128 THE COLLEGE 



college, it should be as large as is consistent with organic unity. If 

 some types of life and character, the rich or the poor, the independent 

 or the conservative, the high scholar or the good fellow, the athlete 

 or the man of artistic temperament, are left out, then it is too small. 

 If, on the other hand, a man can be a mere unit in a mass toward 

 which he feels little or no definite responsibility; if his specific contri- 

 bution is not needed and his individual opinion does not count ; if the 

 games are played, and the papers are edited, and the societies are 

 managed, and things generally are conducted by experts whom he 

 merely knows by sight and reputation; then that college is too large 

 for him; he will probably come out of it as small as he went in. 



For the most enjoyable and profitable social life the college com- 

 munity inevitably breaks up into little groups, fraternities, musical 

 associations, athletic teams, and clubs for scientific, literary, historical 

 and philosophical study. Extension and intensity are inversely 

 proportional; and a man who misses the closer contact and warmer 

 fellowship of these smaller groups misses much that is most valuable 

 in college life. Athletics are carried to excess, as is everything else 

 in which youth take a leading part. But the incidental excesses of 

 a few individuals are much more than counterbalanced by the in- 

 creased physical health, moral tone, and freedom from asceticism 

 and effeminacy in the college community as a whole. Cut off as 

 they are from the natural outdoor tasks and sports, from chores and 

 workshops, from hunting and fishing, from sailing and riding, some 

 artificial outlet for physical vigor is absolutely essential. Some 

 object for community enthusiasm, community loyalty, and com- 

 munity sacrifice is equally a moral and social necessity. The worst 

 evil of athletics is not the effort put forth by the athletes them- 

 selves, but the extent to which these interests absorb the time and 

 conversation, the thought and aspiration, of both combatants and 

 non-combatants. Even this evil, great as it is, is small in comparison 

 to the moral evils which would infest a group of vigorous young men 

 from whom some such outlet was withheld. 



The fraternities and societies likewise have slight possibilities of 

 evil, but accomplish an overwhelming preponderance of good. It 

 is through them, directly or indirectly, that the most effective per- 

 sonal and social influence can be brought to bear on those who need 

 it. Occasionally a fraternity drops to the level of making mere 

 good-fellowship an exclusive end, to which scholarship, morality, 

 efficiency, are merely incidental. A college is fortunate which at 

 any given time does not have one or two fraternities that are tending 

 in this direction. But the contempt of their rivals, the influence 

 of their graduates, the self-respect of the better members themselves, 

 together with direct or indirect faculty remonstrance, serve to bring 

 a fraternity to its senses in a quarter of the time it would take to 



