently about what should
be the religious atmosphere of this in
stitution. Finally there was written
into the charter. one of the earliest, II
not the earliest, provisions that there
should be no discrimination by this
institution, In its rights, privileges,
immunities and honors, on account Of
the religious belief Of any one. That
Is not altogether easy to accomplish in
any part of the world even in 1929, hut
in 1854 it seemed like prophecy of
far-of ideal.
Three Men Stand Out.
Among the colonists there were only
three men, as read our eighteenth CEN
tury history (apart from those great
captains of the nations political
thought whose names occur to all Of
u.s. of outstanding intellectual, impor.
tance who were devoted in one form or
another to the intellectual life. These
three were Benjamin Franklin, Jona-
than Edwards and Samuel johnson.
Benjamin Franklin'S career is presum-
ably well known to every one. iona.
than Edwards was an immense theo-
logical and ecclesiastical power, and
any who in this day and generation
are curious to know what Is meant by
the word "hel1'' should read his sermon
on Sinners In the Hands of An Angry
God"
The third was Samuel johnson. He
was born in Connecticut, educated at
Yale College and separated from that
admirable institution because he Joined
the Episcopal Church. Then ne went
to England, making friends, being hon.
ored by the University of oxford, and
came back to his little church at STRAIT
ford, in whose churchyard he Is buried.
When the time came for these colleges
of the Middle States to be founded he
was urged by his friend BENJAMIN
Franklin to accept the presidency of
the College of Philadelphia and he vas
urged by his friends in New York to
accept the presidency of Kings College.
Rumor has it that DR.. johnson chose
to accept the presidency Of Kings Col
lege on the very convincing ground that
New York was not so distant from
Stratford as was Philadelphia.
"A catholic mind hungry for ideas"
That Is the true type Of university
product. a catholic mind, open, liberal,
broad, hungry for ideas, never willing
to rest content with what we have so
long as that boundary exists between
us and something that is unknown.
knowledge RevoIutionized.
Can you imagine how our knowledge
of the physical world has been revolu-
ticnized since the charter of Kings COL
lege was adopted? What do you sup.
pose Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan
Edwards and Samuel johnson would
have thought If Prof. Pupin. for exam
pie, in the presence of any Of them had
struck his hand upon his desk and said,
That is the product of an infinite
number Of centers Of force moving with
infinite rapidity, so numerous that you
can neither imagine nor count them.
You in your simplicity think it Is Q
hard, resisting, single and ultimate sub
stance?
In those days they were having trou-
bic enough with the elements of astron-
omy, and Jonathan Edwards notions
did not make him very open-minded
when he came to discuss the future of
sinners in the hands of an angry God
If they took much interest in the scien- i
tific inquiries which were disturbing
men. Chemistry was just beginning.
The science of economics, as we know
1t, Is the result of the activity of the
writings OF Adam Smith and Turgot,
both of whom published their books in
the year Of our Nations independence.
You and I are living in an old tradi-
ton, but IN a new world q revolution
lied world. and one that moves on as
We talk about it. There Is no such >"
moment as now. It is already past. =;
Now is an imaginary line between the
past and the future. The business, the
of the university tradition
is building upon, interpreting, knowing
the past and plunging out into that
future, trying to be ready to under
- a. w~k@ - -. -
r