148 
BULLETIN OF DENISON UNIVERSITY. 
and those of Niebuhr, in their power over the student ! The secret of 
the charm which Neander and Tholuck threw over scholastic lore was 
found in their intense humanity. It was said of Robertson, the famous 
preacher of Brighton, that he could captivate the heart even when the 
reason was not convinced. Such is the power of the personal element. 
Nothing can take its place. Erudition, critical skill, abundant 
apparatus, will not compensate for the absence of this attribute. Those 
who studied Moral Science under Wayland, or Psychology under 
Hopkins, or Theology under Robinson, or Botany under Gray, will 
testify that they received as much from the man himself as from the 
subject matter that he taught. Who could resist the enthusiasm with 
which Agassiz would describe a fish, or forget the electric thrill which 
accompanied Mitchell’s lectures on Astronomy? 
As to whether this power is the result of cultivation or is to be 
regarded as an original endowment, observation seems to favor the 
latter view. S ome natures rue evidentially more highly charged with 
this magnetism than others. It is one of the qualities of genius. And 
yet individuality can be developed and emphasized by culture. What- 
ever broadens or deepens the nature, inspires it with unselfish devotion 
to the truth and fills it with genuine knowledge, is sure to result, also, 
in new powers of expression. What we truly love that we are at no 
loss to describe and recommend. 
It is true that strong personality sometimes takes the form of 
idiosyncrasies, mannerisms which culture corrects. A certain round- 
ing of angles and smoothing of the surface is always the result of 
training. But, on the other hand, genuine growth insists on self- 
assertion ; so that, if we become less unlike others, we are also more 
and more true to ourselves. There is an artificial education which 
robs character of all its originality and reduces personal traits to a 
uniform standard. Better the primitive wilderness of the forest than' 
such Dutch gardening. Dut there is no loss of individualism, rather 
a gain of self-reliance and expression, in that development which true 
cultivation effects. 
