EDUCATION FOR SCHOLARSHIP^ 
WILLIAM E. CASTLE 
James Bryce, that observing and benevolent and wise English- 
man, who spent so many years among us as his country’s repre- 
sentative at Washington, and who knows us Americans better 
than we know ourselves, — Bryce has said that the finest thing in 
American life is our universities. Here our youth turn aside 
from the work-a-day world in which they grow up, and to which 
they will presently return, and for a few years while the mind 
is vigorous and keen come in daily contact with the best products 
of man’s thinking in all the ages that have gone before. If with 
such contacts our young men and young women do not themselves 
learn to think correctly and act wisely, it will not be for lack of 
opportunity to learn but rather because of failure to appreciate 
properly and to seize effectively the opportunities offered. That 
our young people do, with few exceptions, value the opportuni- 
ties of college life highly is shown by the practical unanimity 
with which in later life they send their own children to college, 
and when the college needs money to carry on and enlarge its 
work, they give money freely in its support, more freely than 
for any other object you can mention. 
Why is it, do you suppose, that we value so highly our college 
days and wish our children to enjoy college days too? I can 
mention one reason; it is because in college days, we have oppor- 
tunity to think about and to discuss general questions, aside 
from their immediate application to our own personal interest. 
This makes for clear thinking and sound judgment. We do 
not allow a judge to sit on a case in which he is personally inter- 
ested. We think it is difficult for him to judge impartially under 
such circumstances. Similarly we want our young people to be 
1 An address delivered at the Ninetieth Annual Commencement Exercises of 
Denison University, June 15, 1921. 
225 
