Colleges and Public Life 71 



tical in politics as they would be in business or in law. 

 It is surely unnecessary to say that by "practical" I 

 do not mean anything that savors in the least of dis- 

 honesty. On the contrary, a college man is pe- 

 culiarly bound to keep a high ideal and to be true 

 to it; but he must work in practical ways to try to 

 realize this ideal, and must not refuse to do any- 

 thing because he can not get everything. One espe- 

 cially necessary thing is to know the facts by actual 

 experience, and not to take refuge in mere theoriz- 

 ing. There are always a number of -excellent and 

 well-meaning men whom we grow to regard with 

 amused impatience because they waste all their en- 

 ergies on some visionary scheme which, even if it 

 were not visionary, would be useless. When they 

 come to deal with political questions, these men are 

 apt to err from sheer lack of familiarity with the 

 workings of our government. No man ever really 

 learned from books how to manage a governmental 

 system. Books are admirable adjuncts, and the 

 statesman who has carefully studied them is far 

 more apt to do good work than if he had not; but 

 if he has never done anything but study books he 

 will not be a statesman at all. Thus, every young 

 politician should of course read the "Federalist." 

 It is the greatest book of the kind that has ever been 

 written. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay would have 

 been poorly equipped for writing it if they had not 

 possessed an extensive acquaintance with literature, 

 and in particular if they had not been careful stu- 

 dents of political literature; but the great cause of 



