THE COLLEGE OF THE WEST. 31 



things as they are. The teacher himself is a part of that contact. He 

 has set the problems, arranged the experiments. The teacher of sci- 

 ence does not speak ex cathedra. He must come down from his chair. 

 He must be among the things of which he speaks and to the student he 

 must be part of them and the student knows him as he knows them — 

 from personal contact. The strength of the colleges of England has 

 lain not in the narrow courses of study, not in the exclusive pursuit of 

 Latin, Greek and mathematics, but in the spirit of good fellowship 

 which these institutions have fostered. The life of the student is a 

 man io man life. The element of personality has been used to the 

 utmost and with results which need not be disparaged even by those 

 most impressed with the narrowness of the training these colleges offer. 

 The aim of Oxford and Cambridge has been personal culture. The 

 classical tripos of Greek, Latin and mathematics has been only a means 

 to this end. Any other studies, Anglo-Saxon, botany and medieval 

 history, let us say, would do as well if equally removed from the cur- 

 rent of human activity and brought as close to living personality. 

 Mere training of the mind was no essential part of the process. To 

 withdraw for a space in the presence of good men and gracious 

 thoughts is an ideal cherished in English culture. ' Sometimes to bask 

 and ripen,' Lowell tells us, 'is, methinks, the students' wiser business.' 

 For the maturing scholar this may be true, but as a practical matter 

 it is surely a universal experience that to the college student 'to bask 

 and ripen' means a period of plain idleness, and idleness soon turns 

 to dissipation and vice. It is better for the student that demands on 

 him be somewhat strenuous. His life is made more effective if he has 

 once learned the value of time and the necessity of doing things when 

 they should be done. A man who has not learned the worth of time 

 before he is twenty-one, seldom accomplishes much afterward. As the 

 university ideal of England is one of personal culture, that of Germany 

 is one of personal knowledge. In the one case, thoroughness is the 

 essential; in the other, personality. An educated German may lack 

 culture — of this there are many conspicuous examples, just as in Eng- 

 land a cultured gentleman may lack exactness of knowledge on all 

 points. In America a new ideal is arising as a result of the creative 

 needs of our strenuous and complex times. We value education for 

 what can be made of it. Our idea is personal effectiveness. We care 

 less and less for surface culture, less and less for mere erudition. We 

 ask of each man not what he knows, but what can he do with his knowl- 

 edge. This ideal of education has its dangers. It may lead us to 

 sacrifice permanent values for temporary success. It may tend to tol- 

 erate boorishness and shallowness, if they present the appearance of 

 temporary achievement. Eternal vigilance is the price of scholarship 

 as well as of liberty and other good things. 



