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LI] '• RA RY 01 I ill University of California. /sjv- Class \) "University of IDermont jfount>e& 1791 CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY i 804- i 904 GENERAL IRA ALLEN THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Zbe Centennial Hnniverear\> of tbe Graduation of tbe jFitst Class July Third to Seventh 1904 BURLINGTON VT. 1905 BURLINGTON FBEE PRESS PRINTING CO. 1905 CONTENTS Page Sketch of the Commemoration 1-13 Committee of the Faculty and Auxiliary Committees.. 2 Flag Staff Presented and Flag Raising 5 Class Day and Senior Promenade 5 The Tempest of Shakspere presented at Grassmount. . . 7 Honorary Degrees Conferred 8-11 President's Reception 12 Burlington Day and Cruise on Lake Champlain 12 Sunday, July the third Prayer before Sermon i 15 Baccalaureate Sermon, by the President 18 Address before the Young Men's Christian Association, by Rev. George B. Spalding, 1856 32 Cuesday, 3uly tbc Tiftb THE ALUMNI CONFERENCE ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY IN THE WORLD 53-163 1. The Advance in International Relations During the XIXth Century, by John Adam Kasson, 1842 55 2. The University as Preserver and Teacher of the Experience of Nations, by Charles A. Kent, 185fi , 68 3. The Relation of College Education to Business Pursuits,, by John Heman Converse, 1861 79 4. The Relation of the University to Practical So- ciology, by Davis Rich Dewey, 1879 95 5. Philosophy and American National Life, by John Dewey 1879 106 6. The Nature of a Liberal Education, by James Rignall Wheeler, 1880 114 7. Greek Papyri Recently Discovered in Egypt, by Kirby Flower Smith, 1884 124 8. Medicine as a Learned Profession, by John Henry Blodgett, 1895 . ., 145 9. The Influence of the University in the Field of Agriculture, by Vinton Albert Clark, 1898 156 THE ALUMNI BREAKFAST 165-208 Address of Welcome by President John H. Converse 167 Speech of Henry Wayland Hill, 1876 168 President Converse Presents President-elect Charles A. Catlin, 1873 178 Report of Centennial Fund Committee, by C. A. Cat- lin, Chairman 179 Speech of Edmund Cary Bass, 1859 184 Speech of Eugene Noble Foss, 1881 187 Speech of Robert Dewey Benedict, 1848 193 Resolutions of Educational Convention in Japan 195 Suggestions on Resolutions Offered, by Judge Mc- Laughlin 197 Resolutions in Response to Japanese Resolutions 198 Speech of Wilbur Olin Atwater, 1865 199 Speech of Charles Bentine McLaughlin, 1879 203 Speech of Daniel Leavens Cady, 1886 207 Address at Laying of the Corner-stone of the New Med ical Building, by Henry Crain Tinkham, 1883, Dean of Medical College 209 Olcdncsdavt 3uly the Sixth THE CENTENNIAL ORATION 217 A Retrospect 219 A Prospect 331 By Daniel Pearl Kingsley, 1881 OUR GUESTS: SPEECHES AT THE LUNCHEON 257-290 The President Introduces the Speaking after Luncheon 259 Governor McCullough's Speech , 261 Justice Brewer's Speech 266 President Angell's Speech 272 President Tucker's Speech 280 President Hopkins's Speech , 281 Vice-Principal Moyse's Speech 284 President Brainerd's Speech 289 The President Announces the Acquisition of an Athletic Field 290 Registration of Delegates and Invited Guests 295 Registration of Alumni 298 or THC ' DIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT SKETCH OF THE COMMEMORATION The University of Vermont began its centennial ob- servances at the commencement in 1891, the hundredth an- niversary of the granting of the Charter, at which time Hon. Robert D. Benedict of the class of 1848 presented in his University oration a comprehensive study of the events which preceded and followed the issuing of that document. And the University oration of 1892 by Professor J. E. Goodrich, 1853, discussed the character and public services of General Ira Allen, the principal Founder of the insti- tution. The Organization of the University as a teaching body dates from the fall of 1800, although the first year was necessarily devoted to preparatory studies. As both the founding and the organization of the institution had been allowed to pass unmarked by any spe- cial observance of the fiftieth year, it was obviously best to reckon from the Semi-Centennial of 1854, which had signalized, not the foundation of the college, but the first completion by a group of students of the prescribed col- legiate course. It will be noted, if comparison be made with other college celebrations, that the date selected loses four full years from the actual life of the University. Har- vard, for example, commemorates the year 1636, while its first degrees were not given till 1642. Relatively then to other American colleges, our semi-centennial observance would seem to have been from four to thirteen years be- lated. 2 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT At the beginning of the year 1903-1904 the President of the University designated a committee of the faculty to arrange for the celebration of the Hundredth Anniver- sary of the Graduation of the first class. This General Committee included the President, Professors J. E. Good- rich, S. F. Emerson, Frederick Tupper, Jr., J. W. Votey, George E. Howes (secretary), Lyman Allen, John B. Wheeler and Mr. H. H. Cloudman. The plan outlined after several conferences was approved by the Faculty De- cember 16, 1903, and the committee was empowered to carry it into effect. The distinctive feature in the scheme was the discussion on Tuesday of commencement week by graduates of this University of the theme, "The Influ- ence of the University in the World." The word university was meant to be taken in its most general sense, and the survey to include the higher education in its present wide and varied development. The following auxiliary committees also worked early and late and helped to make the Centennial Commencement the success it was : Committee on Entertainment: Charles E. Allen, 1859, Edmund C. Mower, 1892. Rev. George Y. Bliss, 1889, Frank R. Wells, 1893, Frank H. Crandall, 1886, Henry B. Shaw, 1896. Committee on Ceremonial: Professors Frederick Tup- per, Jr., George W. Benedict, James N. Jenne, Carleton B. Stetson, and Capt. Lawrence S. Miller. Citizens' Committee: Bradley B. Smalley, Daniel W. Robinson, Charles P. Smith, William J. Van Patten, Henry L. Ward, 1882. Press Committee: Walter B. Gates, 1881. Joseph Auld, Rev. Evan Thomas. SKETCH OF COMMEMORATION 3 The invitation sent to the institutions and individuals asked to participate was in the following form : MDCCCIV MDCCCCIV The President, Trustees and Faculties of THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT request the honor of the presence of at the exercises connected with THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION July third to seventh, nineteen hundred and four The favor of a reply is requested The graduates and friends of the University rallied in full ranks to attend the festival. Some of the older men felt a keen satisfaction in inspecting the new buildings and laboratories of the institution, while all were soberly jubilant over the gains of recent years, both in attend- ance and in appliances for instruction. A spirit of con- fidence and hope characterized all the gatherings of the week. The city of Burlington shared in the hospitality and the felicitations of the time, and by its committee and by the hearty co-operation of individual citizens did much to give effect to the plans of those who acted for the Uni- versity. The State and City governments were represented in the various public exercises,, and the distinguished guests who participated by special invitation added greatly to the enjoyment and the impressiveness of the com- memoration. The services of Sunday, July the third, were preluded by the Kingsley Prize Speaking at the College Street church at half past seven on Saturday evening. 4 university of vermont Baccalaureate Sunday At four o'clock on Sunday in the same church came the sermon to the graduating - classes of all the depart- ments by the President, the thirty-third in the series given by him. After the singing by the congregation led by a double quartette from the graduating class, of R. Bax- ter's stirring hymn, "Ye holy angels bright," Professor Goodrich read the Scripture lesson from the Epistle to the Hebrews and offered prayer. Mrs. George E. Howes sang Handel's air, "He shall feed his flock," after which President Buckham spoke from John ii. 25 on "The Ideal Life Real," with special application at the close of the discourse to the candidates for graduation. The services were brought to a close by the whole congregation join- ing in the old German choral, "Now thank we all our God," and the benediction by the President. At half past seven in the evening the anniversary of the University Young Men's Christian Association (suc- cessor and heir of the Society for Religious Inquiry) was held in the old First Church. An anthem by the choir was followed by a lesson from the Scriptures read by Rev. G. G. Atkins, the pastor of the parish, a bass solo by Dr. J. C. Hindes, and prayer by Rev. George F. Her- rick, D. D., of Constantinople, of the class of 1856. Then, after a congregational hymn — Bishop Coxe's *'( ) where are kings and empires now" — Rev. George B. Spalding, D. D., of Syracuse, N. Y., also of the class of 1856, was introduced as the speaker of the evening. The theme of his address was. "The Challenge of the Twentieth Cen- tury." After the singing by the congregation of Luther's hymn, "A mighty fortress is our God," the benediction was given by Dr. Herrick. sketch of commemoration 5 Class Day Monday, the fourth of July, at ten o'clock in the morn- ing saw the Raising- of the Flag* on the College Green with appropriate music and due ceremonial. At half past ten o'clock the Athletic Association gath- ered at the chapel for their annual meeting. At two o'clock in the afternoon Class Day exercises at the Pine Grove on the Green were witnessed by a large concourse of friends and visitors. At four o'clock on the College campus was played a game of base ball between Alumni and Undergraduates, which resulted in favor of the latter. At eight o'clock in the evening occurred the usual Senior Promenade at the Billings Library. This as well as the previous Class Day exercises was enlivened by the music of Wilder's orchestra of Montpelier. Alumni Day On Tuesday at eight in the morning the Engineering Alumni gathered for a reunion at the Williams Science Hall, and at the same hour the Phi Beta Kappa Society held its regular business meeting. At half past nine occurred the annual meeting of the Associate Alumni in the chapel,, John H. Converse, LL. D. 1861, presiding. At eleven o'clock in the Unitarian church occurred the more formal celebration of the Alumni Conference on "The Influence of the University in the World." After a musical selection by Waterman's orchestra the chair- man, Hon. Robert D. Benedict of Brooklyn, N. Y., in- * The flag staff, 81 feet in length, was given by the Robinson- Edwards Lumber Company; and the new flag, the gift of H. W. Allen & Company, was raised to its place by Mrs. D. W. Robinson to the strains of "The Star Spangled Banner". 6 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT troduced Hon. John A. Kasson, LL. D., of Washington, D. C, 1842, as the first speaker. Five papers in all were orally presented, the four remaining essays being neces- sarily deferred till the issue of this volume, as the Alumni Breakfast had been arranged to follow in the Gymnasium. This began at one o'clock, about 350 seats being oc- cupied at the four long tables. Grace was said by Doctor G. B. Spalding. When three-fourths of an hour had been devoted to the lunch and to general conversation, the retir- ing president, Mr. John H. Converse, congratulated the assembly on the favorable auspices under which they were gathered, and presented as the principal speaker of the occasion Senator Henry W. Hill of Buffalo, N. Y., 1876. Mr. Charles A. Catlin of Providence, R. I., 1873, who at the meeting of the morning had been chosen president of the Association, made a full report for the Centennial Fund Committee, showing a total of $190,203 contributed or pledged by 253 graduates of the University, with $24,- 230 subscribed by 37 other friends. Vigorous and stimu- lating speeches were made by several of the alumni present, and a few additional subscriptions were announced before the gathering broke up. At four o'clock the corner-stone of the new Medical building was laid with appropriate ceremonies. Rev. Samuel N. Jackson, of Burlington, of the medical class of 1871, offered prayer. President Buckham gave a brief resume of the history of the medical department, paying special tribute to Mr. John P. Howard for his gifts to the University and the City, among which was the medical building burned in January, 1904. He then introduced Professor Henry C. Tinkham, the dean of the Medical department, who spoke on the recent advance in medicine and surgery, and the need of new and augmented appli- ances for instruction and investigation. The corner-stone SKETCH OF COMMEMORATION 7 was laid by the Governor of the State, the Hon. John G. McCullough, of Bennington. Speeches by ex-Governor Urban A. Woodbury and Professor A. F. A. King con- cluded the exercises. At half past seven in the evening Shakspere's "Tem- pest" was presented on the lawn at Grassmount by young men and young women of the University. And the play was repeated on the following evening for the benefit of those who failed to see the first performance. Into the vacant hours of day and night on Tuesday, as also on Monday and Wednesday, were crowded many very enjoyable receptions and reunions, breakfasts and suppers, of the various fraternities and classes. Commencement Day The ceremonies of Wednesday, the sixth of July, be- gan at ten o'clock with the procession of guests and gradu- ates from the University to the Howard Opera House. To the music of Sherman's military band, under the guid- ance of the marshal,* Capt. Henry O. Wheeler, 1867, marched the undergraduates of the academical and medical departments ; next the alumni in the reverse order of graduation ; then the two' graduating classes, academic and medical, and the faculties; then the delegates to the Uni- versity and other invited guests, the officials of the City, the trustees of the University, the Governor's staff, and the Governor of the State with the President of the Uni- versity. There were over 500 persons in the column, which extended over four city blocks, and a large proportion of these were in academic costume. Within the Opera House Mr. Charles E. Allen, 1859, acted as marshal. * The aides to the marshal were H. B. Chittenden, ex- 1871, D. C. Hawley, 1878, G. W. Benedict, 1893, Lyman Allen, 1893, and Carl B. Brownell, 1899. B UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT After music by Waterman's orchestra and prayer by President Henry Hopkins, D. D.. of Williams College, Hon. Darwin P. Kingsley of New York city, 1881, de- livered the Centennial Oration. The candidates for gradu- ation in course were then presented and received their degrees. After which honorary degrees were conferred by the President of the University upon the gentlemen named below : DOCTOR OF LAWS John Griffith McCullough, Governor of the State of Vermont, worthy successor of the long line of states- men who for the past hundred years have filled the office of chief magistrate of the Commonwealth ; James Burrill Angeel, ex-President of the Univer- sity of Vermont, President for thirty-three years of the University of Michigan, Dean of American university presidents — an inspiring teacher, able in administration, skillful in diplomacy, persuasive in speech, admired and loved by thousands of pupils in the three universities which have enjoyed his services ; David Josiah Brewer, Associate Justice of the Su- preme Court of the United States, in law learned, in equitv broad-minded, in humanity large-hearted, eloquent as an orator ; John Stephen Michaud, Bishop of Burlington, worthy head of an episcopate which has exemplified the union of loyalty with charity, of zeal with urbanity ; Albert Freeman Africanus King, senior Professor in the Medical Department, Professor in Columbian Uni- versity, learned specialist, author; SKETCH OF COMMEMORATION 9 Wendell Phillips . Stafford, ex-Judge of the Su- preme Court of Vermont, Justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, orator, poet; Charles Artemas Kent, Professor of Law in the University of Michigan, able lawyer; Chester Bentine McLaughlin, Justice of the Ap- pellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, able jurist and approved judge; Darwin Pearl KingslEy, Vice-President of the New York Life Insurance Company, who combines the strenu- ous activity of the business man with the tastes and ac- complishments of the scholar; Leslie M. Shaw, ex-Governor of the State of Iowa, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, eminent in finance, a leader in statesmanship ; Redfield Proctor, senior United States Senator from Vermont, ex-Secretary of the War Department of the United States, soldier, statesman ; James M. Tyler and Loveland Munson, Assistant Judges of the Supreme Court of Vermont, of the type which has given its just renown to our highest court, chosen to their high office for their integrity, learning and practical wisdom, and long retained in it by the approval of the bar and the people ; Robert Newton Hall, class of 1857, Judge of the Court of King's Bench of the Dominion of Canada; Charles Edgar Clark, Rear Admiral of the United States Navy, who as captain of the Oregon on the famous passage from San Francisco, and in the battle of Santiago Bay, brought lustre to his own name and that of his vessel, his Nation,, his State and the American Navy; Charles Horace Spooner, long-time teacher, Presi- dent of Norwich University ; 10 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Arthur Crawshay Alliston Hall, Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont, scholar, preacher, pastor, the rich gift of Oxford University and the Anglican Church to the Christianity and the culture of his adopted country ; Wilbur Olin Atwater, Professor in Wesleyan Uni- versity, eminent as chemist, scientific investigator and writer on scientific subjects. DOCTOR OF DIVINITY William Jewett Tucker, President of Dartmouth College, in learning, dignity and personal force a lineal descendant and worthy compeer of those reverend men who brought to the University in its earlier days the high intellectual spirit and temper of Dartmouth College ; George BurlEy Spalding, theologian, preacher, who illuminates the questions of the day by the light of phil- osophy and religion ; George Yemans Bliss, rector of St. Paul's Church, Burlington, who worthily maintains the traditions of an honored pulpit and a devoted ministry ; John Wright Buckham, Professor of Theology in Berkeley Theological Seminary — a chair endowed by Fred- erick Billings and first occupied by Israel Edson Dwinell, starred names in our university galaxy ; Rev. Gaius Glenn Atkins, golden-mouthed preach- er, literary critic and appreciator, earnest and resourceful citizen. DOCTOR OF LETTERS George Grenville Benedict, editor, historian of Vermont in the Civil War, master of English, for more than a generation a leader of the public opinion of Ver- mont in the affairs of the commonwealth and the nation ; SKETCH OF COMMEMORATION 11 Lucius Bigelow, gifted with a fine literary sense, an appreciative and trenchant critic of literature and of men, a forceful and effective writer for the press. DOCTOR OF SCIENCE William Arnon Henry, Dean of the Agricultural Department of the University of Wisconsin, instructor and investigator in the science of agriculture. MECHANICAL ENGINEER Elmer Ellsworth Allbee, C. E. 1889; Arthur Whittier Ayer, for ten years Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Vermont. MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CHEMISTRY Charles Flagg Whitney, B. S. Chem. 1897, for several years instructor in the Chemical Department of the University of Vermont. MASTER OF ARTS Charles Baker Wright, Professor of English in Middlebury College ; Walter E. Ranger, Superintendent of Education for the State of Vermont; Mrs. Jessie Wright Whitcomb, A. B. 