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diff --git a/32803.txt b/32803.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff5a52b --- /dev/null +++ b/32803.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1416 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters from a Father to His Son Entering +College, by Charles Franklin Thwing + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Letters from a Father to His Son Entering College + +Author: Charles Franklin Thwing + +Release Date: June 13, 2010 [EBook #32803] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM A FATHER TO HIS SON *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + LETTERS FROM A FATHER TO HIS SON ENTERING COLLEGE + + BY + + CHARLES FRANKLIN THWING + President of Western Reserve University + + + New York + THE PLATT & PECK CO. + + + Copyright, 1912 + By THE PLATT & PECK CO. + + + + +PREFATORY NOTE. + + +Parts of the letters that make up this little book were read to my +own college boys at the opening of a college year. They represent +somewhat, but of course only a bit, of what I believe many a father +would like to say to his own son,--as I to mine,--when he is entering +the most important year of his college life--the Freshman. Those who +first heard them,--even though obliged to hear,--seemed to suffer them +gladly. They are, therefore, brought together, and sent out to fathers +and to sons, and with a peculiar feeling of sympathy for both the +parent and the boy at one of the crises of the life of each. + + C. F. T. + + Western Reserve University, + Cleveland. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + I Thought 9 + II The Essential Gentleman 22 + III Health as an Asset 25 + IV Appreciation 29 + V Scholarship 31 + VI The Intellectual Life 40 + VII The Use of Time 43 + VIII Culture 53 + IX College Morals 61 + X Weakness of Character 65 + XI The Genesis of Success 68 + XII Religion 91 + + + + +LETTERS FROM A FATHER TO HIS SON ENTERING COLLEGE + + +My Dear Boy:--I am glad you want to go to college. Possibly I might +send you even if you did not want to go, yet I doubt it. One may send +a boy through college and the boy is sent through. None of the college +is sent through him. But if you go, I am sure a good deal of the +college will somehow get lodged in you. + +You will find a thousand and one things in college which are worth +while. I wish you could have each of them, but you can not. You have +to use the elective system, even in the Freshman year. The trouble is +not that so few boys do not seem to know how to distinguish the good +from the bad, but that so many boys do not know the better from the +good and the best from the better. I have known thousands of college +boys, and they do not seem to distinguish, or, if they do, they do not +seem to be able to apply the gospel of difference. + +You won't think me imposing on you--will you?--if before entering +college I tell you of some things which seem to me to be most worthy +of your having and being on the day you get your A. B. + +The first thing I wish to say to you is that I want you to come out of +the college a thinker. But how to make yourself a thinker is both hard +to do and hard to tell. Yet, the one great way of making yourself a +thinker is to think. Thinking is a practical art. It cannot be taught. +It is learned by doing. Yet there are some subjects in the course +which seem to me to be better fitted than others to teach you this +art. I've been trying to find out what are some of the marks or +characteristics of these subjects. They are, I believe, subjects which +require concentration of thought; subjects which have clearness in +their elements, yet which are comprehensive, which are complex, +which are consecutive in their arrangements of parts, each part +being closely, rigorously related to every other, which represent +continuity, of which the different elements or parts may be prolonged +unto far reaching consequences. Concentration in the thinker, +clearness, comprehensiveness, complexedness, consecutiveness, +continuity--there are the six big C's, which are marks of the subjects +which tend to create the thinker. + +To attempt to apply each of these marks to many different subjects of +the curriculum represents a long and unduly stupefying labor. Apply +them for yourself. Different subjects have different worths for the +students, but there are certain recognized values attached to each +coin of the intellectual realm. + +Mathematics and pure physics eminently represent the larger part +of these six elements which I have named. Mathematics demands +concentration. Mathematics is, in a sense, the mind giving itself +to certain abstract truths. What is X^2 but a form of the mind? +Mathematics demands clearness of thinking and of statement. +Without clearness mathematics is naught. It also represents +comprehensiveness. The large field of its truth is pressed into +its greater relationships. Mathematical truth is complex. Part +is involved with part. It is consecutive. Part follows part in +necessary order. It is also continuous. It represents a graded +progress. + +It is, however, to be remembered that the reasoning of mathematics is +unlike most reasoning which we usually employ. Mathematical reasoning +is necessary. Most reasoning is not necessary. That two _plus_ two +equal four is a truth about which people do not differ usually. But +reasoning in economics, such as the protective tariff; reasoning in +philosophy, such as the presence or absence of innate ideas; reasoning +in history; is not absolute. I have even wondered how far Cambridge, +standing for mathematics and the physical sciences, has helped to make +men great. Oxford is said to be the mother of great movements, and it +is. Here the Wesleyan movement, and the Tractarian movement and the +Social movement, as seen in Toynbee Hall, had their origins. Cambridge +is called the mother of great men. Is there any relation of cause and +effect, at Cambridge, between its emphasis upon mathematics and the +sciences and the great men whom she has helped to make? + +Logic is the subject of a course which embodies the six marks I have +laid down. It demands these great elements in almost the same ways in +which mathematics demands them. Logic, in a sense, might be called +applied or incarnate mathematics. The man who wishes to be a thinker +should be and is the master of logic. + +Language, too, represents almost one half of the course of the modern +college, and it represented more than one half of the course of the +older college. What merits has the study of language for making the +thinker? The study of languages makes no special demand on the +quality