IV 



THE COLLEGE GRADUATE AND PUBLIC 

 LIFE* 



HPHERE are always, in our national life, certain 

 1 tendencies that give us ground for alarm, 

 and certain others that give us ground for hope. 

 Among; the latter we must put the fact that there 

 has undoubtedly been a growing feeling among 

 educated men that they are in honor bound to do 

 their full share of the work of American public life. 

 We have in this country an equality of rights. 

 It is the plain duty of every man to see that his 

 rights are respected. That weak good-nature which 

 acquiesces in wrongdoing, whether from laziness, 

 timidity, or indifference, is a very unwholesome 

 quality. It should be second nature with every 

 man to insist that he be given full justice. But if 

 there is an equality of rights, there is an inequality 

 of duties. It is proper to demand more from the 

 man with exceptional advantages than from the 

 man without them. A heavy moral obligation 

 rests upon the man of means and upon the man 

 of education to do their full duty by their country. 

 On no class does this obligation rest more heavily 

 than upon the men with a collegiate education, the 



* "Atlantic Monthly, August, 1894. 



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