1884. President Hopkins then pronounced the benediction and the procession was reformed and moved to the Van Ness House, where the Corporation dinner or collation was served, and after the clearing of the tables a suc- cession of lively and impressive speeches was made by distinguished guests of the University, and highly enjoyed 12 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT by the alumni, who crowded the dining hall. At the close of the postprandial exercises, President Buckham an- nounced, to the great joy of the younger alumni especially, that since the after-dinner speaking began the University had come into formal possession of the Ainsworth farm of sixty acres on Colchester Avenue, a plat which in- cluded the long desired Athletic Field. At eight o'clock the same evening the customary Re- ception was given by the President and Mrs. Buckham at the Billings Library. The Governor and his wife also re- ceived, and the opportunity for congratulations and re- newal of old acquaintance was heartily enjoyed by the brilliant company which thronged the spacious halls of the Library. The donor of the building, if permitted to be present in spirit, may be conceived of as rejoicing in the tokens of gratitude and good will so freely exhibited about the hospitable hearth of the U. V. M. Burungton Day Every day was Burlington Day, but on Thursday, the seventh of July, the citizens of Burlington signalized their hospitable spirit by tendering to the Guests of the Uni- versity a farewell cruise upon Lake Champlain. About five hundred people responded to this generous invitation. The day was perfect. The steamer Chateaugay went first to Cumberland Bay, then skirted the New York shore till nearly opposite this city, when it crossed to Shelburne Point, steamed south in close view of Shelburne Farms, of home of Dr. W. Seward Webb, then returned to make the circuit of Shelburne Bay, and came to dock again at half past five after a four hours' sail. On looking back over the whole five days and the diverse events of the celebration, one is moved to recognize the success which attended the public gatherings, the SKETCH OF COMMEMORATION 13 hearty sympathy of the audiences, and the general satis- faction evinced by guests, citizens, and alumni. The fes- tival was a worthy ending of the University's first hun- dred years, and an auspicious introduction to its second century. PRAYER BEFORE SERMON BY PROFESSOR J. E. GOODRICH O God our Father, we thank thee for the faith and patience of the saints of old, for the hope thou didst inspire in their hearts, for the measure of success which thou gavest to their faithful endeavor. And we praise thee for the rich inheritance into which, by thy grace seconding their zealous effort, we are entered. We bless thee that we look not forward to a pos- sible salvation to be revealed, but backward to the sure words of him who is the Truth and the Life, and to the mighty deeds of him who set the seal to every word he spake by taking again the life which he laid down. We rejoice in our faith that this expenditure of grace and love was for our sakes, and pray that he may see in us of the travail of his soul : that we may know the power of his resurrec- tion ; may die with him unto sin, and rise with him in newness of life. We thank thee also for our life in this land of liberty and privilege; for the open doors here set before our feet ; for the church and the school ; for those whom in the early days of this common- wealth thou didst move to establish this University ; 16 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT for the devoted men who have taught and labored here; for the friends who from time to time have been raised up to foster its interests and direct its policy ; for those who year by year have gone forth from its walls to do their share of the world's work ; and for those in especial who, when the fatherland was in danger, counted not their young lives dear unto them. We pray that in the days to come thy favor may still attend this institution of learning. Give wis- dom to its trustees and its officers of instruction. May the successes of the past be but an earnest of the blessings thou hast in store for it. Multiply its friends, and increase its power to lift society and strengthen the state. Direct those who direct its general policy and its courses and methods of in- struction . Give it favor with the community in which its work is done. Inspire all who carry its degrees with a due sense of their responsibility as servants of the state and helpers of their fellow men. For these who are now to leave us for a more active and more responsible life, we ask a thankful sense of their high privilege in the leisure and the friend- ships here enjoyed, and in the training and equip- ment here received to fit them for efficient service of their generation. Make them glad in their power to work, and glad of worth}- work to do. Increase their efficiency year by year through long and happy and useful lives. Make them strong to achieve not only, but strong to resist and to overcome. Guard PRAYER BEFORE SERMON 17 them from the tempter ; keep them from forbidden paths. Make them sharers in the faith and hope and steadfastness of the saints and heroes of early days, that they too may labor and endure as seeing- the invisible ; that they may seek higher than earthly ends ; may live as under the great Taskmaster's eye and in hope of such rewards as he only can bestow. And when their day's work is done, give them the satisfactions of a good conscience, and the hope that maketh not ashamed, of a blessed immor- tality. Grant unto all of us here present full absolution for our multiplied offences, with such added mercies as thy wisdom knows us to need, for the sake of thy Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who taught us when we pray, to say : Our Father, who art in heaven, etc. DIVERSITY THE BACCALAUREATE SERMON BY PRESIDENT M. H. BUCKHAM Jesus * * knew what was in man. John ii. 25. It is related of one of the prophets of the last century that in a moment of deep spiritual agony he broke out with the exclamation : " It is a sore trial to the spirit to have more light than one's brethren. ' ' No doubt this is a common experience with men of far range of vision and deep insight. The prevailing belief of mankind is that the increase of knowledge entails increased sadness ; that while pessimism may be chargeable with affectation and cynicism, optimism is open to the suspicion of cowardice and self-decep- tion. How else can we account for the fascination of tragedy — how else than through the deep under- lying conviction that human life is not a frolic but a burden ; that its true interpretation is not the gay- ety that mocks it with laughter but the sense of tears which is in the deepest heart of all mortal things. Jesus knew what was in man, both actually and potentially. He knew that potentiality of evil which , as some men have brooded on it, awed by it, sick- ened by it, as good men might well be, has led them to affirm that man is by nature totally and hopelessly BACCALAUREATE SERMON 19 depraved. Jesus never said this, or implied it, of the nature which he himself bore, but he knew the evil which is in man. He knew the hatred of pure goodness which was gathering against himself. He knew the pagan heart, its rage mingled with fear, which would in the coining centuries torture and slay and strive to exterminate all who should share his spirit. He knew that with no less fiendish rage Christians would torture and slay Christians, in the Inquisition, on St. Bartholomew's, at the Antwerp terror, in Sinithfield Market, on Tower Hill in Lon- don, on Gallows Hill in Salem. He knew to what infamy of wickedness humanity could attain in the Roman emperors, in the Borgias, the Guises, the Bourbons, in the orgies of the Palais Royal, in the massacres of September, in the wholesale murders of the guillotine. He knew what was in man, and it saddened him and bowed him down, and aged him so that when he was thirty years old the onlooker guessed he might be near fifty years. He knew what was in man — and his comment, — ominous and awesome was: "Beware of men." And when we read the sequel was not the warning justified ? Is it any wonder that some men are pessimists, that the best of men have their gloomy hours and grieve that they have more light than their brethren ? Is it any wonder that Jesus was, as the prophet had described him, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief ? Is not the wonder rather that in some crisis of justifiable despondency he did not go back to the 20 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Father who had sent him , and say : ' The task thon hast given me is hopeless. Men are beyond recovery wicked and vile. I can no more. I give them up. Of such as these even divine love can make nothing. ' ' But this language, pardonable as it may seem in some moods, comes too dangerously near treason to the majesty of divine love to be pursued further. For of whom is it thus imagined that his knowledge was fallible, his love exhausted, his purpose frus- trated ? Is it of some baffled reformer who had over- estimated his resources, some visionary whose dreams always baseless have faded into a memory and a regret ? Nay, it was he who knew what is in man — who because he was himself man, and because he had the consciousness, not of a man but of man down to the deepest depths and up to the highest heights of him, because he interpreted that con- sciousness with the insight and vision which a divine love gave to him above all the sons of men, so valued man as to affirm that one human soul was of more worth than the whole soulless world, who found a joy in enduring death and shame for those whom he knew so well, and because he knew them so well. He knew the actual good which is in man. He knew the humble pious home of Nazareth, where virtues and charities which Eden never knew bloom- ed in sweetness and grace. He knew what maternal love could be in Mary, and friendship in the Bethany household, and self-effacement in John the Baptist, and devotion in those who left all to follow him. BACCALAUREATE SERMON 21 He knew from the history of his own people what heroism inspired by faith could do and dare. But better than this he knew the potentiality of good that is in man, that even in the nature in which evil abounded the possibility and promise of good much more abounded. He knew that in that po- tentiality of good lay the heroic faith that was to endure all those bloody persecutions, and that in the end even the pagan heart would own that the Gali- lean had conquered. He knew that human history, though in the future as in the past befouled by cruelty and hate and wrong in its thousand forms, would be so illuminated and glorified with heroism and sacrifice and devotion and love in its ten thousand forms that even the Son of God would exult to call men his brethren. But unless we overestimate our own times, as men of stirring times are apt to do, the last century has seen a greater change in man's knowledge of himself than all preceding centuries ; has seen man attaining a more sober, a saner and truer under- standing of his place in the Universe than any pre- ceding age has enjoyed. And this saner knowledge and truer judgment the age has attained by entering more deeply than any other time into what we may call the human consciousness of Jesus ; that is to say, into what he, as a man, thought and felt and willed in this human life of his and of ours. In former times men looked on this life of his as some- thing to be studied with humility and adoration and 22 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT gratitude ; something objective and foreign and far off. Our great discovery and inspiration it is to know that high and great and pure and fine as that life was, it was after all a human life, not an extra- human life ; that it was a fact, not a sweet Galilean vision as it has been called, but a reality on which the Syrian stars looked down, and which is a reality under all stars and in every clime. I. And so under the inspiration and guidance of this ideal, man is slowh — but in our time more rapidly — becoming conscious through sharing the consciousness of Jesus, that he belongs to an order of being which has in it the potency of infinite advance- ment. The great idea which characterizes the think- ing of the last century, which with many meanings we call evolution, is not wholly new to our age nor to sci- ence. Glimpses of its truth came to sages and far- sighted men in all ages. The Bibles of the nations have here and there hints of it. Isaiah and Paul glow with the inspiration of it. Prophets and kings de- sired what it betokened to them . The words of Jesus are full of the glory of it. But mankind at large has come slowly to the comprehension of it. For a certain type of mind the ideal is seen only with a backward look — when Astraea reigned, when Plancus was consul — when life was simple and faith was submissive. But how foreign is all this to our time- spirit, whicli is not regretful of the past but impa- tient for the future ! Who now regrets that he did not live in some good age of the past ? Who does BACCALAUREATE SERMON 23 not wish to share the assured glories of the future ? If it seems a frigid way of putting it to say that Jesus was a believer in the evolution of man, let us say with the writer to the Hebrews that he endured the cross for the joy that was set before him, the joy of beholding man in his redeemed and glorified future which he foresaw. And what might he have foreseen justifying his faith in man's limitless capacity of advancement ? A being whose intellect would expand with the tasks which the centuries would bring ; who would divine great truths far in advance of him and then verify or correct his divinations ; who would achieve great things in art, industry, invention, gradually subdu- ing and controlling that part of the universe which was within his reach ; that as he grew strong he w T ould also grow subtle and delicate and tender, so that the more he knew and the more he achieved the vaster would be his conception of the unknown and the possible, and so the more humble he would grow, and the more reverent and worshipful. He might have foreseen the time when religious faith — faith in himself — would be so constant that fire could not burn it out, nor torture rack it out ; so loyal that men would die in behalf of doctrines im- posed upon faith which were hateful to instinct and reason and natural affection ; so utterly devoted that when, as in our own decade, a hundred men were offered their lives if they would deny him , ninety-nine stood to be shot down for their fealty to him. When 24 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT a race, or a community, not in isolated cases but whenever or wherever put to the test, has capacities like this, what capabilities of moral grandeur does it lack ? II. Again : the new age is coming to a clearer conception of what is essential and ideal manhood. For the ancient world man was a political animal, and the pagan civilizations flourished upon the idea that man attains his highest excellence in perfecting political institutions, in founding and maintaining commonwealths and empires. The ideal man was a Pericles or a Cicero. But this idea subordinates and sacrifices the individual to the state. It troubles us, perhaps, that Jesus made so little of the political man. This at least is plain — that in his thought while the political is inclusive it is not the dominat- ing and final idea of man. The Middle Ages, touched and inspired by the genius of Christianity, conceived of man as essentially a religious being — a being tem- porarily human but destined to be superhuman, a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth ; and so emerged the pietistic man — the man of the desert and the cloister — a heroic type of permanent fascination in its great leaders, but in the mass a life unnaturally repressed and so by turns meagre and morbid, capa- ble rather of fanaticism than of enthusiasm, looking for visions rather than working out convictions, in the conceit of unworldliness shifting off human burdens and responsibilities. This type has had many forms in history, but its chief characteristic is BACCALAUREATE SERMON 25 an ascetic view of life, a life supposed to be more spiritual by being less human. In place of this obsolescent view of religion and of life, religion itself is becoming humanized, and the ideal human life now as well as hereafter is becoming spiritualized, filled not with visions and ecstacies, but with truth and beauty and right and love and sacrifice ; the life of George Peabody and Florence Nightingale and Father Damien, of Havelock and Gordon, of Moffat and Livingston, of the unnamed men and women who adorn the doctrine of their Savior in humble lives by patient uncomplaining love in daily ministries and courtesies ; the life which may be just as saintly in Piccadilly and Fifth Avenue as in the Syrian desert, just as christian in the home and on the farm and in the court-room and the shop as in the cloister or the oratory. There is no reason why we should aspire to be angels or superhuman beings of any kind. To be a man is enough . To be a man as we now conceive him ; to be as an animal, the noblest of animals ; to have dominion over this fair creation which is ours with all its possibilities of riches ; to have intelligence illimitable ; to be capable of science, and poetry, and art ; to have freedom ; to have the capacity of love, and through love of service and sacrifice ; to be religious and to look up lovingly and truthfully to Him who is highest and best ; and to be spiritual in the same sense as God himself is spiritual — this is to be what Jesus knew to be in man, and for the sake 26 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT of which he believed in him and loved him and gave himself for him. III. And finally man is becoming persuaded that all his highest ideals are not only realizable but are certain to be realities. This is only saying that men are coming to have faith in the divine order. This is already a settled belief in onr material life. As soon as we have a clear idea of anything vehe- mently desirable, we know it will come — a new fuel, or swifter transportation or air-sailing, or an element more wonderful than radinm. As the vivacious Frenchman said to the qneen : "If the thing is possible it is already done ; if it is impossible it shall be done." Is a new type of industrial man needed, one who can wield the immense possibilities of mas- terhood powerfully and beneficently? He is sure to come, — if he has not already come. Has the world longed for a new style of diplomacy, one which recognizes the truth that a nation as such has a soul to be saved as well as a body to be mangled by bullets and dynamite? Lo ! the idea has already been half realized and our own nation has contributed not a little to the realization. Is there anything which we are with clear conviction praying and working for in public affairs — municipal righteousness, con- scientious suffrage, honest work by the wage-earner, the sympathy of a fellow man in the employer, the Christian Church one and indivisible, the communion of saints — that is, not of the spirits of just men made perfect but of Christ-like though as yet imperfect BACCALAUREATE SERMON 27 men and women, holding, while imperfect, but hold- ing in love and charity, their imperfect creeds gradu- ally blending into unity as each contributes its ray to the spectral whole, but even now singing the same hymns, praying the same prayers, living the same lives of faith, hope and charity, — who doubts that all this will come — not without many backward steps — not without failures and lapses which will bring malign comfort to the Mauleverers, who in lecture rooms and editorial sanctums preach the philosophy and religion of despair; not without reasons abundant for prophetic denunciation of the evil which will be rampant and apparently triumph- ant in high places and low; at great cost and great loss, as is the fate of all great campaigns, but with the issue never doubtful, and with a final victory worth all