of concentration, but the study does demand and creates +comprehensiveness and clearness. The study represents a complex +process and requires analysis. The time-spirit has worked and still +works in languages unto diverse and manifold forms. Languages are +developed with a singular union of orderliness and disorderliness. The +parts of a language are in some cases closely related. The Greek verb +is the most highly developed linguistic product. It is built up with +the delicacy and poise of a child's house of blocks, yet with the +orderliness of a Greek temple. Each letter represents a different +meaning. Augment, prefix, ending has its own significance. I asked a +former Chinese minister to this country what taught him to think. His +succinct answer was "Greek." + +In creating the thinker, the historical and social sciences have chief +value in their complex relationships. Select any period of history +pregnant with great results. For instance, select the efflorescence of +the Greek people after the Persian wars. What were the causes of this +vast advance? Take, for instance, the political and social condition +prevalent for thirty years in America before the Civil War. What were +the causes of this war? Or, take economic affairs--what are the +reasons for and against a protective tariff? What are the limitations +of such a tariff? Such conditions require comprehensive knowledge of +complex matters. From such mastery the thinker results,--the thinker +of consideration and considerateness. He can perceive a series of +facts and the relation of each to each. + +The law of values of these different subjects in making the thinker, +is that the subjects which demand hard thinking are most creative. +Easy subjects, or hard subjects easily worked out, have little place +in the making of a thinker. One must think hard to become a hard +thinker. Subjects and methods which are hard create the inevitable +result. + +Subjects which demand thinking only, however, sometimes are rather +barren in result. One likes a certain content or concreteness in the +thinking process. Abstract thinking sometimes seems like a balloon +which has no connection with the earth. If a balloon is to be guided, +it must be held down to _terra firma_. The ricksha men in Japan can +run better if the carriage has a load. The bullet must have weight to +go. A subject, therefore, which has content may quicken thinking and +stimulate thoughtfulness. + +The thinker is not made, however, only by the subjects he studies. In +this condition the teacher has his place, and especially the methods +of teaching and the inspiring qualities of teaching which he +represents, have value. The dead lift of the discipline of the mind is +liable to be a deadening process. Every subject needs a man to +vitalize it for the ordinary student. Every graduate recalls teachers +of such strength. He holds them in unfading gratitude and often in +deathless affection. + + + + +II + + +The second thing I want to say to you is that I want you to be a +gentleman. How absurd it is for me to write that to you. Of course, +you are, and, of course, you will be one. In the creation of the +gentleman as well as of the thinker, the personal equation counts. In +fact, it counts for more in the making of the gentleman. For in this +making truth is less important than the personality. In the gentleman +intellectual altruism and moral appreciativeness are large elements. +One has to see and to understand the personal condition with which he +deals. If he is dull, his conduct is as apt to give unhappiness as +pleasure. + +In order to open the eyes of the heart, in order to create an +intellectual conscientiousness, the study of great literatures must be +assigned a high place. Constant and complex needs to be such study. +Literature represents humanity. The humanities are humanity. +Literature is style and style is the man. The gentleman as a product +represents the homeopathic principle. The gentleman makes the +gentleman. Certain colleges are distinguished by the type of gentleman +which they create. It will usually be found, on observation or +analysis, that colleges which are distinguished for the gracious +conduct of their teachers toward their students are distinguished by +the gracious bearing of their graduates. + +As a gentleman you will be a friend and will have friends. In this +relation of friendship in its earlier stages there is no part of life +in which it is more important for you to exercise the virtue and grace +of reserve. Be in no haste to make friends. Friendships are growths, +not manufactures. These growths, too, are like the elm and the oak, +not like the willow. At this point lies all I want to say to you about +joining a fraternity. If the men you want to be your intimate friends +are members and ask you to join, accept. If the men you do not wish to +be your intimate friends wish you to go with them, decline. Do not +join for the sake of a blind pool membership. Such a membership is +really a sort of social insincerity, a lie. + + + + +III + + +In the assessment of academic values, give a high place to sound +health. The worth is so great that very slight may be the paragraph I +write you. In the "Egoist," George Meredith says, "Health, wealth and +beauty are three considerations to be sought for in a woman, who is to +become the wife of Sir Willoughby." Wealth and beauty are quite as +much out of ordinary results of the education of the American college +as health should be among those results. + +One may be sick, and through sickness become a saint; one may be sick +and through sickness become a sinner. But one cannot be sick and at +the same time be as good a worker as he would be if he were not sick. +Good workers the world needs, and, therefore, men of first-rate health +the world needs. If one is to be a great worker, one must have great +health. It is not for me to write as would a physician, but I may be +allowed to say that in caring for health, one should not become +self-conscious. Let me further suggest:-- + +First--That you sleep eight hours. + +Second--Exercise at least a half an hour each day in the gymnasium. + +Third--Eat much of simple food; but not too much! + +Fourth--Don't worry. + +Fifth--Play ball much (base, foot, basket); but not too much! + +In a word, be a good animal. + +One of my old teachers once said to me after I was engaged in my +work:-- + +"I am sorry to see you looking so well." + +"Why?" + +"Because every man has to break down three times in life. I broke down +three times; Professor Hitchcock broke down three times; every man +must break down three times, and the earlier the breaks come, the +better." + +There