1857.] Convention of Ohio College Officers 315 



And what is the true relation which the protecting student holds 

 to the protected offender ? Is it that of a real friend, or that of 

 the worst enemy ? An offender, tempted onward by the hope of 

 impunity, is almost certain to repeat his offense. If repeated, it 

 becomes habitual, and will be repeated not only with aggravation in 

 character, but with rapidity of iteration ; unless, indeed, it be aban- 

 doned for other offenses of a higher type. A college life filled with 

 the meannesses of clandestine arts ; first spotted, and then made 

 black all over with omissions and commissions; spent in shameful 

 escapes from duty, and in enterprises of positive wrong still more 

 shameful, is not likely to culminate in a replenished, dignified, 

 and honorable manhood. Look for such wayward students after 

 twenty years, and you would not eo to the high places of society 

 to find them, but to the gaming-houses, or prison, or some place 

 of infamous resort; or, if reformation has intervened, and an 

 honorable life falsifies the auguries of a dishonorable youth, no- 

 where will you hear the voice of repentance and sorrow more sad, 

 or more sincere, than from the lips of the moral wanderer himself. 

 Now, let us ask, what, kind of a friend is he to another, who, when 

 he sees him just entering on the high road to destruction, instead 

 of summoning natural or official guardians to save him, refuses to 

 give the alarm, and thus clears away all the obstacles, and supplies 

 all the facilities, for his speedy passage to ruin ! 



If one student sees another just stepping into deceitful waters, 

 where he will probably be drowned ; or, proceeding along a pathway, 

 which, has a pit-fall in its track, or a precipice at its end, is it not 

 the impulse of friendship to shout his danger in his ear ? Or, if I 

 am nearer than he, or can for any reason more probably rescue 

 the imperiled from his danger, ought he not to shout to me? But 

 a student just entering the outer verge of the whirlpool of tempta- 

 tion, whose narrowing circle and accelerating current will soon en- 

 gulf him in the vortex of sin, is in direr peril than any danger of 

 drowning, of pit- fall, or of precipice ; because the spiritual life is 

 more precious than the bodily. It is a small thing to die, but a 

 great one to be depraved. If a student will allow me to eo-operate 

 with him, to save a fellow-student from death, why not from calam- 

 ities which are worse than death ? He who saves one's character is 

 a greater benefactor than he who saves his life. Who, then, is the 

 true friend ; he who supplies the immunity which a bad student c?e- 

 sires^ or the saving warning, or coercion, which he needs? 