the cost and loss; one which shall satisfy him who captained our salvation from the beginning and all through the long conflict, and will bring us out more than conquerors, human still and always, but crowned with the humanity which he wears who is the first born among many brethren. ADDRESS TO THE CANDIDATES FOR GRADUATION It has been a matter of public comment that many of the baccalaureate discourses of this commencement season have had a despondent tone respecting the future of our country and of the world. What I have said to-day has not been intended as a reply or a counter-statement, for my theme had been chosen 28 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT and mainly worked out in advance of these utter- ances, and certainly I should not set up to be more cheerful than my brethren because I have more light than they. Perhaps the difference of view may be that, unlike them, we are to-day centennializing, that is, by the suggestion of the occasion, we are taking long view r s behind and before. A wise man once prescribed as an antidote to depression to take short views. It may at times be a still better course to take long views, to get the parallax and the per- spective which a far glance backward and a long vista forward give to the operator. There is enough in the world to alarm and depress, but it is permitted to us on occasions like this to look away over and beyond this to the good which because it is less con- spicuous may be more solid and abiding. I suppose none of us is ready to say with Simeon, ' ' Lord, now lettest thou thy sen-ant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation;" but there are many who are saying, "Lord, let thy servant survive to see some of the glories which are to come in the future." At any rate, young friends, the question for you is not how much better will the world be in the next generation but what your part is to be in making it better. The sum of what the University has to say to you — to you of all the departments alike, and whatever your calling or work may be — is to bid you, on the basis of a generous and sympathetic estimate of what is in man, to do what you can to spiritualize human BACCALAUREATE SERMON 29 life, at least some small section of it. It is this which has made life so much better than it was ages ago. The coarse animal life with which human history began has been gradually transformed by having infused into it spiritual qualities, more reason, more conscience, more love. We are finding that man has infinite capacity for these things and that they and they only are the final things worth living for. And so the objects men are actually living for are undergoing a slow change. When it is said that most men live for money it is meant that they live for what money will buy, and they are finding out that the best things money will buy are the next best to those priceless things money will not buy; and those are intelligence and beauty and affection — sweet childhood, noble manhood, gracious woman- hood. Who does not know and in his heart believe that a ton of gold is well spent if it can buy an ounce of spiritual good, of hope, gratitude, courage, peace, or even the simple sense of heart approval. There are men to-day — and there will be more of them — who are converting wheat and corn and coal and iron and oil and cotton and stocks and bonds into health and homes, into libraries and art and music, and so are helping us by an object lesson to under- stand the meaning of that difficult passage of Scrip- ture which urges us to make out of the Mammon of unrighteousness friends who will receive us into everlasting habitations, — which may mean that we are to take the raw and crass materials of human 30 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT life and spiritualize them into finer qualities, into wisdom and virtue and piety. Has one of you literary talent, the power to touch and move men ? You can put this power to the service of base fiction, or of yellow journalism, and so do something to sensualize human life, or you can devote it to the advancement of public virtue, clean politics, domestic love, the strenuous and the gentle life. What will constitute success in the medical calling? To have helped some community to a saner life, to good air, good water, good food ; and so on to good lungs, good health, good muscles ; and so to good work, kindly thoughts, good tempers, and a holy life. How can a business man give to himself at last a good account of his life ? By using his business as a co-operative agency for increasing the industry, thrift, comfort, social and spiritual well- being of the community- on whose patronage his busi- ness depends. Sum up all the aims and activities : all the professions and callings, and their lasting benefits all come to this : ' ' Lord, thou gavest me ten pounds. I have gained beside them ten pounds mo: Thou gavest me ten pounds of physical energy-, and mental power, and education and op- portunity, and I have gained with them ten pounds more, of health and gladness, of social virtue, and civil righteousness, and moral uplift, and Christian piety. And just this is what this University- has been doing in these hundred years past, and through you BACCALAUREATE SERMON 31 and your successors hopes to do in the century and many centuries to come, to spiritualize human life in all its departments. The University makes no protest against material prosperity. She has done her humble part to bring it to pass, rejoices in it, claims a beneficiary share of it, knows how to use it and to teach others how to use it. If she is poor she has made many rich . Go forth with her blessing and prayers to get, with other things, gold, to trans- mute it by the alchemy you have learned in the laboratory of the spirit, to wrest from nature her secrets and humanize them, to get power over men and to exploit it into sympathy, helpfulness and guidance, to lighten human burdens, to multiply human joys, to make human life more religious and religious life more human, by making both one as he conceived and exemplified it who came from God that we may have life and have it abundantly. THE CHALLENGE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ADDRESS BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY V. M. C. A. BY THE REV. GEORGE B. SPALDING, D. D., LL. D. The occasion appoints my theme and signals the line of its discussion. The century of the life of our University is very nearly coetaneous with the nineteenth century of the Christian era. It belongs to others to recount in prose and poetry the trials and triumphs of our Alma Mater through the hundred years, and to fire the hearts of her sons and daughters with her achieve- ments and her hopes. Let it be my task in way of preface to speak more widely of the past and coming century of the world about us, as full of lessons and inspirations to scholars and Christians confronting the future. My subject is : ' 'The Challenge of the Twentieth Century." Mere time figures as zero in the arithmetic of God. Events are the only ciphers on the dial of history. We count the centuries by what has happened in them. The silent years or eons are those of preparation wherein God broods and noise- lessly works "for the fullness of the times." DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 33 Who sums the eventless centuries from Adam on, until Abraham broke through the gates of the Hast to become the father of the one faith for all the future ? Why tarried the chariot wheels for twenty centuries more before the Son of God rode into human history, the Desire and the Deliverer of the nations ? Why so vast a period after such a stupen- dous event before this half of the round globe was discovered ; and when well known to the nations of Europe, why so long before they even began to measure its greatness and enter into its possession ? Again we say : God's dial bears no figures. There are no hours nor even centuries in his chronology. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." The events of time evolved through centuries or a second give to time its only significance. It is thus that we gauge the century that has just passed. Thus measured the nineteenth century is the greatest of all. It is studded with illustrious events and names. Its glories are beyond our speech or thought. In things which give security, convenience, and mastery over nature ; in things that have broken tyranny in the State, and have lifted man into a consciousness of his personal worth; in things which pertain to the spiritual realm in man and around him, in the expansion of religious liberty, and in the sweep of its conquests, it is safe to say that the 3 34 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT nineteenth century made a greater advance toward the goal of human struggle and triumph than all the centuries before it. I cannot dwell upon these things, nor need I, for they are the familiar themes of poetry and oration at July celebrations and church conventions. I will only recall to you a saying of Samuel Johnson in the last part of the eighteenth century in response to Boswell's announcement that one of the coach lines out of London was to be run at the rate of ten miles an hour ! "Impossible ! ' exclaimed the greatest philosopher of his age. "Why, Air. Boswell, such speed as that would take away the breath of every passenger ! ' ' The answer is found in the fact that the "Twentieth Century Empire Express" that brought me here through the Mohawk valley ran a hundred miles at the rate of sixty-six miles an hour, — and my breath remains. And a single other fact no less astonishing in the religious sphere I cite, as given by a great authority in church affairs : "The growth of Christianity in the nineteenth century was as great as in all the preceding centuries ! At the close of the first cen- tury there were five hundred thousand believers ; at the close of the eighteenth two hundred millions ; at the end of the nineteenth century there were four hundred millions." I doubt not that more gifts were given to Christ in that one century than in all the others since the Kings spread their magnificent offerings at the manger of the Holy Child. DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 35 More songs were sung, more land subjugated, more people redeemed than in any five hundred years since the tongues of fire encircled the first missionaries on the day of Pentecost. All the great religious organizations, missionary and Bible, tract and endeavor societies, young men's associations, Christian magazines and journals ; all the great moral and civic reforms and peace movements sprang into the full swing of their activity since the bells of time struck the year eighteen hundred. It was in this century that by a peaceful act the area of our country was doubled. Into this vast region, with its measureless tracts of agricultural and mining land richer than any other that the sun shines upon, the best blood of New England, New York and Pennsylvania has steadily poured itself, mingling in the veins of the strongest people of Europe, forming out of these racy elements, as President Wilson has finely said, "a new and free combination, with a flavor and spirit distinctively its own. ' ' I stood one brilliant morning last month at the base of "Festival Hall," the crowning glory of the magnificent structures which stretch near and far away in the vast space of the World's Expo- sition at St. Louis. The vista from this central point is of surpassing grandeur, where the arts of man and the beauties of nature unite in seeming perfec- tion. But nothing so overwhelmed my soul as when turning to face the matchless Festival Hall I 36 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT saw the towering colonnades stretching in stately arcs on either side. High np on the architraves which span the mighty columns, in letters of gold were the names of States and Territories which have been carved out of the "Louisiana Purchase." Before the marshalled row of those names I lost my- self. All patriotic pride, all religious faith surged through my soul. Oblivious to the great crowd I shouted one by one the glorious names: Missouri, Iowa, Louisiana, Arkansas, Minnesota, Kansas, Col- orado, Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Indian Territory. Each is an empire itself, where great cities are springing, new- communities forming, the bread of the world grow- ing, a new civilization shaping ; where, again in the words of the Princeton president, "men are being bred in a new air and the sap of a new nation is rising. ' ' And if from this richest of all the spoils of peace which we gathered from this wonderful nineteenth century, I turn to count up the splendid spoils of the two great wars of the same period, the wonder grows ; that vast internecine strife, shaking the earth as the twin giants, the North and South, reeled and agonized, interlocked for four years in the un- relaxable grip of death, and issuing from the awful conflict a united people, a nation of Milton's dream, 11 noble and puissant," "shaking her invincible locks," "an eagle mewing her mighty youth and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 37 beam;" — and that other quick, sharp war with Spain, not waged for self -security nor vindication, but to snatch a dying people from her cruel clutch; and when the most brilliant victory in the annals of war was gained, in the same magnificent spirit of Christian chivalry, establishing one people torn from Spain's tyranny into an independent sovereignty, and accepting the task of educating another of her peoples, debauched by her superstition, into an intel- ligence which will fit them for self-government. But a new century is already before us. Already we have begun another stadium of the mighty course. And yet the spell of this splendid past holds our flying feet. With something of dismay we ask, To what new efforts, to what greater or even equal achievements can the twentieth century chal- lenge her sons and daughters ? As we gaze into this unknown future we cannot escape the weight of a great despondency, as if in the very exuberance of the displays of this past are to be found sure proofs that not much more remains for accomplishment. Not long since a philosopher, so called, of one of the Western States affirmed that land everywhere is slowly being exhausted, and that the year is not very far away when wheat will refuse to grow on the big prairies. Others are telling us that the world's coal bed, and its gold, silver and diamond fields are wearing out. But believe me, this is no old played out world. Man has hardly scratched the surface 38 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT of it. Not a hundredth part of the vast mountain rampart which runs down the coast line of South America has yet been touched. The whole popu- lation of Europe could stream to-morrow into the valleys of the Amazon and hardly make an impres- sion upon the vast solitudes that surround " that mighty river's thousand affluents." Siberia stood in our childhood's geography as a sterile, frozen region ; but in truth it holds an immense territory where grapes ripen in the open air ; unpeopled regions with richest grass lands, and studded with finest timber. It is said that three generations of the overspill of Europe could be emptied into Siberia to-day and, if they would, live prosperously. Africa is a new world with inland seas, shining rivers and almost endless forests, and lands rich in soil and gold and all precious stones. Here at home science is reclaiming by irrigation immense deserts, and developing altogether new resources in exhausted lands, thus vastly increasing the capacity of our country as the granary of the world. The round globe to-day offers more and promises more for the physical welfare of mankind than ever before since Adam pushed out from its garden to conquer its wild savagery of growth for his existence. Science in its discoveries of the forces in the ground beneath, and the air above, in light and lightning, in the ethereal powers in stars and sun, and the forces and materials of the sea, and its ways DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 39 of utilizing- these for multiplying- almost infinitely man's native power — science has only crossed the border line of its illimitable domain. Some things are even now on their way which will fill the watch- ing angels with wonder. The permissive decree of almighty God to man in the day of his creating him in his own likeness, of universal dominion is an assurance of possibilities, nay of certainties of conquests by the genius of man over nature which by their very splendor will cast into shadow all that has illumined the past. We think of the enormous profits that have fol- lowed great and audacious ventures and combina- tions, but I doubt not that even under the old established laws of honesty, trained foresight and ever pushing pluck, joined all to a new born sym- pathy of Christian brotherhood, the world of busi- ness will yield far richer returns and a wider distri- bution than any past has gathered. Men of literary taste and ambition reviewing the splendid writings of former times are feeling that all like success is naturally impossible, as if every glorious song that has been sung, every thrilling story that has been told, that every moving speech uttered has lessened the chance of creating anything of equal worth. But no, the soul of man, of each man, is infinite in its powers. The organ that responds to-night to the touch of the player, repeat- ing the music of long dead masters, has strains within that never yet have been evoked, and which 40 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT slumber still in far richer measure in the souls of men and women awaiting some fresh inspiration of Almighty God. Songs more princely than ever, will yet be sung. ; ' The poetry of earth is ceasing never." Speech more persuasive than has ever leaped from mortal lips is yet to be spoken to thrill to unsounded depths human hearts. Pictures more beautiful than canvas holds hang on the walls of imagination waiting for brush and colors to give to them reality. In marble quarries lie forms which some genius perhaps unborn will set free for the rapture of coming generations. The challenge of this twentieth century, un- daunted by all these achievements of the last, rings clear as an angel's bugle, calling man made so "little lower than God" to new conquest in the phvsical world, and in every science of nature, and in the arts which are but interpretations of her varied forms. Philip II of Spain decreed the penalty of death for any one who should even propose cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Panama. For more than three hundred years this portal of the seas has been fast locked as by a key in the dead hand of the mighty monarch in his tomb in the Escorial. The challenge of this new century is breaking the spell which has enchained the activities of the entire world, and within its first decade the two great DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 41 oceans will be mated to bring- forth results which will revolutionize commerce and civilization. 