is no need of any man's breaking down, if he will observe with +fair respect the laws of sleep, exercise and food. + + + + +IV + + +I also desire that you should be a man of scholarly sympathy and +appreciation. I can hardly hope you will be a scholar. Yet you may. +The scholar seldom emerges. If one out of each thousand students, +entering the American college this year, should prove to be a scholar, +the proportion is as large as one can hope for. For up to one in a +thousand is as big a proportion as the world is prepared to accept. +Yet it is to be hoped that you and that most men should have +appreciation and sympathy with scholarship. You should know what +scholarship means: in work as toilsomeness, in method as wisdom, in +atmosphere as thoroughness and patience, in result as an addition to +the stock of human knowledge. If you be a laborer in one field, you +should not seek, and I know you will not seek, to discount the +existence of other fields, or despise the laborers in those fields. +If you become an engineer, you will not condemn the classicist as +useless. If you are a Grecian, you will not despise the mechanical +engineer as crass and coarse. + +One finds that the best men of any one field or calling are more +inclined to recognize the eminence of the claims of other fields or +callings. Smallness spells provincialism, and provincialism spells +smallness. I have heard one of the greatest teachers of chemistry say +that if he were to make a boy a professor of chemistry, he would, +among other things, first teach him Greek. + + + + +V + + +The first principle of college life is the principle of doing one's +duty. In your appreciation of scholarship, your first duty is to learn +your lessons. I have known many college men who learned their lessons, +who yet failed to get from the college all that they ought to get. But +I have never known a man who failed to get his lessons, whatever else +he may have got, to receive the full advantage of the course. The +curriculum of every good college is the resultant of scores or of +hundreds of years of reflection and of trial. It represents methods, +content, purposes, which many teachers through many experiments of +success and of failure have learned are the best forces for training +mind and for forming character. + +But for the student to receive worthy advantage from these forces he +is obliged to relate himself to them by hard intellectual attention +and application. Sir Leslie Stephen says that the Cambridge teachers +of his time were not given to enthusiasms, but preached common-sense, +and common-sense said: "Stick to your triposes, grind at your mill, +and don't set the universe in order till you have taken your +bachelor's degree." The duty of the American college student is no +less evident. He is to stick to his triposes. His triposes are his +lessons. Among the greatest of all teachers was Louis Agassiz. A story +has become classical as told by the distinguished naturalist, the late +Dr. Samuel H. Scudder, regarding the methods of the great teacher with +his students. + +In brief the story is that Mr. Scudder on going to Agassiz was told, +"'Take this fish and look at it. We call it a Haemulon. By and by I +will ask you what you have seen.' ... In ten minutes I had seen all +that could be seen in that fish.... Half an hour passed, an hour, +another hour; the fish began to look loathsome. I turned it over and +around; looked it in the face--ghastly!--from behind, beneath, above, +sideways, at three-quarters view--just as ghastly. I was in despair. +At an early hour I concluded that lunch was necessary; so, with +infinite relief, the fish was carefully replaced in the jar, and for +an hour I was free. + +"On my return I learned that Professor Agassiz had been at the Museum, +but had gone, and would not return for several hours.... Slowly I drew +forth that hideous fish, and, with a feeling of desperation, again +looked at it. I might not use a magnifying glass; instruments of all +kinds were interdicted. My two hands, my two eyes, and the fish; it +seemed a most limited field.... At last a happy thought struck me--I +would draw the fish; and now with surprise I began to discover new +features in the creature.... + +"He listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of +parts whose names were still unknown to me.... When I had finished he +waited, as if expecting more, and then, with an air of disappointment, +'You have not looked very carefully; why,' he continued most +earnestly, 'you haven't even seen one of the most conspicuous features +of the animal, which is as plainly before your eyes as the animal +itself. Look again! Look again!' and he left me to my misery. + +"I ventured to ask what I should do next. + +"'Oh, look at your fish,' he said, and left me again to my own +devices. In a little more than an hour he returned and heard my new +catalogue. + +"'That is good, that is good,' he repeated: 'but that is not all; go +on.' And so for three long days he placed that fish before my eyes, +forbidding me to look at anything else or use any artificial aid. +'Look, look, look,' was his repeated injunction." + +Doctor Scudder says that this was the best entomological lesson he +ever had, and a lesson of which the influence extended to the details +of every subsequent study. + +It is the duty of the college student to look at his fish, to thumb +his lexicon, to read his textbook, to study his notes, to think, and +think hard, upon the truth therein presented. Of all the students in +the world the Scotch represent this simple duty the best. The men at +Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews and Aberdeen toil mightily. + +The duty of learning one's lessons is, in these times, opposed by at +least two elements of college life. One is self-indulgence and the +other is athletics. Self-indulgence is a general cause and constant. +Athletics have in the last thirty years come to be a force more or +less dominant. Athletics represent a mighty force for collegiate and +human betterment. Football, which is _par excellence_ the college +game, is an admirable method of training the man physical, the man +intellectual and the man ethical. But football is not a college +purpose; it is a college means. It is a means for the promotion of +scholarship, for the formation of manhood. When football or other +forms of college sport are turned from being a method and a means into +being ends in themselves the misfortune is lamentable. + +At a recent Harvard commencement, Professor Shaler, than whom no man +in Harvard was more vitally in touch with all undergraduate interests, +spoke of the harm wrought upon many students