534 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 588, 



men of the age. Bismarck was a narrow 

 person, a Pomeranian squire; Tennyson 

 was a devoted man, a Victorian Briton; 

 Lincoln was a Kentucky frontiersman, and 

 Gladstone a devout Scotch boy with a pas- 

 sion, not for the British empire, but for 

 Britain within the four seas. Moreover, 

 one and all, they changed but little, keep- 

 ing their character and standpoint to the 

 end. It was by the leverage of their in- 

 tense personality that they moved the 

 world of- the nineteenth century. But 

 from the impregnable fortress of their 

 convictions their outlook was sympathetic, 

 and such prejudice as they began with 

 gradually yielded to the catholic temper 

 which made them world-heroes. Religious 

 tolerance is an anachronism in the noon- 

 time of complete religious liberty. Is this 

 equally true of race and social tolerance in 

 a world of full civil and political liberty? 

 Alas, no. Close association with Ameri- 

 cans of the old stock, with those of the 

 newer stock and with the latest throng of 

 eastern immigrants— either personal ex- 

 perience or the best evidence proves the 

 existence of a sorry bigotry and fanaticism. 

 In this, Columbia has had and can have no 

 share. An examination of our statistics 

 shows how accurately our students and 

 graduates are proportioned among the race 

 and denominational elements of the great 

 town and greater country. Let it be our 

 purpose to banish prejudice and so to reap 

 from the ripe harvest field at our door, for 

 the benefit of the whole community, the 

 fruits of the known world; from the 

 Orient, ever old and ever new, its repose, 

 its simplicity, its sense of unity, its im- 

 perious permanence; from medievalism its 

 chivalry, its order, its trusting faith and its 

 imperial sway; from modern Protestant- 

 ism its free spirit and critical temper, its 

 political and legal instinct, its powers of 

 administration and disciplinary self-re- 

 straint. With such an ideal, we may be 



true to ourselves, keep academic peace with 

 honor, command a catholic support and 

 press onward to the goal of complete effi- 

 ciency. 



It might seem as if firmness and toler- 

 ance were incompatible virtues; to the 

 stern logician they are, but in the moral 

 order they are not. There is a sister grace 

 which, though a third and separate one, 

 enfolds and harmonizes the other two: 

 the grace of moderation, temperance, 

 patience. As the pure reason and the 

 judgment, though equally potent and 

 almost antipodal in their workings, are 

 united in the mind by a faculty higher 

 than both, viz., the practical reason, just 

 so the moi'al force of temperance combines 

 constancy and meekness into the very 

 foundation of society. Not far from here 

 is the home of reckless avarice, of self-in- 

 dulgent greed. As long as the millions toil 

 and save, the enoi-mous aggregate of their 

 economies will tempt the adventurous and 

 the unscrupulous. Just so long must mod- 

 eration be preached and practised by all 

 who claim that mere mass and numbers 

 count nothing beside eontentment-and the 

 resources of a trained mind; the mind 

 which, in Macaulay's definition of educa- 

 tion, has acquired self-knowledge, accuracy 

 and habits of strong intellectual exertion. 

 Think of the door wide open before men so 

 equipped! Of the grain nodding and 

 drooping for the sickle ! In one pivotal, 

 fundamental point every human being of 

 our island-city becomes an American, 

 almost in the twinkling of an eye. Ration- 

 ally or instinctively, every soul is aware 

 that his civil and political rights in this 

 commonweath are inherent in his own man- 

 hood, not a matter of inheritance or of 

 privilege either bought or granted from 

 above. They are not the gift of ancestry 

 or the grant of organized society, but the 

 term and mode of life itself. 



Equality? no, except in opportunity; 



