Colleges and Public Life 65 



to succeed. Nevertheless, the man of business and 

 the man of science, the doctor of divinity and the 

 doctor of law, the architect, the engineer, and the 

 writer, all alike owe a positive duty to the com- 

 munity, the neglect of which they can not excuse 

 on any plea of their private affairs. They are 

 bound to follow understandingly the course of 

 public events; they are bound to try to estimate 

 and form judgment upon public men; and they are 

 bound to act intelligently and effectively in support 

 of the principles which they deem to be right and 

 for the best interests of the country. 



The most important thing for this class of edu- 

 cated men to realize is that they do not really form 

 a class at all. I have used the word in default of 

 another, but I have merely used it roughly to 

 group together people who have had unusual op- 

 portunities of a certain kind. A large number of 

 the people to whom these opportunities are offered 

 fail to take advantage of them, and a very much 

 larger number of those to whom they have not 

 been offered succeed none the less in making them 

 for themselves. An educated man must not go into 

 politics as such ; he must go in simply as an Ameri- 

 can; and when he is once in, he will speedily real- 

 ize that he must work very hard indeed, or he 

 will be upset by some other American, with no 

 education at all, but with much natural capacity. 

 His education ought to make him feel particularly 

 ashamed of himself if he acts meanly or dishonor- 

 ably, or in any way falls short of the ideal of good 