through their absorption +in athletics. It cannot be denied for an instant that many men are +hurt by giving undue attention to sports. Of course many men are +benefited, and, are benefited vastly, by athletics, but men who are +harmed should at once be obliged to learn the lesson of learning their +lessons. That is the chief lesson which they ought to learn. + + + + +VI + + +In the appreciation of scholarship is found the strain of intellectual +humility. The scholar is more inclined to inquire than to affirm. He +is more ready to ask "What do you think?" than to say "I know." He is +remote from intellectual arrogance. Humility means greatness. +Cockiness is a token of narrowness. The Socratic spirit of modesty is +as true a manner of wisdom as it is an effective method of increasing +wisdom. The man who has an opinion on all things, has no right to an +opinion on any one. + +This intellectual sympathy and appreciation should take on esthetic +relations. You should be a lover of beauty as well as of wisdom. Good +books, good pictures, good music, good architecture, should be among +your avocations. Read a piece of good literature every day. See a good +picture or a good copy of one every day. Hear some good music every +day. The chapel service may give it to you. And see a piece of good +architecture every day. Some of the college buildings can give it. +Alas! many do not. Such visions and hearings will soak into your +manhood. + +All this is only saying lead the life intellectual. You should not +only be a thinker, you should be thoughtful. You should be a man of +large thoughtfulness. You should be prepared to interpret life and all +phenomena in terms of the intellect. Many of our countrymen are +intelligent. They know a great deal. They have gathered up information +about many things. This information is desultory, unrelated. Their +minds are a Brummagem drawer. Here, by the way, lies the worthlessness +of President Eliot's list of books to the untrained mind. To the +educated mind such books mean much; to the uneducated, little. Yet, as +a college man, you may know less than not a few uneducated people may +know. I don't care. The life intellectual is more and most important. + + + + +VII + + +I also want you to go from the college a good combination of a good +worker and a good loafer. To be able to loaf well is not a bad purpose +of an education. The loafing that carries along with itself the +freedom from selfishness, appreciation of others' conditions, and +gentlemanliness, is worth commending. Loafing that follows hard work +and prepares for hard work is one of the best equipments of a man. +Loafing that has no object, loafing as a vocation, is to be despised. +The late Professor Jebb wrote to his father once from Cambridge, +saying:-- + +"I _will_ read but not very hard; because I know better than you or +any one can tell me, how much reading is good for the development of +my own powers at the present time, and will conduce to my success next +year and afterwards; and I will _not_ identify myself with what are +called in Cambridge 'the reading set,' _i. e._, men who read twelve +hours a day and never do anything else; (1) because I should lose ten +per cent. of reputation (which at the university is no bubble but real +living useful capital); (2) because the reading set, with a few +exceptions, are utterly uncongenial to me. My set is a set that +_reads_, but does not only read; that accomplishes one great end of +university life by mixing in cheerful and intellectual society, and +learning the ways of the world which its members are so soon to enter; +and which, without the pedantry and cant of the 'reading man,' turns +out as good Christians, better scholars, better men of the world, and +better gentlemen, than those mere plodders with whom a man is +inevitably associated if he identifies himself with the reading set." + +I rather like the loafing which young Jebb indulged in, but I fear it +is a type of the life which some college men do not follow. They are +inclined to look upon the four college years as a respite between the +labor of the preparatory school and the labor of business, or rather +they may look upon the four college years as a life of professional +leisure. I am glad you cannot, even if you wished to, and I know you +do not wish to, think of college as either respite or leisure. Whether +the college is wise in allowing such loafing, it is not for me now to +say, but I can trust you to be the proper kind of loafer as well as of +worker. + +Indeed, I want you to have good habits of working. In such habits the +valuation of time is of special significance. For time is not an +agent. It does nothing. As a power, time is absolutely worthless. As a +condition, time is of infinite worth. Mark Pattison, the rector of +Lincoln College, said: "Time seems infinite to the freshman in his +first term." But let me add that to a senior in his last term time is +a swiftly moving opportunity. The need of time becomes more and more +urgent as the college years go. When Jowett was fifty-nine years old, +he wrote: "I cannot say _vixi_, for I feel as if I were only just +beginning and had not half completed what I had intended. If I live +twenty-five years more I will, _Dei gratia_, accomplish a great work +for Oxford and for philosophy in England. Activity, temperance, no +enmities, self-denial, saving eyes, never overwork." On his seventieth +birthday Jowett made out what he called his Scheme of Life. It was +this:-- + +EIGHT YEARS OF WORK. + + 1 Year--Politics, Republic, Dialogues of Plato. + 2 Years--Moral Philosophy. + 2 Years--Life of Christ. + 1 Year--Sermons. + 2 Years--Greek Philosophy; Thales to Socrates. + +I turn over the last pages of Jowett's "Life and Letters," and I +find a list of his works. Is there a moral philosophy in the list? +No. A life of Christ? No. A treatise on Greek philosophy? No. +But I do find a volume of college sermons, published since his +death, and also a new edition of his "Plato." One of the most +pathetic things in the volumes that cover his life is the constant +reference to _agenda_--things he was to do. But the _agenda_ rapidly +become _nugae_--impossibilities--and the reason was simply, as it +ever is, the lack of time. + +To save time, take time in large pieces. Do not cut time up into bits. +Adopt the principle of continuous work. The mind is like a locomotive. +It requires time for getting under headway. Under headway it makes its +own steam. Progress gives force as force makes progress. Do not slow +down as long as you run well and without undue waste. Take advantage +of momentum. Prolonged thinking leads to profound thinking. Steamers +which have the longest routes seek deepest waters. Let me also counsel +you to do what must be done sometime as soon as possible. Thus you +avoid worry. You save yourself needless trouble and waste. You also +have the satisfaction of having the thing done which is a very blessed +satisfaction. I would have you spring to your work in the mood and the +way in which J. C. Shairp, in his poem on the "Balliol Scholars," +spoke of Temple:-- + + "With strength for labor, 'as the strength of ten' + To ceaseless toil he girt him night and day: + A native King and ruler among men, + Ploughman or Premier, born to bear true sway: + Small or great duty never known to shirk, + He bounded joyously to sternest work-- + Lest buoyant others turn to sport and play." + +Therefore, do not be a slave. Go at your job with enthusiasm. To get +enthusiasm in work, work. Work creates enthusiasm for work in a +healthy mind. The dyer's hand is not subdued to its materials; it is +strengthened through materials for service. + + + + +VIII + + +You will soon learn, my son, that college men are, as a rule, sound in +body, sane in mind, in heart pure, in will vigorous, keen in +conscience, and filled with noble aspirations. Such men usually +interpret life, both academic and general, in sanity and in justice. + +Yet, despite these happy conditions, there does prevail a danger of +college men making certain misconceptions of college life. + +A misconception which is more or less common among students you will +soon have occasion to see relates to the failure to distinguish, on +the one side, knowledge from efficiency, and on the other, knowledge +from cultivation. In the former time, the worth of knowledge, as +knowledge, was emphasized in the college. The man who knew was +regarded as the great man. To make each student an encyclopedia of +information was a not uncommon aim. It is certainly well to know. +Scholarship is seldom in peril of receiving too high encomium. Yet, +knowledge is not power. Sometimes knowledge prevents the creation, or +retention, or use, of power. The intellect may be so clogged with +knowledge that the will becomes sluggish or irregular in its action. + +Knowledge, however, is always to be so gathered that it shall create +power and minister to efficiency. The accumulation of information is +to be made with such orderliness, accuracy, thoroughness and +comprehensiveness, that these qualities shall represent the chief and +lasting result of knowledge. Facts may be forgotten, but the +orderliness, accuracy, thoroughness and comprehensiveness in which +these facts have been gathered are more important than the facts +themselves, and these qualities should, and may, become a permanent +intellectual treasure. These qualities are elements of efficiency. +They are forces for making attainments, for securing results. The +student, however, while he is securing the facts which lead to these +qualities is in peril of forgetting the primary value of the qualities +themselves. + +On the other side, the student is also in peril of failing to +distinguish between knowledge as knowledge, and knowledge which leads +to personal cultivation. What is cultivation, and who is the +cultivated person? Some would say that the cultivated person is the +person of beautiful manners, of the best knowledge of life's best +things, who is at home in any society or association. Such a +definition is not to be spurned. For, is it not said that "Manners +make the man"? Manners make the man! That is, Do manners create the +man? that is, Do manners give reputation to the man? that is, Do +manners express the character of the man? Which of the three +interpretations is sound? Or does each interpretation intimate a side +of the polygon? + +I know of a man put in nomination for a place in an historic college. +The trustees were in doubt respecting his bearing in certain social +relations. As a test, I may say, he was asked to be a guest at an +afternoon tea. Rather silly way, in some respects, wasn't it? I doubt +if he to this day is aware of the trial to which he was subjected. The +way one accepts or declines a note of invitation, the way one uses his +voice, the way one enters or retires from a room may, or may not, be +little in itself, but the simple act is evidence of conditions. For is +not manner the comparative of man? I would not say it is the +superlative. + +Others would affirm that the cultivated person is the person who +appreciates the best which life offers. Appreciation is intellectual, +emotional, volitional. It is discrimination _plus_ sympathy. It +contains a dash of admiration. It recognizes and adopts the best in +every achievement, in the arts of literature, poetry, sculpture, +painting, architecture. The cultivated person seeks out the least +unworthy in the unworthy, and the most worthy in that which is at all +worthy. The person of cultivation knows, compares, relates, judges. He +has standards and he applies them to things, measures methods. He is +able to discriminate and to feel the difference between the Parthenon +and the Madeleine, between a poem of Tennyson and one of Longfellow. +His moral nature is fine, as his intellectual is honest. He is filled +with reverence for truth, duty, righteousness. He is humble, for he +knows how great is truth, how imperative, duty. He is modest, for he +respects others. He is patient with others and with himself, for he +knows how unattainable is the right. He can be silent when in doubt. +He can speak alone when truth is unpopular. He is willing to lose his +voice in the "choir invisible" when it chants either the Miserere or +the Gloria in Excelsis. He is a man of proportion, of reality, +sincerity, honesty, justice, temperance--intellectual and ethical. + +The college man is in peril of forgetting the worth of cultivation. +Knowledge should lead to cultivation, but, as in the case of securing +efficiency, the mind of the student may be so fixed upon processes as +to fail to recognize the importance of the result as manifest in the +cultivation of his whole being. + +In the case of both efficiency and cultivation, the student is to +remember there is no substitute. Intellectual power cannot be +counterfeited. Any attempt, also, to secure a sham cultivation is +foreordained to failure. + + + + +IX + + +The student is also too prone to distinguish between academic morals +and human morals. As a student, he may crib in examination without +compunction. As a student, he too often feels it is right to deceive +his teacher. Students who are gentlemen and who would as soon cut +their own throats as steal your purse, will yet steal your office sign +or the pole of your barber. In