'And the hand that ope'd the gate shall forever hold the key." In the realm of philosophy man has been equally- active. The results, however, are by no means so clear. They are un satisfactory by their very vague- ness, and as some will have it, most destructive. It must be confessed that the nineteenth century has been one of doubt, and questioning, and even denial of many philosophical systems and spiritual dogmas, which have already seriously disturbed faith, and threaten to destroy faith even within the century that is now upon us. It must be confessed that in the governmental sphere there has been a greatly unbalanced development of ideas and conduct which relate to that most precious principle of per- sonal freedom. In the impetus of free thinking, and in the undue emphasis given to the worth of the individual, of his rights and liberties, we have already lost much of deepest sense of obligation to the law of God of which we are subjects, and to the order of the state and society of which we are constituent members. Excess of one truth is ruin to any other truth. Anarchy and freedom lie close together. Bach touches the very border which separates man from tyranny. The giant that brandishes his arms over us as a people is lawlessness. And he is the offspring of the very liberty which breeds in the free 42 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT air of our republic. The monster is hugging- the pillars of the church and state, and both tremble on their foundations. The holy sanction of the oath of office, and of the marriage vow; the high pride of civic honor and allegiance, seem at times to be dead or dying ; — not only among men of corrupt lives, but among men of respectability and public posi- tion, of financial trust and governmental authority. The plundering schemes of municipalities, the base and debasing arts of politicians, the bold traffic of ballots, the usurpations of the functions which by law and constitution belong to other and co-ordinate departments of government, the constant appeal to a public sentiment as itself superior to law, and as a sufficient justification for the crime of a mob or the redhanded vengeance of an individual ; these and other vast evils which might be named blanch with fear the cheek of every patriot and Christian. They sometimes stagger our faith in God's right- eousness and in man's freedom. These are perils which the boastful nineteenth century itself created, and which it has relegated to the twentieth century to meet. They are the fast ripening harvest of the tares sown among the wheat in that fertile soil by men lawless in their very liberties. This twentieth century already is lifting its reproachful face against these terrific evils, and challenges every loyal Christian and lover of his country to battle for their destruction. DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 43 The prolific source of very much of this lawless- ness is found in the violation of the constitution of the nation, and of each state. These constitutions have for their fundamental principle the total separa- tion of the legislative, the executive and the judicial functions of government. The absolute necessity of these divisions was felt to be supreme in the mind of the constitution-makers and statesmen of the past. They felt most profoundly that these three functions, each independent of the other, were essential to free- dom. To make the laws, to adjudge the laws, to execute the laws, each must have its' own special officers. To merge their duties, or to invade by one hair's breadth the province of another would destroy all government. How far have we drifted from the ancient moor- ings ! More and more the legislative body is coming under the dictation of the executive, or what is worse, under the edict of party managers. What wonder is it that the people should have followed so quickly along this line, themselves usurping all these powers of government, claiming that public sentiment, or their own class interest, or a personal passion is to be the law, is to make the law and adjudge the law and execute the law. So liberty, the liberty of the people, breaks through the constitutional barriers and riots in anarchy. Nothing can avert the threat- ening ruin but a new reign of law, a re-establishment of the sovereignties of these three powers of govern- 44 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT ment each in its own sphere; and the re-establishment in the conscience of the people of the conviction that these sovereigns are to be obeyed with a godly fear, that these powers which the people have created are not to be usurped by the people, that the only remedy for an unwise or injurious law is by the law itself. Public sentiment must itself be law-abiding, else all is lost. To effect this is the supreme task of this century. For this end, in the words of the im- mortal Lincoln, ' 'Let reverence of law be taught in all schools and colleges, be written in primers and spelling-books, be published from pulpits and pro- claimed in legislative halls, and enforced in the courts of justice— in short, let reverence of law become the political religion of the nation." The century that has just gone will stand in his- tory as the most audacious in its thinking of any behind it and perhaps of any after us. In the world of nature every system and theory respecting its origin and operations have one by one been assaulted and laid in ruin. So it is affirmed. The search, it is claimed, has been for the bare, solid truth. Facts, that is, physical facts, things which men can see and handle, have been the only materials upon which the mind of a real philosopher with any true profit can exercise itself. The universe is an immense labora- tory in which man busies his marvellous powers with scalpel and scales, spectrum and crucible, and the results of this hard, "sane" hunt are all that the human intellect can know or needs to know. If DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 45 there is any realm beyond this world of seeable things we know nothing of it. There is nowhere any raft or seamanship that may voyage thither, and bring back a single fact. But this twentieth century is already challenging this presumptuous wisdom of the nineteenth century. While applauding with full voice its marvellous findings in the world of things, this new century is affirming even more positively than ever before the absolute reality and the immeasurable magnitude of another kingdom, a spiritual kingdom which over- arches all this world of things, and penetrates every atom of it, itself regnant and imperishable. It be- holds this man in his laboratory, so absorbed with material elements and forces, and sees clearly within him qualities of mind and heart, all untouched, un- utilized, unsatisfied, even in his task to which he sets himself of mastering things which respond only to his five senses. There are a thousand powers and possibilities within the soul of this natural phi- losopher which transcend all these qualities which he employs or can employ even in his most splendid conquests over nature. Still this worker in his cabinet loves and hopes and thinks and reasons and sees and feels and knows objects as firm and sub- stantial as the earth he treads, as real and significant as the heavens whose stellar lights flash upon his eyes. Bver within him is a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, 46 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ; A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things." It was an immense concession that Herbert Spencer made to the spiritual philosophy in his last book, in which he declared that "sensations and emotions are the major components of the human consciousness, and constitute the essential part of the mind." "Emotions," he says, "are the mas- ters; the intellect is the servant." What a very broad foundation is thus laid even by this philoso- pher of materialism for the truth that man is a son of God, and for the play of the feelings in him of hope, of love, of faith, of worship, of prayer — feel- ings which find their only full meaning and end in Christianity. Science and religion have waged a long and re- lentless warfare ; but this new century beholds the retreating forces of every system of philosophy which confounds God with his works, and shuts in the soul w r ith all its imperial powers to that which responds only to the mere physics and dynamics of living and dead matter. One of the keenest of these unbelieving scientists exclaimed only the other day : " Materialism had its innings down to the very close of the nineteenth century, but already it is counted out of the game." DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 47 Lord Kelvin, the acknowledged leader in science, says: "Modern biologists are coming once more to a firm acceptance of something beyond mere gravi- tational, chemical and physical forces. We scientists only know God through his works, but we are ab- solutely forced by science to believe in a Directive power." The challenge of this twentieth century is for a larger, higher science illumined by Christian faith, which shall find an interpretation of creation in a personal Creator, and an interpretation of man in Jesus Christ as his Saviour. This realm of philoso- phy in which unbelief has so long rioted, but is now so sorely worsted, "is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God." Is it too much to believe that within these next hundred years the great prayer of Bacon shall be answered : ' 'This also we humbly and earnestly beg that human things may not prejudice such as are divine ; neither that from the unlocking of the gates of sense, and the kindling of a greater natural light, anything of incredulity or intellectual night may arise in our mind towards divine mysteries, but rather by our mind thoroughly cleansed and purged from fancy and vanities, and yet subject and per- fectly given up to the divine oracles, there may be given unto faith the things that are faith's." In theology there have been in the last century nothing short of revolutions. 48 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Systems of doctrine, creeds and confessions venerable for age, made sacred by association with illustrious periods and names in the history of the church, have either been discarded, or largely bereft of their power to overawe the reason, or command the reverence of men. Ideas of the Bible, of the nature and degree of its inspiration, of the method of interpreting its text and applying its spirit have greatly changed. This work has not been wholly that of hostile critics assaulting the bulwarks of all religion. It has been largely the results of a clearer-eyed faith, of a riper scholarship, of that very spirit of Christ himself, which was ever im- patient with the dogma of tradition, whose great promise was of a progressive leading into all truth under the spirit of truth. Theories have fallen, for they are human. They are built out of the links of logic, and the cold intellect of man. Theologies, which are only the structures of the brain, have gone into decay ; but the foundations laid by God in his everlasting Word, and in the feelings, the imagina- tion, the conscience, the deathless hopes of the human soul, where Spencer finds the "essential part of even the human mind," these remain, and will ever remain, for, as Sabatier says, "man is incur- ably religious." "Our little systems have their day : They have tlK-ir day and cease to be ; They are but broken lights of thee And, thou, O Lord, art more than they." DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 49 During this better century upon these old eternal foundations shall be reared a grander and far more beautiful superstructure of theology, wherein reason shall lift its mighty columns, and holy feeling, emotions of love and worship shall spring their arches, and the light of heaven shall flash through its storied windows; and over all, when the head- stone shall be laid, the angels of God and all rever- ent souls throughout all the world with shoutings shall cry: "Grace, grace unto it." As we thus review the past and forecast the future, we ask, some in dismay, some in hope, "When shall these great aspirations, these noble struggles, these splendid but partial achievements of this last century be fulfilled ? When shall its noblest ideals become our ideals, and its problems so serious, which it has itself begotten, when shall they be solved? " There is a legend of the Alps, how three Swit- zers among the depths of a lofty mountain are awaiting the daybreak. They sleep; they dream. But their great thoughts even in their slumbers are of liberty, not only of Swiss liberty, but of liberty and happiness for all mankind. From time to time, so the story runs, one will awaken, and go forth to look upon the world of lakes and plains, but ever to return in sadness to his companions. And as he rouses them, he sighs into their drowsy ears the words: ' ' Not yet, not yet comes the day of deliver- 4 60 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT ance. Ever slaves, the people cease not to worship their master's hats." And then the watchers sink again into sleep, and dream of liberty. ' ' Not yet, ' ' ' 'not yet, ' ' rolls in upon us from this twentieth century. But it is a thrilling challenge, not a despairing cry. Let it not find us sleeping, and dreaming of the glories of the past or only dreaming of glories yet to be. Let not past achieve- ments abash us. Let not unsolved problems frighten us. The evils so giantlike which stand with gleaming spears and iron armor at the very gateway of the century ; let them be the very oppor- tunities for our largest courage, for resistless fight- ing, for final and complete victory. Bvils social, political and religious, however appalling, so long as they are clearly seen by us, so long as they are not accepted as inevitable, or believed by us to be unconquerable, are really occasions for the display of all our best manhood and our Christian faith. Oh to be young once more, to enter with renewed ardor and high hope into the mighty battles of this century ! To push our way, to fight our way close up to where the fray is thickest, where the ruby banner of the divine leader waves us onward ; some of us feel that this would be a privilege only less than heaven. It is this thought of life as a great conflict with evil that gives to life all its worth, all its splendor. Heaven is the spoils of such battle- DR SPALDING'S ADDRESS 51 fields of earth, if only our hearts fail not, and faith endures. May the words of Gladstone, England's grand- est man, ring across every successive generation of this twentieth century like an archangel's trumpet peal : u O young men, be inspired with the belief that to live is something magnificent, that life itself is a great and noble calling ; not a mean and grov- elling thing, but a grand and lofty destiny." The imperative need of this new age is of true men. The first requisite of all national life, of religion and civilization, is personality. It is not science, nor ideas, nor institutions; it is not wealth, nor learning, nor legislation, that can save us from the drifts of corrupt politics, and wolfish greeds, and dying faith. It is the one power of personal influence that can stay these evils, and lift society and the world into righteousness. God in the in- carnation of his Son in our humanity has set his seal to this truth. And this is the philosophy of this University. It was the distinctive teaching of its greatest president of the past, and has been nobly followed through the whole line of his successors, and has inspired with saving power the great army of its graduates who have fought for righteousness. The central principle in the philosophy of Presi- dent Marsh as set forth by his illustrious biographer, Professor Torrey , was : ' ' Man must himself become what he knows. * * * In his power to do this, 52 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT joined with the infinite capacity of his spirit, lies the possibility of his endless progress." Let us in this spirit face this perilous and yet most promising of all the centuries. Let its perils and its promises alike challenge all our Christian manhood, and fill our souls with the very rapture of the strife. " O wondrous call to conquests new ! O thrill of blood ! O joy of soul ! O peaks with ever widening view ! O race with still receding goal ! The future and the past we'll scan With sense refined and vision keen, Explore beyond this lower land The treasures of a realm unseen, Until we stand with regal brow No more as on the primal sod, A creature yet ungrown, but now Lord of two worlds and friend of God." THE ALUMNI CONFERENCE ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY IN THE WORLD THE ADVANCE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DURING THE NINE- TEENTH CENTURY BY JOHN A. KASSON, LL. D., 1842 After many years of absence and varied expe- riences, it gives me great pleasure to bring back my gray hairs to this University, the venerable mother of our intellectual training. Remembering the dignity and ability of President Wheeler, the gentle manner and profound philosophy of Professor Marsh, the admirable Greek scholarship of Professor Torrey, and the high mathematical training taught by the Professors Benedict, I bow an octogenarian head before her centennial Majesty, and acknowledge the debt which all the sons of the University owe to her. Upon memorial occasions like the present all thoughts turn to the contrast between the conditions which existed at the beginning, and at the end, of the century under review. Your honored President has invited me to speak briefly of one of these con- trasts, as illustrated by the advance of International Law. 56 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT This title is not precisely definitive of my subject. When we speak of law as applicable to men or to nations in their intercourse with each other, it implies the exercise of a jurisdiction over the subject- matter, and over the people to whom it is to be applied. No such competent legislative authority has ever been established among nations. So far as international rules have been accepted by treaty between two or more nations they have become in a proper sense laws, binding the signatory Powers so long as the treaties are in force, but not binding as a law upon the nations not assenting to them. Grotius, who founded the science of International Law, furnished a series of rules which were educed from the principles of justice and morality, and which ought to be applied to the intercourse of nations in peace and in war. Subsequent writers on the science have proceeded on similar lines, sometimes enlarging or limiting or modifying the so-called laws. They have sought to fortify these rules by precedents and customs among nations. But these customs have been frequently violated, and each nation claims the right to modify its own customs where no common and superior authority exists to control them. It seems therefore that my subject should rather be styled The Advance in International Relations during the XlXth Century. There is an additional source of pleasure in speaking of this subject, in the fact that the United States has been an important factor in this advance. JOHN A. KASSONTS ADDRESS 57 It will be remembered that in Europe, during the earlier years of this University, international re- lations and usages had fallen into great disorder. The ideas and wars of revolutionary France had deranged the fundamental conceptions of public right and wrong. Various nations had largely abolished, or abandoned, previous international usages. Neutral nations were invaded at will, and their governments overthrown. Neutral vessels were seized without justification. Bven the naval squadron of a neutral government was captured in the neutral port of Copenhagen for no other reason than the fear that the enemy of the captor would commit the same outrage if not anticipated. The right of search on the high seas of neutral vessels and their cargoes, and the right of capture of former subjects found on such neutral vessels, was asserted, and caused our war of 1812 with England. If the cargoes of neutral vessels on the high seas were wanted by a warring nation they were seized and confiscated. Derangement in the internal affairs of one country was held to justify its invasion by another. The voluntary change by one nation of its former government was held to be so dangerous to the principles of other forms of government that a nation might be invaded, and its government overthrown, for that reason alone. It was so held by the Congress of Laybach as late as 1821 ; and the power was exercised upon Italy and Spain. It would require a volume to give a detailed recital 58 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT of the utter confusion into which not only the Rules theoretically established between nations, but even the primary principles of international justice and morality, had fallen in the first quarter of the nine- teenth century. Slowly the various nations emerged from their condition of international disorder. For a time the violence of tyranny replaced the violence of popular revolution. The