48 On the Campus 



It may be noted in passing, that if the boy comes out 

 with a definite career before him, no one then seems in- 

 clined to question the value of his training. If he turn 

 out a lawyer, a minister, a scholar, a teacher, or if he 

 apply his knowledge in some evident, visible way, as an 

 engineer, or a contractor, or an inventor, or musician, 

 and especially if he greatly win, if he " makes good, ' ' as 

 men say then the work of the college is of value ; wis- 

 dom is justified of her children. 



But I have been pleading for something else, for pure 

 science, for the spirit of learning, for the very beauty of 

 labor, for a resultant attitude of mind, for character; 

 and I must now defend the thesis, that this viewless 

 thing, this mere way of looking at things, is yet of value 

 to the state. 



The happiness of what we call the state, its good for- 

 tune, is nothing else than the happiness of its individual 

 citizens. If every citizen, if all citizens are happy and 

 fortunate, then the state is successful, realizes, in so far, 

 its purpose. If culture, then, does no more than con- 

 tribute to the happiness of its fortunate possessors, it is 

 justified and so far contributes to the general good. That 

 cultured men are happier men than they would other- 

 wise be, goes without saying. There are no pleasures 

 like intellectual pleasures; there is no joy like the joy 

 of knowing ; and the number of citizens realizing this in 

 personal experience should be as great as possible. 



But it is urged that men from cultural colleges, even 

 if happier, are useless; they are dreamers; given to in- 

 tellectual concerns; they are incapable of dealing with 

 practical affairs. Let us omit the dreams, for a little, 

 and get this objection out of our way. 