such college outlawry he loses no sense +of self-respect, and in no degree the respect of his fellow students. +Let us confess at once that in what may be called academic immorals +there is usually no sense of malice. This condition does create a +distinct difference between academic and human ethics. Let the +distinction be given full credit. Yet, be it at once and firmly said, +a lie is a lie, and thieving is thieving. The blameworthiness may +differ in different cases, but there is always blameworthiness. + +Be it also said the public does not usually recognize the distinction +which the student himself seeks to make. The public becomes justly +impatient with, and more or less indignant over, the horseplay, or +immoralities which students work outside, and sometimes inside, +college walls. The student is to remember that before he was a student +he was a man, that after he has ceased to be a student he is to be a +man, and while he is a student he is also to be a man, and also +before, after, and always he is to be a gentleman. Such irregular +conditions belong, of course, to youth as well as to the student. The +irreverence which characterizes all American life is prone to become +insolence, when, in the student, it is raised to the second or third +power. The able man and true--student or not a student--of course +presently adjusts himself to orderly conditions. The academic +experience proves to be a discipline, though sometimes not a happy +one, and the discipline helps towards the achievement of a large and +rich character. + + + + +X + + +Another misconception made by the student is also common. It is a +misconception attaching to any weakness of his character. The student +is inclined to believe that there may be weaknesses which are not +structural. He may think that there may be some weakness in one part +of his whole being which shall not affect his whole being. He may +believe that he can skimp his intellectual labor without making his +moral nature thin, or that he can break the laws of his moral nature +without breaking his intellectual integrity. He may think that he can +play fast and loose with his will without weakening his conscience or +without impairing the truthfulness of his intellectual processes. He +may imagine that he is composed of several distinct potencies and that +he can lessen the force of any one of them without depreciating the +value of the others. Lamentable mistake, and one often irretrievable. +For man is a unit. Weakness in one part becomes weakness in every +part. In the case of the body, the illness of one organ damages all +organs. If the intellect be dull, or narrow in its vision, or false in +its logic, the heart refuses to be quickened and the conscience is +disturbed. If the heart be frigid, the intellect, in turn, declines to +do its task with alertness or vigor. If conscience be outraged, the +intellect loses force and the heart becomes clothed with shame. Man is +one. Strength in one part is strength in, and for, every part, and +weakness in one part results in weakness in, and for, every part. + +For avoiding these three misconceptions, the simple will of the +college man is of primary worth. If he will to distinguish knowledge +from efficiency, and knowledge from cultivation, if he will to know +that the distinction between academic morals and human morals is not so +deep as some believe, and if he will to believe in the unity of +character, the student has the primary help for securing a sound idea +and a right practice. + + + + +XI + + +I write to you, my boy, out of the experience and observation of +thirty years in which I have followed as best I could the careers of +graduates of many of our colleges. The other afternoon I set down the +names of some of these graduates of the two colleges which I know +best. Among them were men who, fifteen or thirty years after their +graduation, are doing first-rate work. They are lawyers, editors, +physicians, judges, clergymen, teachers, merchants, manufacturers, +architects and writers. As I have looked at the list with a mind +somewhat inquisitive I have asked myself what are the qualities or +conditions which have contributed to the winning of the great results +which these men have won. + +The answers which I have given myself are manifold. For it is always +difficult in personal matters to differentiate and to determine +causes. In mechanical concerns it is not difficult. But in the +calculation of causes which constitute the value of a person as a +working force one often finds oneself baffled. The result frequently +seems either more or less than an equivalent of the co-operating +forces. The personal factor, the personal equation counts immensely. +These values we cannot measure in scales or figure out by the four +processes of arithmetic. + +Be it said that the causes of the success of these men do not lie in +their conditions. No happy combination of circumstances, no windfall +of chance, gave them what they have achieved. If those who graduated +in the eighth decade had graduated in the ninth, or if those who +graduated in the ninth had graduated in the earlier time, it probably +would have made no difference. Neither does the name, with possibly a +single exception, nor wealth prove to be a special aid. Nor have +friends boosted or pushed them. Friends may have opened doors for +them; but friends have not urged them either to see or to embrace +opportunities. + +These men seem to me to have for their primary and comprehensive +characteristic a large sanity. They have the broad vision and the long +look. They possess usually a kind of sobriety which may almost be +called Washingtonian. The insane man reasons correctly from false +premises. The fool has no premises from which to reason. These men are +neither insane nor foolish. They have suppositions, presuppositions, +which are true. They also follow logical principles which are sound. +They are in every way well-ordered. They keep their brains where their +brains ought to be--inside their skulls. They keep their hearts where +their hearts ought to be--inside their chests. They keep their +appetites where their appetites ought to be. Too many men keep their +brains inside their chests: the emotions absorb the intellect. Too +many men put their hearts inside their skull: the emotions are dried +up in the clear air of thought. Too many put both brains and heart +where the appetites are: both judgment and action are swallowed up in +the animal. + +But these men are whole, wholesome, healthy, healthful. They seem to +represent those qualities which, James Bryce says, Archbishop Tait +embodied: "He had not merely moderation, but what, though