Congress of Vienna, in 1815, proved that the great Powers of Europe discarded the rules of international justice in their effort to arbitrarily rearrange Europe, and were chiefly con- trolled by self-interest. The Congress of the four great military Powers at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818 claimed an undefined right of supervision, or inter- vention, in the internal affairs of other states. At the Congresses of Troppau (1820), Laybach (1821), and Verona (1822), this right of intervention, and control of the forms of government in other nations, was stoutly asserted by Austria, Russia, and Prus- sia, and they attempted to make it a part of inter- national law. Great Britain protested, and declared against it. Then began a reaction in favor of the greater independence of nations in their internal affairs, and the greater liberty of separate peoples to shape their own government. The United States led the way by recognizing the independence of the South American Republics. In 1823 this government gave a further impulse to this reaction- ary movement toward international independence JOHN A. KASSON'S ADDRESS 59 and liberty by the famous declaration of President Monroe, and gave notice of it to Europe. In 1830 France asserted her right to change her interior government, by discarding one royal family and choosing another more liberal; and Europe did not resist. The slow progress of the improvement in inter- national relations during the first half of the nine- teenth century was largely due to the limited inter- course between the peoples of the respective countries, and the consequent lack of mutual knowledge and of sympathy between them. Diplomats were still distrusted, and it seemed that the definition of an Ambassador was then, as in the time of the Repub- lic of Venice, "an honest man sent abroad to lie for the good of his country." Arbitrary govern- ments could make war without any reference to popular feeling. Compared with present conditions, commerce was very limited, and transportation was slow. Wars of colonial conquest were waged to aid commerce by the monopolistic control of markets. But the first few years of the century saw the power of steam successfully applied to commercial transportation on the Hudson River. This was followed by a development, at first slow but after- ward rapid and enormous, of steam power in the transportation of persons and property on land and sea, and between all the nations of the world. The later inventions of the telegraph and the telephone have brought different countries into still more 60 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT intimate relations. In consequence of these inven- tions, and their influence upon international interests, the importance of well-ordered and peace- ful relations with other countries has impressed itself upon all commercial nations. Their material interests now demand the perpetuation of conditions of peace. There is another element in the improvement of the relations between the countries of the world which should not be forgotten. When the Mon- archs of Europe had finished their work of reorgan- ization after the Napoleonic wars, every government on the continent except Switzerland was monarchi- cal. The people's influence as far as possible was suppressed. But an unobserved liberal force was at work, and widely asserted itself in 1848 in a re- assertion of the rights of the people to a voice in the government. It was followed by important histor- ical sequences, and changed the map of Europe as established by the Vienna Congress. France became a Republic. Parliamentary governments were elsewhere introduced. The conflicting principali- ties and alien autocrats of Italy were overthrown. United Italy, with her free parliamentary institu- tions, was introduced by her ambassadors to the same autocratic governments which had resolved in 1822 that they would never permit popular govern- ment in Italy. Hungary won her autonomy ; and both Austria and Hungary established Parliaments. The many autonomous divisions of the German JOHN A. KASSONS ADDRESS 61 speaking peoples (Austria excepted) have been merged in the German Empire, with :a common Parliament. Parliamentary representation of the people has been established in ever} 7 country of Europe except Russia. Thus a common bond of popular right, and a common sentiment that these rights as well as private interests are endangered by imperial or royal wars, predispose them to peace with their neighbors. Nor should I omit to mention the introduction in the last half century of international Conferences for other than political purposes, and which have had a great influence in promoting peaceful rela- tions. So far as I remember, the first of these assemblies was invited by the United States in 1863 to meet at Paris. It was initiated by a graduate of this University, who was also appointed as the representative of the United States in the Confer- ence. It was composed of the representatives of thirteen governments ; and its object was to facili- tate and promote postal intercourse between all their peoples, by land and sea. Its resulting agreements simplified postal business, reduced greatly the postal charges, and produced a vastly increased intercourse through the mails. It has been fol- lowed by a succession of such Conferences, and by the organization of the admirable Postal Union now existing. This Union now embraces all the intelli- gent nations of the world, and has especially tended to the promotion of international friendships. Its 62 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT rules have become the most universally accepted of any relating to the intercourse of nations ; and may well suggest to thinking men a plan for further official conference of the nations in respect to other of their relations in peace and in war. This origi- nal conference has been followed by many other international assemblies, scientific and practical. Among them is the very important official Confer- ence which established the ' ' Red Cross ' ' Associa- tion, for the introduction of mercy into the savage usages of war. Many of them have been unofficial efforts to promote the peace of the world, and to encourage the formation of a Code of international law to be expressly sanctioned by governments. The tendency of all of them has been toward the preservation of peace among nations, the security of private rights which have heretofore been sacri- ficed in war, and toward the advancement of pros- perity in all nations. Nor should I fail to mention the introduction into international relations of the usage of voluntary arbitration for the settlement of their disputes. The United States has won an enviable distinction bv the frequent adoption of that method for the adjustment of vexatious questions which otherwise might have threatened a resort to arms. Her influence in the Congo Conference secured a pro- vision for the preservation of peace in Central Africa by recognizing the neutrality of the Congo region in case of conflict between European pro- JOHN A. KASSON'S ADDRESS 63 prietors of the territory. There is an increasing disposition in Western Europe, and in both the Americas, to resort to arbitration for the adjustment of a large part of the disputes likely to arise be- tween nations. It is one of the most encouraging signs of our century. We owe to the Emperor of Russia the assemblage of The Hague Conference, and the agreements there effected in the interests of peace. It remains to be seen how far the Powers will avail themselves of the agencies there provided for the security of international amity. The United States has already approved it by a resort to its tribunal. That institution will grow in importance according to the sincerity of the sig- natory Powers, to be shown by their resort to it for determining the justice of disputed international claims. One great provocation of war during the century was the conflict of undefined claims to the various regions subject to colonial acquisition, or in respect to which different governments contemplated control over the native tribes. The diplomatists of the colonial Powers have invented the term u spheres of influence." By treaty, or by more informal understanding, they have agreed to acknowledge certain defined regions as within the sphere of in- fluence of a particular Power. So far as this is done a possible future cause of war is removed, and the peace of the natives is not endangered by the rival jealousies of foreign powers. The latest act 64 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT of this description is the relinquishment by England to France of " influence " over the semibarbarous State of Morocco. This system may well be ex- tended by other European States to the countries south of the Danube, where wars for supremacy of influence are threatened. In fact, long before the invention of this diplomatic phrase, the declaration of Monroe as early as 1823 sought to exclude both of the Americas, so far as not already in foreign possession, from the sphere of European influence. If his proposition shall be accepted by Europe, as now appears probable, in exchange for non- interference by the United States in European affairs, it will go far for the preservation of peace in the future relations between the nations of Europe and America. The methods of warfare have also received an important modification in the last half-century by the abolition of privateering. This was expressly agreed to in 1856 by the leading naval Powers of Europe in case of war between themselves. The United States declined to sign the agreement unless it was accompanied by the abandonment of the right of capture of private property on the high seas by naval vessels as well as by privateers. Neverthe- less it is not probable that the United States will again resort to the issue of Letters of Marque. There is also reason to hope that European nations will yet agree to the exemption from capture of private property afloat, to the same extent as on JOHN A. KASSON'S ADDRESS 65 land. It rests on the same principle, — that captures should only be made of men engaged in war, and of property appropriated to the uses of war. Beyond this, it is in effect waging war against private per- sons who happen to be citizens of the enemy's state. The reasons given to justify it would equally apply to the capture at sea of private persons as prisoners of war, and to the seizure or destruction of private property on land. From the time of Darius, throughout the periods of Alexander of Macedon, of Roman subjugation, of Mohammedan expansion, and of Tamerlane, down to the times of Napoleon and of Bismarck, the great motive of destructive wars has been the desire of one nation to enlarge its territorial dominion, irrespective of rules of justice, or claim of right. Indeed, conquest however unjustifiable has been and still is recognized as the foundation of right to territorial possession. This element of injustice in international law can only be eradicated by time, and by the gradual correction of public opinion in accordance with Christian principles applied to nations. This advance has already begun. I think it safe to say that there is but one govern- ment in Kurope or America that would now make war upon another Christian nation avowedly for the conquest of its territory. I say upon another " Christian " nation, because the territory south of the Danube still occupied by Turkey was acquired 66 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT by her by conquest, and may probably be recon- quered and restored to Christian dominion by some European Power under claim of moral right. It is significant that all the cabinets of Europe and America, with the one exception of Russia, proclaim their armies and navies to be " defensive ' ' organ- izations. They would blush to acknowledge them as organizations for conquest. This indicates the potency of the sentiment in favor of peace. If this opinion of the tendency of the nations of both Europe and America shall be justified by future events, it will mark a glorious stride forward in international relations. However gratifying may be the progress of the last century, very much remains to be done for the advancement of international law in the present century. Its rules are yet to be codified, and ex- pressly sanctioned by the nations, and so converted into unquestionable law. It cannot be fully ac- complished by any one complete code, or in any given period of time. No strong government will commit itself to arbitration in every case of dispute, or to the abandonment of the right of war in all cases of quarrel. All governments will, however, agree to submit certain well defined and carefully classified questions of international difference to an impartial tribunal. Some governments will agree to submit certain questions to a neutral Power with a view to mediation before a resort to arms. Points of honor may be submitted to a neutral board of JOHN A. KASSON'S ADDRESS 67 honor without loss of national prestige. Occasions of dissension must be carefully distinguished, and so defined as to allow each government to accept so much of the codes of peace as it is willing to ex- pressly adopt. It is of vast importance to the future progress of the work to make beginning of a Code, however limited, which shall have the avowed sup- port of the great Powers. The minor governments w T ill hasten to concur. If Germany and England, with France and the United States, will lead the way, the majority of the world of civilization will gladly follow. The stigma of lingering barbarism will fall upon any nation which shall refuse its con- currence in such a movement. This is the great work to be accomplished in the XXth century. It is demanded alike by Christianity and by the material interests of all industrial nations. May some favored son of our University, begin- ning his studies in early life, win immortal honor by presenting to the nations the first brief Code which shall be expressly adopted by them ; and so lay the foundation of that which shall become in truth the international law of the world. THE UNIVERSITY AS A PRESERVER AND TEACHER OF THE EXPERIENCE OF NATIONS IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS BY CHARLES A. KENT, LL. D., 1856 The strong individual is, in his youth, often subject to wild irrational passions, which, unless controlled by reason based on experience, lead to ruin. Wisdom consists in the power of learning the proper lessons of life. Experience may be a hard school, but many, not fools, find it difficult to learn in any other. One of the greatest differences between men who gain the prizes of life, and those who fail, is in their aptitude to learn by experience. It is with nations much as it is with individuals. The strongest have the most powerful impulses to action. The great and growing nations of the world are seeking a constantly enlarging development. They are ever eager for changes, which are thought to be improvements. But national passions may be as irrational and as dangerous as those of indi- viduals. These passions need the correction de- rived from experience. Such experience on any subject is seldom complete in the lives of any generation. And where it is, the individuals die, CHARLES A. KENT'S ADDRESS 69 and their places are supplied by new men who have to learn the old lessons. Human nature is very much the same in all periods. The greater prob- lems are in substance perpetually recurring. Al- ways there are enthusiastic reformers, who have some speedy panacea for all political evils. The form of government has no great effect on these problems. Everywhere there is constant struggle for power. Everywhere the contestants are offering remedies for the public ills. In Democratic countries especially, wherever power is to be gained by the advocacy of any theories, however unreasonable and destructive, there will always be demagogues ready to support them. There are never wanting politicians who profess openly ' ' that they seek only to listen to the voice of the people" however irrational, and obey it. And if we study the platforms of our great political parties when preparing for an important contest, we shall find that their chief if not their only motive, is to make such professions as will be popular. No doubt there are times when political passions are so strong that the wisest leaders must bow to them or retire from power. But it is certain that no government can permanently prosper if led by the representatives of its most ignorant classes. Government is an increasingly complicated instru- ment. It is beyond the power of the wisest to manage it without blunders. The greatest danger to Democratic institutions has always been, and is 70 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT now, in the lack of appreciation by the mass of the people of the wisdom needed in governors. Many public officers are elected with hardly any consid- eration of their merits. We have governors and United States senators, whose sole qualification is wealth and political management. The ignorant will blunder. This disposition to ignore merit needs to be constantly fought. The appeals of enthusiasts and demagogues to popular prejudices and passions must also be resisted. And probably the most effective argument with Anglo- Saxon people lies in an appeal to experience, foreign as well as national. To him who knows history there are abundant illustrations of such evils. A knowledge of the great evils coming from incom- petent rulers, from the delusions of fanatics and the deceptions of demagogues is not to be found among the people in general. They are absorbed in the interests of the day. They cannot look far back- ward or forward. A knowledge of the experience of nations will seldom be found outside of the edu- cated classes, and these are mainly graduates from universities. Universities, when once firmly estab- lished, are among the most enduring of human institutions. Forms of government change and dynasties perish without affecting their permanence. The history of the great universities of Europe proves this. After seven centuries of existence Oxford and Cambridge bid fair to perish only with England. CHARLES A. KENT'S ADDRESS 71 Our university libraries contain the experience of the past. Nowhere else are books so likely to be preserved. It is the duty of the professors, each in his department, to master the past and show its relations to the present. The doctrine of evolution, whatever may be its demerits, has brought the connection of the past with the present more vividly to our view than ever before. The students of a great university must be taught this con- nection. They ought to study political history, not mainly out of curiosity, but that they may understand public affairs in their own time. Thu- cydides should be read for the light he throws on the political institutions of our day. The study of political history is most important in popular governments. It is especially impor- tant in countries like ours, which have greatly prospered under democratic institutions. We are in the great danger of attributing too much to these institutions and of despising the experience of other nations. We need to learn that the laws of political economy and of public morals can be violated with as little impunity as those of the natural world. With the great mass of studies demanding the attention of college students they can hardly be expected to acquire thorough knowledge of any department, but they should learn where to find the history of the past and a love for its study. They will then be able to complete their studies in after life. The great truth ought always to be 72 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT impressed, that trie present can be wisely lived only when guided by the experience of the past. There is much demand to-day for a practical education for teaching our youth the things which they must practice as men. This demand can be best met, not by narrowing college studies to the limit of the occupations in which the students are to engage, but by teaching all sciences in such way that the direct connection of past learning with the present may be