Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-15

When William Cullen Bryant Kemp
died recently at the age of rs, after
having spent almost lifetime at Co.
lumbia University,in the course of which
he accumulated a formidable string of
degrees, the public wondered how much
his more or less complete academic ed
ucation had contributed to the world
One critical estimate describes him as
an education miser Another finds in
his career a demonstration of the i'm
possibility of obtaining complete edu-
cation.
In terms of real life, the Cincinnati
Times-Star suggests the sensation of
balancing up and down on a diving
board and not taking the plunge into
the pool below. " If We were mind
ed to point a moral" says the Times
Star, 1--WE would say that this man
missed altogether the meaning of an
education, and that his failure even to
matriculate in the university of hard
knocks was a cardinal one. Yet there
are gains possible to the purely contem-
plat1ve life and the position of an on
locker has its values We trust that
among the effects of William Cullen
Bryant Kemp may b. found theses that
add to the sum of human knowledge.
or at least a journal in which are mi
nutely recounted the sensations of a
man who kept balancing on the spring.
board and never took a header into the
deep current of life. Amiel left such
journal in which he declared, I have
become statue on the banks of the
river of time. The journal has become
his great, his posthumous victory"
X X
"Many a college boy" remarks the
Springfield ull) State Register, looks
forward to commencement with
all the joy that accompanies achieve
ment, but deeply regrets having to
leave the old school and the friends
and the associates of the bright coll
lege years He may feel that he could
go on forever in that atmosphere, but
that idea is quickly swallowed I'D in
the actualities of life, and more and
more he realizes the workings of Ma
lures law of continuous change. And
If he has gained the true insight into
knowledge and the fullness thereof. he
realizes also that all that he has learn
ed is really but a preliminary in the
endless process Of learning. The years
stretch before him, rich in promise If
he will further broaden his horizon by
reading and studying as he goes along"
I'VE may credit Mr.. Kemp with real
hunger for knowledge" the Boston
Transcript observes 1.-The question
then arises. What did he do with it?
1t does not appear that he was the au-
thor OF any great scientific work Add
ing always to his own store of knowl-
edge, he took no interest in adding to
others wisdom. Penetrating the secrets
OF medicine and mathematics, he solved
LEA
behind him no record of discovery or
invention. In the domain of learning
he was a miser." The Fargo Forum
holds that his life accomplishments
can be set down as 10 degrees and an
additional degree of doctor Of perpetual
notion given him by the long list OF
students which matriculated and grad
uated through the years he kept on
going to school"
Cali such waste of opportunity, OF
time and of money Is probably in
evitable in an age of luxury such as
the present." concludes the Bay City
Daily Times. But it bshooveS us to be
on our guard against useless and utterly
inane diversions. For pleasure can be
made unreasonable in value If one will
read and play with purpose"
Recognizing the contributions OF such
minds as those Of Erasmus, Spinoza,
Kant and Einstein, the Atlanta journal
feels that thinkers like these are in
trinsically strenuous and for all the out
ward calm of their careers are makers
Of history" The Journal also declares
that 'the scholars life, though housed
in a monastic nook, may be rich in
heroism and far-reaching In power"