IDENTITY OF PARENT AND OFFSPRING. 201 



would have been mere unwatered places for the 

 Devil." (Magnolia, vol. ii. p. 1.) The spirit which 

 founded New-England colleges is needed to-day to 

 bring them up abreast of the fearful non-academic 

 competition which is bursting out all over the globe. 

 Even German philosophy is divided now into two 

 streams, academic and non-academic. The profes- 

 sors must meet more and more the rivalry of men 

 who have never been through college. The truth is, 

 that, in America, liberally educated men are subject 

 to such a non-academic rivalry that we need to say 

 every now and then, very sympathetically, that a 

 man is a man even if he has been through college. 

 The difference between a fool who has been through 

 college, and a fool who has not, is that the former 

 usually knows that he is a fool, and the other does 

 not. There is in this country no law for learning, 

 except that it shall shine, and give itself position, 

 whether it has a candlestick to stand in or not. 

 President Woolsey says, " We have candles, and no 

 candlesticks." There is great need here of inspirit- 

 ing college life by the influences of home life and 

 of non-academic competition, and by emphasizing the 

 difference between first-class and second-class work. 



We might do well to cultivate that rare kind of 

 reverence which attaches to university learning in 

 Germany. I rode once into the city of Jena, and 

 was amazed to find under many windows little fix- 

 tures looking much like our lawyers' signs outside 

 their offices, and bearing the names of students who 

 once roomed in the apartments thus marked. Com- 