plain. The hope of this and every other country is in young men thus educated. No doubt technical skill in all arts must be thoroughly taught. The inventive spirit must be cultivated. We need specialists in every department. But be- yond all these, we need men of calm common sense, broadly educated, able to see human life as it is, incapable of being deluded by appearances or of deluding others. Such men are needed to guide the public in all departments and especially in that of government. It is an accepted principle of our political life that the majority must govern, however ignorant or immoral. In no other department does this rule of numbers prevail ; and in government, it is not adopted as a perfect rule, but because no other ap- pears practicable. The state cannot divide men according to their wisdom and give each his proper share of political power. The rule of the majority should not be extended by needlessly en- larging the sphere of government. There are CHARLES A. KENT'S ADDRESS 73 better ways of ascertaining the merits of leaders in private life than by counting - noses. In choosing onr lawyers, doctors, professors, heads of great in- dustrial institutions and the like, we rely on experts and count majorities of the ignorant of no conse- quence. This privilege of choosing by merit should be surrendered only in matters essential to govern- ment. And the rule of the majority should not mean that of an uninstructed majority. Our rulers must be taught. And this duty falls with the greatest force on the graduates of our universities. They have been educated in vain if they do not, each according to his ability, act in the community where he resides as a conservator of all good institutions and an opposer of all public delusions. To do this, it is not necessary that university men should seek office or become party leaders. Political life is not to-day, perhaps it never was, a field fitted for a scrupulous conscience. There are many voters whose aims are purely personal. A large class of politicians, who manage the party caucuses and conventions, are working only for selfish rewards. It seems impossible for one ambitious of office not to seek the support of these classes. To do this, he must pay them either in money or in the promise of office. The power to make political bargains, often detrimental to the public good, appears almost indispensable to one who would get office or leader- ship in our great political parties. But one may be a teacher of the people without office and without 74 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT any close connection with any political party. The unselfishness of his motives may increase his in- fluence. There is a large and growing body of citizens on whom party allegiance sits lightly. They are willing to be instructed by any one who has made himself master of a subject. Where great principles are at stake, the influence of independ- ents may be decisive of a municipal or even a presidential election. And it sometimes happens that men who have been elected to office by the use of unscrupulous means are, when seated in power, ready to listen to intelligent advice. They seek a reputation among the best class of citizens, or posthumous fame, and they realize that these things cannot be given by the will of an ignorant majority. The great hope for the improvement of govern- ment, municipal, state and national, is in the wide diffusion of accurate knowledge among the voters of their true interests. Men in general vote either from their prejudices or from a calculation of their interests. The public good, as opposed to private interests, is an object too remote to control the many. It is necessary to convince the people that the public interest corresponds with their individual welfare. The experience of the past, properly un- derstood, shows this. The study of political history often brings en- couragement. Thoughtful men who see the injus- tice and the corruption of the present sometimes lose CHARLES A. KENT'S ADDRESS 75 heart, and feel that political destruction is inevitable. But the past often shows evils as great as those of the present. Political life has in all ages presented a struggle of the fiercest passions. It has seldom been a school for virtue. And yet society has some- how got on, and government is perhaps as pure now as it has generally been. Against the delusions of fanatics and the decep- tions of demagogues, the chief protection is an appeal to the experience of nations, our own, and that of others. The mission of educated men is to throw the light of science and history upon every public question as it arises. The recent experience of this country shows that much can be done by educated men, relying on the light of the past. For many years prior to 1896, we were threatened with the dangerous doctrine, that cheap money created by the government is the royal road to prosperity. To many the argument seemed simple and plain. The government must determine what shall be money. Whatever the government makes money must be received as such by all. The government had made money out of paper, and business seemed to be increased thereby. Then why should not this great power of government be used to make money abundant and cheap to all, so that interest may be reduced, or perhaps altogether done away, and the power of the lender over the borrower destroyed ? If the question had been a new one, these arguments, backed by the common 76 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT prejudice of the poor against the rich, had been hard to meet. But as every intelligent man knows, the attempt to make money cheap has been tried many times in history, and always with disastrous results. In the campaigns for sound money in 1896 and 1900 the educated men of the country were almost unanimous, and they took an extraordinary interest in the contest and, largely through their aid, a victory was won which has probably settled the question for this generation. Other questions are coming to the front which require a similar appeal to the lessons of experience. In some countries socialism has awakened a zeal, which a recent able writer in the North American has likened to that which produced the early tri- umphs of Christianity. To me, socialism in its extreme form, appears too impracticable, too un- thinkable even, to be dangerous. It will break down the moment any serious attempt is made to to put it into practice. But there is danger that the sphere of government will be slowly and insidiously increased, until the liberty of indi- vidual enterprise will be so reduced that able men can find no adequate employment save in govern- ment service, and government will become an all- embracing trust, ruled by those who, by whatever arts, can make themselves the leaders of a majority however ignorant. Men in power or seeking power are likely to desire the extension of governmental control, since this will increase their means of CHARLES A. KENT'S ADDRESS 77 rewarding their followers. And the laborers who are taught that all the products of labor belong of right to them, may be made to believe that govern- ment can furnish all needed capital without price. Against such an unnecessary and dangerous increase in the power of majorities, educated men may be called on to contend with all the arguments derived from experience and the scientific study of the laws of political economy. The struggles between capital and labor can be moderated by a wise study of the past. The abso- lute necessity of capital to labor and of labor to capital is obvious to any student. Neither can obtain a permanent victory over the other. Their wars are like other civil wars. They bring ruin to both sides, and, if widespread, the greatest loss to their common country. It is impossible to devise any specific which shall prevent employers and their employees from dis- agreeing, but these disagreements will become less frequent and less serious, if both sides can learn the lessons of history in reference to labor contests. There is no end to the work which thoroughly educated men are called upon to do in guiding aright public affairs. Occasions for the exercise of their influence are constantly occurring. Municipal corruption must be met by showing the results of such corruption in the cities of the past. And where in any cities such corruption has been resisted and overthrown , the means used must 78 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT be studied and imitated. The dangers of unscrupu- lous leadership stand out in vivid colors in the histories of Rome and Athens. We must be warned by their example if we would not follow it. May the next centennial of our University show that our people have learned to choose men, intrusted with political power, for their merits, and not as now sometimes occurs, for their unscrupu- lous self-advocacy. THE RELATION OF COLLEGE EDUCA- TION TO BUSINESS PURSUITS BY JOHN H. CONVERSE, LL. D., 1861 The relation of the University to business is a topic which has come to the front only in recent years. The time was when educators would have scouted the : idea of adapting a university curricu- lum to the requirements of a business career. The marked change which has come about has been, chiefly, in the last half-century. One indication of the new departure was in the establishment of technical Engineering and Agricultural schools. Another was in the rise and development of Busi- ness Colleges which can now be found in all our cities and towns. All these classes of institutions have been a silent protest against the lack of re- cognition of business needs in the great swirling torrent of modern social life. The final step has been the incorporation into the curriculum of the university itself, of special or elective courses yield- ing a training for the conduct of affairs in com- merce, in manufactures, in politics, and in other branches of industry. 80 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT We may now ask the question: Has this adapta- tion or diversion of educational methods to meet the demands of business been justifiable? At the outset it is necessary to define what we mean by "business." The term has a much broader significance now than it had 250 years ago, or 200 years ago, when the first American colleges were founded. Then it meant almost exclusively the retail sale of commodities. The transactions in- volved were of the simplest character. Barter, the exchange of one article for another, constituted the main function. Finance, as a science, was not involved. There was confessedly little room for eminent intellectual qualifications. There were no manufactures worthy of the name in this country prior to the Revolution. The English policy was to maintain its manufactures at home and to use its Colonies as consumers, receiving in exchange the products of the soil and the ocean. There were no inland transportation problems of importance. The pack horse or the Conestoga wagon was the sum of this interest. There was little or no commercial finance. Banks were few and inadequate for private enterprise. Legislatures were slow to grant charters. Banks were regarded rather as monopolies than as aids to business efforts. The legislature of Pennsylvania demanded a payment of $135,000 in consideration of the grant of a charter in 1804 to the Philadelphia Bank. JOHN H. CONVERSE'S ADDRESS 81 Insurance as a business was unknown, except as to marine risks. Life insurance, based as it is on scientific data, had not been evolved, and fire insur- ance was developed only toward the close of the eighteenth century. Such were the conditions when the original American colleges were founded. Small wonder that they did not recognize business pursuits, limited and simple as they then were, as fitting careers for their beneficiaries. On the contrary, their avowed object at the first was chiefly the training of men for the Christian ministry. The purpose of the founding of Harvard was stated to be ' ' in order that the Church might have able pastors, and that learning might not be buried in the graves of the Fathers." Yale was founded in 1701 by a number of Con- necticut ministers. The object set forth in the charter was ' ' that youth may be instructed in the arts and sciences, who through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for further employment both in Church and civil state." In contrast with the conditions originally pre- vailing, we may attempt to indicate what is included in the term ' 'business' ' to-day. Its significance has been greatly enlarged. It covers a vast range of processes and industries. It affords opportunities to utilize nearly every branch of learning included in a university curriculum. A single pursuit may call in play qualifications most diverse. 6 82 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Perhaps the leading pursuits which are covered by the general title ' ' business ' ' at this time are : Mercantile transactions, wholesale and retail. The importation and exportation of commodities. Transportation by railroad, by vessel, and other- wise. Insurance — fire, marine and life. Mines. Manufactures. Agriculture. Finance. What then, we may inquire, are the features of some of these varied vocations which may afford fitting fields for the abilities of college graduates ? As to Mercantile transactions : Their scope to- day is much broader than the mere sale of commodi- ties. Stocks of goods are purchased in the markets of the world. Foreign countries must contribute. Familiarity with the products and the processes of other lands is necessary. A knowledge of other languages is essential. Physical geography is an element. The details of manufacturing processes are involved. The buyer, possessing these quali- fications, is even more important than the seller. Then over all, or co-ordinating with all, is the executive management, involving ability in organ- ization and conduct, in finance, in importing, in shipping and in transportation. A business like Mr. Wanamaker's, for example, has 5,068 sales- people, and 6,243 employees other than salespeople, JOHN H. CONVERSE'S ADDRESS 83 such as buyers, managers, clerks, accountants, etc., who are seldom visible to the ordinary customer. Closely related to trade is Transportation. This with its movement of merchandise and passengers, has come to be one of the greatest interests of modern times. Independent of water carriage, the matter of land transportation by railways has become in this century, one of the largest indus- tries. The Unites States has now over 200,000 miles of steam railways, and over 30,000 miles of electric lines. It is a fair estimate that these give employment to nearly 1,500,000 operatives, and they in turn represent 7,500,000 men, women and children, or one-tenth of our population. In the conduct of this vast interest, a large variety of ability is demanded. Mechanical knowledge, engineering skill, scientific attainments, familiarity with agricultural and mineralogical conditions, executive force and financial ability of a high order, — all are required in the various functions of a successful railroad man. In fact, in the head of any great railroad system, a combination of many, if not all of these acquire- ments, is invaluable. Hence you will find in many cases that one who has the advantages of such a liberal education as an engineering or a professional course supplies, is naturally most competent for the leadership of these vast enterprises. Mr. Cassatt is a civil engineer by profession ; Mr. Baer, a lawyer. 84 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Another branch of business which has grown to large magnitude in modern times is Insurance. This is of comparatively recent origin. The method and plans of university education were formulated more than 100 years before the begin- ning of this interest. The first office for fire insurance in the United States was opened in Philadelphia in 1752. Today there are in our country thousands of companies and agencies. Another branch of the business, viz., Life Insur- ance, is of more recent growth. The Pennsylvania Company for insurance on lives and granting annuities was incorporated in 1812, and was followed by other corporations having similar objects; but the great business of life insurance as we now know it may be said to be only a little over fifty years old. In 1843 the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York and the New England Life Insurance Company began business. To-day the number of companies has greatly increased and the capital involved is immense. At the close of 1901 the assets of the various United States companies had reached the enormous aggregate of $1,879,624,564; with $7,500,000,000 in risks out. The assets of a single leading United States company, as last re- ported, approximated $350,000,000. The business of life insurance, therefore, involves the custody and maintenance of this enormous capital. Investments must be found for this vast sum of money. Business ability of a high order and of varied character is JOHN H. CONVERSE'S ADDRESS 85 required to pass upon the merits of the enterprises of all descriptions in which funds must be put to insure their safe preservation and liberal yield of income. Most of us perhaps have derived our ideas of life insurance from the irrepressible solicitor who makes life a burden to us until we have taken a policy. But this is only an incident and a small part of what is involved in this vast interest. Included in the realm of business is the enormous interest of Manufactures. To this we may give supreme position. It is the creation out of the raw material of nature, of articles for the comfort, conven- ience and happiness of mankind. If the old saying be true, that he is a benefactor of the race who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before, much more is it true that he merits the highest place among his fellows who transforms the crude substances of the earth into the finished pro- duct which makes for human welfare, and which differentiates civilized man from the savage. In the processes involved there is room for ability and knowledge the most varied and extensive. The command of man over nature elevates him to a godlike position. America has now taken a leading place among the manufacturing nations of the earth. In the variety and quality of products we are unsurpassed. Our textiles find a market in every land. Our agricultural machinery harvests the crops on the plains of Australia and the steppes of Russia. 86 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Our typewriters and sewing machines are manipu- lated by operators of every color and language. Our locomotives cross the deserts of Africa, convey the tourist to the holy city of Jerusalem, astonish the teeming millions of the Flowery Kingdom, and transport armies across the Siberian wilderness to the coming conflict in the Far Hast. The value of the exports of manufactured articles from us has risen to nearly $450,000,000 annually. I need only enumerate a few other pursuits which may be classed under the general head of business, such as Shipping, Banking, Mining, and Agricul- ture, to suggest the variety of opportunities and the opening for the attainments of the college graduate. With so vast a field of opportunity and pursuits of so varied character open to him, is an apology necessary for the entry therein of the college graduate ? Is it not rather justly required of him that he should take account of his qualifications and assure himself that he is fitted for any particu- lar pursuit in the great empire of business ? What then does a college education do for a man in qualifying him to take part in the struggle for success in a business career? And what is lacking in the equipment which the college training yields ? To the first question the answer may be given, that the training which a man gets in college is valuable for any pursuit. The ability to reason accurately and logically will count in business as well as in a profession. In general a broad culture JOHN H. CONVERSE'S ADDRESS 87 will be effective in enabling a man to have such a command of his faculties as will insure their use to the best advantage. In the next place, it is a fact that almost every- thing which one learns in college may be made useful, even in a business career. The require- ments are so varied and the duties so extensive that nothing comes amiss. Obviously this is especially true of the mathematics, the natural sciences, his- tory and literature ; and it is also true, to some extent, even of the languages. Of course, a knowl- edge of the modern languages is directly available, but some knowledge of the dead languages will often be found useful. A business man may have to compose not only letters, but statements, reports, and other documents, involving ability in the proper use of English. A good style and an effect- ive command of words will be valuable possessions. It is much to be desired that these qualifications should more generally attach to the college graduate than they do. It is also much to be desired that there should be no criticism of a qualification so simple as correct spelling. Unfortunately it is not always possible to predicate perfection on these points for the college man. All these qualifications, making for excellence in composition, will count, and will impress the public. It is expected of the graduate that he shall be, like Caesar's wife, "above suspicion" in these respects, and it is well if he can justify this feeling. 