o 



12 Convention of Ohio College Officers. [July, 



character instead of surpassing his scholarship ; or, when any mere 

 tattling is done for any mean purpose whatever ; — in all such cases, 

 every one must acknowledge that the conduct is reprehensible and 

 the motive dishonoring. No student can gain any advantage with 

 any honorable teacher by such a course. The existence of any such 

 case supplies an occasion for admonition, which no faithful teacher 

 will fail to improve. Here, as in all other cases, we stand upon the 

 axiomatic truth, that the moral quality of an action is determined 

 by the motive that prompts it. 



But suppose, on the other hand, that the opportunities of the 

 diligent for study are destroyed by the disorderly, or that public or 

 private property is wantonly sacrificed or destroyed by the mali- 

 ciously mischievous ; suppose that indignities and insults are heaped 

 upon officers, upon fellow-students, or upon neighboring citizens; 

 suppose the laws of the land or the higher law of God is broken ; — 

 in these cases, and in cases kindred to these, mav a dilicrent and ex- 

 emplary student, after finding that he can not arrest the delinquent 

 by his own friendly counsel or remonstrance, go to the Faculty, 

 give them information respecting the case, and cause the offender to 

 be brought to an account; or, if called before the Faculty as a wit- 

 ness, maybe testify fully and frankly to all he knows? Or, in other 

 words, when a young man, sent to college for the highest of all 

 earthly purposes — that of preparing himself for usefulness and 

 honor — is wasting time, health and character, in wanton mischief, 

 in dissipation or in profligacy, is it dishonorable in a fellow-student 

 to give information to the proper authorities, and thus set a new in- 

 strumentality in motion, with a fair chance of redeeming the offend- 

 er from ruin ? This is the question. Let us examine it. 



As set forth in the Resolutions, a college is a community. Like 

 other communities, it has its objects, which are among the noblest; 

 it has its laws indispensable for accomplishing those objects, and 

 these laws as usually framed, are salutary and impartial. The laws 

 are for the benefit of the community to be governed by them ; 

 and without the laws and without a general observance of them, 

 this community, like any other, would accomplish its ends imper- 

 fectly — perhaps come to ruin. 



Now, in any civil community, what class of persons is it which 

 arrays itself in opposition to wise and salutary laws? Of course, it 

 never is the honest, the virtuous, the exemplary. They regard 

 good laws as friends and protectors. But horse-thieves, countefeit- 