often +confounded with moderation, is something rarer and better, a steady +balance of mind. He was carried about by no winds of doctrine. He +seldom yielded to impulses, and was never so seduced by any one theory +as to lose sight of other views and conditions which had to be +regarded. He knew how to be dignified without assumption, firm without +vehemence, prudent without timidity, judicious without coldness." They +are remote from crankiness, eccentricity. They may or may not have +fads; but they are not faddists. Not one of them is a genius in either +the good or the evil side of conspicuous native power. They see and +weigh evidence. They are a happy union of wit and wisdom, of jest and +precept, of work and play, of companionship and solitude, of thinking +and resting, of receptivity and creativeness, of the ideal and the +practical, of individualism and of sympathy. They are living in the +day, but they are not living for the day. They embody the doctrine of +the golden mean. + +Each of these men has also in his career usually more than filled the +place he occupied. He has overflowed into the next higher place. The +overflow has raised him into the higher lock. The career has been an +ascending spiral. Each higher curve has sprung out of the preceding +and lower. From the attorneyship of the county to service as attorney +of the State, and to a place on the Supreme Bench of the United +States:--From a pastorate in a small Maine city to a pastorate +suburban, and from the pastorate suburban to a pastorate on Fifth +Avenue:--From a professorship in an humble place to a professorship in +largest relations:--From the building of cottages to the building of +great libraries and museums. This is the order of progression. I will +not say that any of these men did the best he could do at every step +of the way. Some did; some did not, probably. But what is to the +point, each did better than the place demanded. He more than earned +his wages, his salary, his pay. He had a surplus; he was a creditor. +His employers owed him more than they paid him. They found the best +way of paying him and keeping him was to advance him. + +Such is the natural evolution of skill and power. The only legitimate +method of advancement is to make advancement necessary, inevitable, by +the simple law of achievement. The simple law of achievement depends +upon the law of increasing force, which is the law that personal force +grows through the use of personal force. + +Hiram Stevens Maxim in the sketch of his life tells of his working in +Flynt's carriage factory at Abbot, Maine, when a boy of about fifteen. +From Flynt's at Abbot he went to Dexter, a large town, where he became +a foreman. He presently went to a threshing machine factory in +northern New York; thence to Fitchburg, Mass., where he obtained a +place in the engineering works of his uncle. In this factory he says +he could do more work than any other man save one. Thence he went to a +place in Boston; from Boston to New York, where he received high pay +as a draughtsman. While he was working in New York he conceived the +idea of making a gun which would load and fire itself by the energy +derived from the burning powder. From work in a little place in Maine, +Maxim, by doing each work the best possible, has made himself a larger +power. + +Furthermore, these men represent goodfellowship. They embody +friendliness. The late Robert Lowe (Viscount Sherbrooke) was at one +time esteemed to be the equal of John Bright and of Gladstone in +oratory, and their superior in intellect. He died in 1892 unknown and +unlamented. He failed by reason of a lack of friendliness. Lowe was +once an examiner at Oxford. Into an oral examination which he was +conducting a friend came and asked how he was getting on. +"Excellently," replied Lowe, "five men flunked already and the sixth +is shaky." Ability without goodfellowship is usually ineffective; good +ability _plus_ good fellowship makes for great results. + +In this atmosphere of friendliness, these men are practising the +Golden Rule. They are not advertising the fact. They do much in this +atmosphere of friendliness for large bodies of people. They follow the +sentiment which Pasteur expressed near the close of his great career: +"Say to yourselves first: 'What have I done for my instruction?' and, +as you gradually advance, 'What have I done for my country?' until the +time comes when you may have the immense happiness of thinking that +you have contributed in some way to the progress and to the good of +humanity. But whether our efforts are or are not favored by life, let +us be able to say when we come near the great goal: 'I have done what +I could.'" They have done much for the individual, for the local +neighborhood. They have given themselves in numberless services, +boards, committees, commissions--works which count much in time and +strength. These services constitute no small share of the worth of a +commonwealth, of a community. + +To one relation of these men I wish especially to refer. This is their +relation to wealth. Some of these men are business men. Wealth is one +of the normal results of business. Some of these men are professional +men. Wealth is not the normal result of professional service. But the +seeking of wealth has not in the life and endeavor of these men played +a conspicuous part. If wealth is the primary purpose, they keep the +purpose to themselves. They do not talk much about it. But most of +them do not hold wealth as a primary purpose. Rather their primary and +atmospheric aim is to serve the community through their business. The +same purpose moves them which also moves the lawyer, the minister, the +doctor. Life, not living, is their principle. + +To one further element I must refer. It comprehends, perhaps, much +that I have been trying to say to you, my son. These men kept, and are +keeping themselves to their work. They do not waste themselves. They +are economical of time and strength. The late Provost Pepper of the +University of Pennsylvania said (in a manuscript not formally +published): "Many can do with less than eight or even seven hours of +sleep while working hard, provided they recognize the increased risk; +that while running their engine they take more scrupulous care with +every part of the machinery. Machine must be perfect, fuel ditto; +everything must be sacrificed to the one point of keeping the +machinery running thus: Subjection of carnal, emotional excesses; +certainty that no weak spots exist; diet, especially too much eating, +too fast eating; stimulants, tobacco, open-air exercise; cool-headed, +almost callous, critical analysis of oneself, one's sensations