88 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT In this connection another accomplishment may- be mentioned which I fear is too often neglected in the modern college curriculum. I refer to public speaking. The ability to speak well, freely, logic- ally, and with some degree of grace and eloquence, counts for much, even in mercantile pursuits. It distinguishes a man and secures respect and admi- ration. I realize the fact that lawyers are more frequently found in public life than business men, and it may be largely attributed to their training as public speakers. This qualification brings them before the public, and there is nothing which so completely compels recognition and esteem. There is no reason why a business man with the gift of oratory, should not be, if otherwise fully educated, as competent for public service or political office as a lawyer. In fact, in handling most questions his qualifications would be superior. In legislation it is often the solution of questions of a business character which counts. A business man, there- fore, whose training has qualified him to grapple with such questions and who can express himself logically and forcibly in maintaining his views, will occupy a strong position in public life. I think it is a fact that the best lawyers are those who are also the best business men. Add to a knowledge of the methods and problems of business an equally thorough knowledge of the law as applicable thereto, and you have the highest type of a lawyer in our present state of society. Is not this a tacit recog- JOHN H. CONVERSE'S ADDRESS 89 uitiou of the value of business training and business methods ? To the second question, " What is lacking in the equipment which the college training yields ? ' ' the answer must be given that very little except the general culture is produced. Training for any specific pursuit is not included in the usual curric- ulum. The college does not consider it within its province to teach book-keeping, stenography, type- writing, or even penmanship and spelling. These are usually left to the business college. The graduate is without any specific qualifications for beginning a business career. In almost every business one of three things is required for a beginner. First, bookkeeping, if for the accounting department ; second, stenography and typewriting or penmanship, if for the general or correspondence department ; and third, special talent for the sales department. This is the trinity of business require- ments for the beginner. The college course does not give any one of them . The value of these is in gaining a foothold in business and not in filling any one of them for life. The young man beginning as a bookkeeper or stenographer achieves a con- nection with business and gains knowledge of the business. Other faculties will come into play and promotion to more important services will follow. In this way many men conspicuous for executive ability have begun their careers. It would be well if every college man had these qualifications, if he 90 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT contemplates a business career ; as they are not given in a college course, he must acquire them elsewhere. One of the secretaries in President Roosevelt's cabinet began his career as a sten- ographer. He has now the portfolio of Commerce and Labor. Mr. Andrew Carnegie began his career as a telegraph operator and railroad clerk, and the way was open for his attaining to the posi- tion of the greatest steel magnate of America. The problem is to find an opening ; and no matter how excellent the natural abilities of a young man may be, it is difficult for him to get the opportunity to exercise his abilities unless he can make himself useful in a business to do some specific thing, as I have mentioned. In discussing prospects and advantages in busi- ness for the college man of today, I recognize that the college course has little reference to business requirements. In my judgment, this is to be regretted. I believe a course should be followed which would ensure not only general culture, but training for a specific pursuit. Some American colleges today recognize this fact, and some have adopted a course on the following general plan : Let the curriculum for the first two or three years be the same as the course of Arts and leading to the Bachelor's degree ; then follow with an elective course of two years, or more if necessary, giving a training for the profession or vocation in view. JOHN H. CONVERSE'S ADDRESS 91 If the choice is a business career, the two years of elective studies should include such subjects as the mathematics, the natural sciences, history, com- mercial law, the modern languages, and incidentally, such practical subjects as bookkeeping, stenog- raphy, etc. Such a combined course as this would in no wise detract from the dignity of the course in Arts, but would supplement that course and give the graduate an equipment qualifying him for a business career. The original university curriculum was calculated as a training for the ministry, and from the begin- ning a training for the law, medicine and engineer- ing has required a supplemental course. It would be only logical that a training for a business career should be afforded in the same manner and should be built on the solid foundation of the broad culture which is afforded by the course in Arts. I am loath to abate one iota of the advantages and prestige of the usual college course. Let us concede all the advantages of the broad culture which that course implies, but let us add to it the special training which makes for success in practical affairs and for useful citizenship. There has been a great change of opinion and custom as to college education for business. The development of the material resources of the country, the institution of various departments of effort and enterprise which were unknown when our colleges were planned, have brought about this change. 92 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Not only is the business career more attractive, but it is more necessary. The brief survey of occupa- tions which I gave at the outset, as included in the realm of business, sufficiently indicates this fact. We must remember that when our colleges were first planned our urban population was small. Business was then largely confined to retail opera- tions. The country store, where the farmer exchanged his eggs for molasses or calico or cod- fish, was the prevailing type. Today nearly one- third of our population is in cities each of over 25,000 inhabitants. Mercantile business has been expanded and wholesale operations of vast proportion are the rule. Manufactures which were unknown in America are now prevailing interests throughout the country. The United States has become a manufacturing nation. Our exports of manufactured articles in recent years have neared the mark of value of $1,500,000 per working day. Scientific mining, insurance, shipping, transportation, — all these pre- sent inviting fields for young men of ability and training. Recognition of this fact is found in some of the college statistics. In the first half of the nineteenth century the percentage of Yale graduates in Busi- ness, as distinguished from the four professions of Theology, Law, Medicine, and Teaching, was 11 4-9. In the second half of the century, the percentage JOHN H. CONVERSE'S ADDRESS 93 had risen to 23 6-9. The following comments on these figures are from the Yale Review: 1 'The most striking fact brought to light by the table is the great increase in the graduates of the college pursuing a mercantile career. The propor- tion of business men in the first twenty classes of this century was temporarily high, — perhaps owing to the stimulus of the foreign wars and of our war of 1812, and of its after effects. Then the fraction fell to a low level in the twenties and early thir- ties. Beginning with the class of 1839, the fraction rose steadily with practically no set-back until the present time, rising most rapidly in the case of those graduating in the late forties, during the Civil War and during the seventies. From gener- ally occupying the fourth place in importance among the occupations of graduates, business rose to the third place with the class of 1842, to the second place during the Civil War, and will, presumably, wrest the first place from the legal profession. The general outcome of the movement, as indi- cated in the table, may be summed up as follows : The law during the past century has fairly uniformly enlisted one-third of each college generation. At the beginning of the century the ministry followed closely in second place. Roughly speaking, the law and the ministry were then chosen by two-thirds of the class. Nowadays, the law still holds its own, but the ministry has fallen off greatly iu relative importance ; its place has been taken by the mer- chant's vocation, which now attracts about one -third of the graduates. It is noticeable that in the course of the last eighty years covered by the table the sum of the figures for the ministry and of those for busi- ness, in each five-year period, fluctuates fairly closely about 37 per cent ; and that, with very few exceptions, a rapid fall in the figure for the ministry m UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT goes hand in hand with a rapid rise in the figure for business, and when the falling off in the ministry is retarded, the same is true of the rise of the figure for the business men. It would not be safe to conclude from this that the kind of men who formerly became clergymen now go into business, though this may be true to some extent. In any case, it is clear that the leadership which naturally falls to the college graduate in this country was formerly chiefly exerted from the bar and the pulpit; that nowadays, however, the industrial leaders are also largely recruited from among college graduates ; and that the typical college graduate of today is no longer the scholar, but the man of affairs." My conclusion is that the vast field of business not only offers possibilities to college men, unsur- passed by those of any other pursuit, but that opportunity is given for the use of all the acquire- ments that the university curriculum imparts. It is no longer necessary to apologize for the college man's entering business. He will find a demand, not only for all that the college course has imparted, but will confront the necessity of further special train- ing. His usefulness as a citizen will be one of the results ; and in this respect his opportunities will be fully equal to those afforded by the professions, the ministry alone excepted. THE RELATION OF THE UNIVERSITY TO PRACTICAL SOCIOLOGY BY DAVIS R. DEWEY, PH. D., 1879 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : In presenting my contribution to the conference we are holding today concerning the relations of the university to the different fields of human thought and activity, I hope that I may not introduce a depressing note into this anniversary occasion which should be so full of joy. From an abstract point of view the study of social diseases is not a pleasant pursuit ; some indeed take a morbid pleasure in the observation of unhealthy social conditions, find spontaneous joy in charity conferences, walk amid the slums with a holy ecstacy, and are thrilled by the conflicts of a labor war. The true reformer, however, is not so buoyant. Law, philosophy, literature, science, can each sing a beautiful song, while the sociologist disagreeably elbows his way to the front row to make his grumbling more audible. I do not know how to define my subject exactly in a single term which will leave no misunderstand- 96 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT ing. The theme does not exclusively concern politi- cal science, or political economy, or ethics. It is a mixture of all these. Possibly the relation of the university to practical sociology may cover the thought. At any rate let us hope that the defini- tion will be disclosed in the explanation. Human relationships appear in various forms, having for their objects various social ends which will enable men to live together in some sort of harmony and enjoyment. In the development of these relationships, society has passed through a good deal of experimentation and has been con- stantly adding to its equipment, until now the social mechanism is so elaborate, complex and delicate in its adjustments that we are bewildered when we attempt to separate the various forces. In the earliest centuries mankind was occupied in laying hold of the primary rules of personal conduct which make society possible. Honesty, good faith, filial respect, a reasonable amount of consideration for the rights of others, and other similar family vir- tues were absolutely necessary for the establishment and maintenance of any sort of social relationship. As far as the relationships of men were concerned, human thought, learning, and speculation were first devoted to religion and ethics. When society had got so far that men could live together with some measure of decent respect for each other, they began to be interested in another set of relationships, those which are concerned with DAVIS R. DEWEY'S ADDRESS 97 their political organization ; they speculated in regard to the privileges and duties of subject and ruler. How shall the state be supported ? What is the best form of state ? To ns these questions now seem quite elementary, but again it required centuries of discussion and adjustment to put this set of human relationships into good running order. Society had no sooner geared up this new politi- cal mechanism so that it ran smoothly, than she turned her attention to still another series of rela- tionships. It is an interesting coincidence that in the very year, 1776, which witnessed the successful establishment of new political machinery in the life of the American people, a great philosopher and eminent university professor, Adam Smith, gave academic notice to the world that new problems faced society . In his work on the causes of the Wealth of Nations, he devoted his profound intellect to the analysis of the forces by which men can produce wealth in abundance and distribute it with equity. This important contribution also coincided with the beginnings of revolutionary changes in industry ; and from that time to the present it is not too much to claim that the vital questions which concern society have centered around men in their economic relationships. The subject of political economy has gained many followers ; it has won worthy recog- nition in our universities, and has become an indispensable part of a liberal education. Much has 7 <>8 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT been expected of this new recruit in the army of learning and not in vain. Its conquests have been large and it has done an important service for right living and sane legislation. Political economy was at first interested in prob- lems of wealth production, by means of which our wants may be generously satisfied ; in the measure- ment of the standard of value ; and more recently, in the laws which determine the distribution of the wealth produced. But curiously enough, with all the truth which this new science has discovered, the perplexity of life has seemed to increase rather than to lessen. We have learned the primary rules of personal conduct ; we think we have discovered the structure of the best state ; we know something of the conditions which determine the satisfaction of man's material wants; and yet we find that social happiness is not attained. Something still is want- ing, and it is here that the newer task of the university is to be found. We have not yet learned how to adjust our industrial or economic relation- ships, which the new science and the great physical changes in the industrial world during the past century have produced. We do not yet understand the trick of adjusting and managing the mechanism which has been placed at our disposal. We have the engine and drive-wheel in place, but the cogs do not fit, the belting slips, the connecting rod breaks, and there is interminable loss and ruin. DAVIS R. DEWEY'S ADDRESS 99 I do not pretend to tell what the fundamental trouble is. Reformer after reformer thinks he has discovered the weak point and consequently has boldly announced a remedy. In the Inferno of Dante the spirit shades who dwell in the successive circles are separated according to their kinds. The nether world is partitioned off into halls and castles of sin and misery. Here are the irreligious, ignorant of their god ; here the immoral, carnal sinners swayed by lust ; near by, the souls of those whom anger overcame ; and far beyond, divided by an awful chasm, are the evil counselors of states, traitors and falsifiers. We thus find the immoral and ignorant, the bad politicians, the selfish, are treated in sections and subjected to the scrutiny of their visitor, each in his own well defined, appro- priate place. In the upper world there is no such simplicity. The irreligious, the evil counselors of state, and the self-seekers cross and recross, inter- mingle and jostle, until the warp and woof of society is in a sorry snarl and no man can disentangle the knot. The problem is greater than the genius of any one intellect, and can be solved only by the university of learning. Classes in this country are not founded on birth or ancestral privilege, and yet we have classes. The lines of demarcation may not be as sharply and enduringly drawn as under the older forms of class differentiation, but the difference between the employer and the employee ; the difference between 100 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT the rich who live on an income and the poor who subsist on wages, or charity ; the difference between Americans of English or Teutonic descent and the immigrants from southern Europe, who even among themselves inherit modes of life and traditions of thought widely separated from each other; — all these differences are real ones which cannot be smoothed over by chanting praises to free oppor- tunity or by shallow talk of equality. There is free shifting from class to class, but the fact that the traveller may freely cross from the sand desert to the fertile prairie, does not destroy the existence of the desert. Economic class cleavages are as real in their way as those determined by birth or by government. What is a class? Is it not a group of people marked by habits and customs of its own, charac- terized by a very definite and distinct standard, living and thinking a philosophy which has been crudely developed from its own narrow experience ? The organization of industry as it exists in large sections of this country has separated the real owner and employer of capital long distances from contact with his workman ; the rapid growth of the modern city, with its districts devoted to fashion and