and +effect of work on the system; clear knowledge of danger lines; result, +avoidance of transgressing, and immediate summons at right time." + +These men are men of self-restraint. They are like rivers having dams, +keeping their waters back in order that the water may be used more +effectively. They are free from entangling alliances. They are not men +of one thing; they are often men of two, three, a dozen things. But +one thing is primary, the others secondary. They may have avocations; +but they have only one vocation. "This one thing I do." I have already +quoted from Pasteur. Of him it is said by his biographer: "In the +evening, after dinner, he usually perambulated the hall and corridor +of his rooms at the Ecole Normale, cogitating over various details of +his work. At ten o'clock he went to bed, and at eight the next +morning, whether he had had a good night or a bad one, he resumed his +work in the laboratory." His wife wrote to their children: "Your +father is absorbed in his thoughts, talks little, sleeps little, rises +at dawn, and in one word, continues the life I began with him this day +thirty-five years ago." Learn from the Frenchman, my boy! + +Keeping themselves at their one work these men embody a sense of duty. +I find they have a conscience. Their conscience is not worn outside, +but inside, their bosom. They make no show of doing what they ought. +They simply do what they are called upon to do--and that is all there +is to it. It was said of a first scholar in an historic college that +he was never caught working. These same men may, or may not be caught +working, but they do work, and their work is a normal and moral part +of their being. + +But your face, my son, is rather toward your own future than toward +the past of other men. But your own future is as nothing save as it +touches other men. Therefore, do have an enthusiasm for man as man. +Enthusiasm for humanity has its basis in love for man as man, in a +belief in the indefinite progress of man and in a determination to +promote that progress. In a posthumous romance of Hawthorne the +heroine points out to her lover the service which they will give to +mankind in successive endless generations. In one age, poverty shall +be wiped out; in another, passion and hatred and jealousy shall cease; +in a third, beauty shall take the place of ugliness, happiness of +pain, and generosity of niggardliness. In reality, not in romance, +every student is to feel a passion for human service. These toiling +and tired brothers and sisters are to be loved, not with a mere +emotional affection, but with a mighty will. One is to adopt the +principle of Gladstone and not of the Marquis of Salisbury in relation +to humanity. + +The student also is to believe that the human brotherhood is capable +of indefinite progress. The law of evolution makes the belief in human +perfectibility easy; the principles of religion make the belief +glorious. Slow is the progress. One generation turns the jack-screw of +uplifting one thread; but it is a thread. Humanity does rise. Linked +with this love for man and the assurance of his progress the college +man is to determine himself to advance this progress. Whatever his +condition, whatever his ability, he is to do his part. As is said in +that noble epitaph to Wordsworth, placed in the little church at +Grasmere, each is to be "a minister of high and sacred truth." + +I want you to come out from the college with a determination to do +something worth while. It is rather singular how political ambitions +have ceased among graduates. Some say all ambition has ceased among +college men. I do not believe it. The softer times may not nurse the +sturdier virtues; but men are still men. The words which Stevenson +wanted put on his tombstone: "He clung to his paddle," and the words +of George Eliot: "Don't take opium," and the words of Carlyle: "Burn +your own smoke," are still characteristic of college men. Men are +still moved by the great things, and by such inspiration they are +inspired great things to do. + + + + +XII + + +I am not, I think, going too far if I refer to one very personal +matter, my son. I mean your relation to the Supreme Being. That Being +may be conceived under many forms, as Love, as Omnipotent Force, as +Omniscient Knowledge, as Perfect Beauty, as Absolute Right. The +college man interprets the Supreme Being under at least one of these +forms; and he may be able to interpret him under all of these forms. +To this Being he should relate himself. Let the college man learn, and +learn all; but he should not neglect to learn of the Divine Being. The +college man should love, and love every object as it is worthy of +loving; but he should not decline to love the Supreme Being. For He is +Supreme. + +The college man is to follow the wisest leadership, to obey the +highest principles, to give himself to the contemplation of the +sublimest; but his following, his obedience, his self-surrender are to +bring him to and keep him with the Being Supreme. Religion thus +broadly interpreted makes a keen and mighty appeal to the college man. +Let the college man be religious; let not the college man have a +religion. Let religion be a fundamental element of his character, and +not a quality of his changing self. His religion, like that of every +other man, should first be human, not scholastic; first essential and +natural, not arbitrary. + +Be religious. It sounds almost goodish, but I know you do not think it +such. Be religious. Relate yourself to something. Relate yourself to +some What. Or relate yourself to some Who: beyond whatever your eye +sees or your hand touches. I do not care how you put it. If I were a +Buddhist, I would say, worship Buddha. Be what the great image at +Kamakura represents. If I were a Mohammedan, I would say, follow the +teachings of the Koran, and pray. I am, and you are, a Christian. +Therefore I say: Love your God. Follow the example of the Christ. Be +one of that company who accept his guidance and are seeking to do his +will in the bettering of the world. + +Good-bye, dear boy, I have written too long, but it has done me good +to write. If it does you a quarter of the good to read, I shall be +grateful. + +Good-bye. + + YOUR FATHER. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters from a Father to His Son +Entering College, by Charles Franklin Thwing + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM A FATHER TO HIS SON *** + +***** This file should be named 32803.txt or 32803.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/0/32803/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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