to slum, has put miles of space between the rich and the poor ; the strange speech of immigrants, unknown to our geography, has made us helpless in our intercourse. No wonder that we are burdened with problems without number, so that it is^ well- DAVIS R. DEWEY'S ADDRESS 101 nigh impossible to keep track of our subscriptions to societies which have been created for their indi- vidual treatment. Nor can we expect to get rid of these class cleav- ages, unless we propose to destroy the forces which are producing them. As long as we permit immi- gration we must expect the Italian quarter, the Polish quarter, the Greek quarter, and the Syrian quarter. As long as industry is organized on the principle of contract between two persons, the one a buyer of labor and the other a seller of labor ; and as long as capital and labor are massed with ponder- ous weight into great individual enterprises in order to secure maximum efficiency, we shall have a labor problem with classes of employers and classes of laborers. As long as some men are more richly endowed or better trained than others in the pro- duction of wealth or in bargaining with their fellow men, so long we shall have the rich and the poor. As long as we permit cities to grow, creating the need of new standards of conduct which many in their ignorance or degradation cannot reach, so long we shall have the problems of city life, crime, charity, and the saving of children. If the existence of class cleavages is admitted, and if it be also admitted that these are likely to multiply under present tendencies, the need of the application of systematic study and learning to their analysis, character and treatment is at once apparent. As long as the relationships of men 102 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT were individual, it was possible to rely upon the rough and stern experience of individual clashing with individual. There will be many failures in these adjustments, but there will also be many successes. If we substitute classes for individuals, we reduce the number of experiments and multiply the damage when a mistake is made. Manufac- turers at the present time are struggling with the question of the closed shop, or the exclusion of non- union labor from employment alongside of union labor. The selfishness of the workman who de- clares that he will not work with a laborer not belonging to his organization is severely denounced. All this arraignment may be justified if it concerns an individual case, but most of us are forgetting that we are dealing with a class question. The problem will not be solved by the treatment of individual cases, but must be met by a considera- tion, not only of the principles of true unionism as a whole, but also of the still more fundamental question, the nature of the labor contract. Mr. Mitchell in his recent book on organized labor opens the first chapter with the depressing state- ment that the laborer of today does not expect to rise out of his class. The philosophy of his book is permeated through and through with the principle of class consciousness, and whatever may be our individual views in regard to the treatment of individual cases in industrial warfare, little headway will be made in the settlement of the general ques- DAVIS R. DEWEY'S ADDRESS 103 tion until this attitude of class consciousness on the part of a great number of labor leaders is clearly recognized. The wise administration of charity in a large city demands the widest range of knowledge. It is more than a question of individual relief ; it in- volves the study of race characteristics ; of the forces which move whole villages to emigrate and settle within our territory, and also of the capacities which these foreigners may possess of becoming successful bread-winners in this, their new home. The distance between cause and effect has been immensely lengthened within the past fifty years. The farmer in an inland town through which the railroad passes hears with amazement and indig- nation a train invading the quiet of his retreat on Sunday. He demands that travel be suspended, in his town at least. He little understands the conditions of freight and passenger traffic at the great termini, hundreds of miles apart, which con- trol the operation of trains at intermediate points. His opposition proves stupid or unavailing. Only learning can meet these new conditions. There must be understanding of the groups before points of contact between them can be established. Not only does class cleavage make our under- standing so much more difficult ; it also dulls the human sympathy which must enter into the settle- ment of all questions in which human relationships are involved. A high standard of personal conduct 104 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT lias never been developed unless social units are in sympathy with lofty precepts ; there can not be a true democracy unless citizens are in sympathy with civic equality ; there can be no settlement of humanitarian questions unless there be a united conviction based upon sympathetic feeling and trust in the reasonableness of the settlement. The uni- versity is a school of sympathy. Through knowl- edge we do not necessarily become tolerant of error, but rather inspired with the impulse to remove the causes of error. It is encouraging to know that the university has begun to recognize its new responsibilities. The number of courses of instruction in applied eco- nomics is increasing, and in addition to these there is a beginning of academic teaching in practical sociology. For example, in Harvard University there is a course on the problems of poor-relief," the family, temperance, and various phases of the labor question in the light of ethical theory. At the University of Wisconsin there is a course on charity and correction, described as a study of the dependent class with special reference to the slum conditions in London, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia ; of the defective class and the insti- tutional treatment of this class ; of the delinquent class and the causes and prevention of crime, prison management and discipline. Further illustration of the influence of the university in social investiga- tion is the establishment of university settlements, DAVIS R. DEWEY'S ADDRESS 105 outposts of investigation and inquiry by trained students prepared not only to aid the district in which they are located, but also to bring back the true analysis of the social territory which has been surveyed. Our legislatures and executive departments are turning to university-trained men and experts for advice and for the preparation of plans of economic and sociological inquiry. These appreciations are encouraging, but when we consider that these problems are omnipresent and in one phase or another penetrate every section of our land, we must be at once convinced that the university of learning must press forward with zeal and vigor. Our college, Mr. President, has played no mean share in the great university of learning. Sympa- thetic and tolerant to all arts and sciences, she has recognized the importance of political and social science. Although pushed back into but a corner of this great continent, this institution has given stimulating instruction, which has helped her students to wider outlooks, and fitted them to walk through the tangle of life, if not with complete wisdom, at least w T ith caution and hope. For this, Mr. President, we wish to thank and honor you and our University. PHILOSOPHY AND AMERICAN NATIONAL LIFE BY JOHN DEWEY, PH. D., 1879 It is today generally recognized that systems of philosophy however abstract in conception and tech- nical in exposition, lie, after all, much nearer the heart of social, and of national, life than superficially appears. If one were to say that philosophy is just a language, one would doubtless give occasion for rejoicing to those who already believe that phi- losophy is "words, words, words " ; that it is only an uncouth terminology invented and used for the mystification of common sense. Yet mathematics, too, is only a language. Much, most, depends upon what the language is of and about. And, speaking roundly, philosophy is a language in which the deepest social problems and aspirations of a given time and a given people are expressed in intellectual and impersonal symbols. It has been well said that philosophy is a reflective self- consciousness of what first exists spontaneously, effectively, in the feelings, deeds, ideas of a people. Even were it not true (as I believe it to be true) that philosophical problems are in last analysis but JOHN DEWEY'S ADDRESS 107 definitions, objective statements, of problems which have arisen in a socially important way in the life of a people ; it would still be trne that to be ' 'under- stood of men," to make its way, to receive con- firmation or even the degree of attention necessary for doubt and discussion, a philosophy has to be conceived and stated in terms of conditions and factors that are moving generally in non-philosophic life. It is not a futile question to ask after the reciprocal influences of American national life and American philosophy. It is reasonably sure, however, that the answer is not to be sought in some special philosophic -ism. We may discount the belief current in Burope that American philosophy is bound to be a system if not of Materialism, at least of Mechanicalism ; a highly "positive," non-spiritual type of thought. We may dismiss the idea of an American author that our philosophy is sure to be Realism, because the Americans are so essentially a hard-headed people. Not in such wholesale and exclusive labels are we to look for what we are after, but rather in certain features which color the atmosphere, and dye the spirit of all our thinking. American philosophy must be born out of and must respond to the demands of democracy, as democracy strives to voice and to achieve itself on a vaster scale, and in a more thorough and final way than history has previously witnessed. And democracy is something at once too subtle and too complex and too aspiring to be 108 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT caught in the meshes of a single philosophical school or sect. It is, then, to the needs of democracy in America that we turn to find the fundamental problems of philosophy; and to its tendencies, its working forces, that we look for the points of view and the terms in which philosophy will envisage and solve these problems. The relation of the individual to the universal is one of the oldest, one of the most con- troverted, at some periods seemingly one of the most barren and merely metaphysical, of all prob- lems. But the question gets a new force and a new meaning with us. It is born again. It is the question of the possibility and the validity of the way of life to which we have committed ourselves. To the individual we have appealed ; to the court of the individual we must go. Is the individual capable of bearing this strain ? What is there in his make-up that justifies such dependence ? Is the attempt inherently foredoomed to failure because of the feebleness and corruptness of the instrumental- ity and the instability of the end we have set up? Such questions are, indeed, to the forefront of all thinking since the origin of Protestantism and of political and industrial liberty. But in a country which is externally detached, which has physically severed the ties and traditions that bind it to sys- tems of action and belief which give the individual a subordinate and incidental, or else a merely transcendental and, as it were, Pickwickian, place JOHN DEWEY'S ADDRESS 109 in the scheme of things, such questions take on at once a more vital and a changed significance. It is no longer primarily a question of the logical individual, but of the concrete individuality ; not of Socrates as just a stock example or sample about which discussion may turn, but of a living John Smith, his wife and his children and his neighbors. If our civilization is to be justified we must reach a conception of the individual which shows, in gen- eral and in detail, the inherently significant and worthful place which the psychical, which the doubt- ing, hoping, striving, experimenting individual occupies in the constitution of reality. We must know why and how it is that it is neither the way nor the end of the individual fitfully and imper- fectly to reproduce some universe of reality already externally constituted and externally complete in itself, and set as a model for him to copy and conform to. We must know it is his method and his aim to add to, to complete and to perfect, even in his faiths and strivings and errors, a reality which he is needed to fulfill. If our civilization is to be directed, we must have such a concrete and working knowledge of the individual as will enable us to furnish on the basis of the individual himself substitutes for those modes of nurture, of restraint and of control which in the past have been supplied from authorizations sup- posedly fixed outside of and beyond individuality. It is no accident that American philosophy is even 110 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT in its present incipient and inchoate style per- meated with psychological data and considerations. This, I take it, is not accounted for by saying that the American mind is interested more in positive observation than in metaphysical speculation, in phenomena rather than in ultimate explanations. It means that in some very true sense the individual with which psychology deals now is an ultimate ; and that henceforth the metaphysical question of the nature and significance of the individual is bound up with the scientific problem of his actual structure and behavior. Because the concrete indi- viduality is a body as well as a soul, because through his body he is in multiple and complicated relations of stimulation and response to a natural and social environment, such psychology, moreover, must include the physiological and the experimental methods along with the more directly introspective. This again is not materialism nor display of talent of mechanical ingenuity. It is a sincere, even while subconscious, recognition of the fundamental ethical importance attaching to the actual play of individuality in the conditions of our life. So we might go through, one by one, the historic problems of philosophy with a view to indicating that American philosophy does not cut loose from the past to begin a provincial career on its own account ; nor yet settles the historic problems off- hand in the terms of some one philosophical school ; but that it has inevitablv to reconceive and to JOHN DEWEY'S ADDRESS 111 rebeget them in the light of the demands and the ideals contained in our own national life-spirit. One might suggest, for example, that the question of the relation of mind and matter is revised when it is seen as the abstract form of the problem of the relation of the so-called material, that is, industrial and economic life, to the intellectual and ideal life of a democracy, and particularly to the ethical demands of democracy for a just distribution of economic opportunity and economic reward. One might even show how the entire dualism of mind and matter haunting the footsteps of historic phi- losophy is, at bottom, a reflex of a separation of want, of appetite, from reason, from the ideal, which in turn was the expression of non-democratic societies in which the ( ' higher ' ' and spiritual life of the few was built upon and conditioned by the "lower " and economic life of the many. But since any detailed treatment of philosophic questions is not here in place, I conclude with a few words upon the subject of method. An absence of dogmatism, of rigidly fixed doctrines, a certain fluidity and socially experimental quality must char- acterize American thought. Philosophy may be regarded as primarily either system or method. As system, it develops, justifies and delivers a certain definite body of doctrine. It is taken to discover, or at least to guarantee, a more or less closed set of truths which are its peculiar and exclusively appro- priate object. Its worth is measured by the finality 112 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT and completeness of this independent and exclusive body of doctrines. Mediaeval philosophy is a typical example of what I mean, but the idea did not pass away with the waning of scholasticism. It animates as an ideal most philosophic thought of later times. Or, if questioned, it is questioned only in the interests of scepticism. But there is also struggling for articulation a conception of philosophy as prim- arily method : — system only in the sense of an arrangement of problems and ideas which will facil- itate further inquiry, and the criticism and construc- tive interpretation of a variety of life-problems. This point of view is not sceptical. It is not undog- matic in the sense of mere looseness of definition and avoidance of classification, nor yet in the sense of a careless eclecticism. But it aims at a philoso- phy which shall be instrumental rather than final, and instrumental not to establishing and warranting any particular set of truths, but instrumental in furnishing points of view and working ideas which may clarify and illuminate the actual and concrete course of life. Such a conception of the aim and worth of philoso- phy is alone, I take it, appropriate to the inherent logic of our America. Philosophers are not to be a separate and monopolistic priesthood set apart to guard, and, under certain conditions, to reveal, an isolated treasury of truths. It is theirs to organize — such organization involving, of course, criticism, re- jection, transformation — the highest and wisest ideas JOHN DEWEY'S ADDRESS 113 of humanity, past and present, in such fashion that they may become most effective in the interpreta- tion of certain recurrent and fundamental problems, which humanity, collectively and individually, has to face. For this reason philosophers must be teachers as well as inquirers. The association of these two functions is organic, not accidental. Hence the connection of philosophy with the work and function of the University is natural and inevitable. The University is the fit abode of philosophy. It is in the University that philosophy finds the organ, the working agency, through which it may realize its social and national aim. I recognize that this treatment of the relation of philosophy to University teaching and to national life has conveyed only vague, although unfortu- nately not glittering, generalities. Generalities, indeed, are all the occasion permits or requires. But vagueness, in the present formative condition of national life and of philosophy, inheres in the very situation. It were all too easy to gain a seem- ing definiteness and finality by paying the price of a certain falsity and unreality. It is, however, unsuitable to the occasion and to the filial gratitude due my Alma Mater to conclude otherwise than with a recognition of the profound and vital con- sciousness evinced by the University of Vermont from the day of its foundation, of the import of phil- osophy, — directly for its own students and through them for the nation. THE NATURE OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION BY JAMES R. WHEELER, PH. D., 1880 When I was honored a few weeks ago with an invitation to take part in this conference, I must confess that I was a little puzzled to know how I was to treat in a few minutes' time any important topic under the heads of education and scholarship, from either of which general themes I was asked to select a subject. I felt — and still feel — myself somewhat in the position of a friend of mine, a Shakespearean scholar, who was asked to give a five-minute talk on Hamlet. However, the request of our Alma Mater at this season is in the nature of a command which may not be disobeyed, and I shall therefore try to say a few words on the subject of a Liberal Education — its nature and purpose. I dare say my remarks will seem trite enough to many of you, but amid the great specialization of modern life it is not always easy to keep hold on simple educational truths which are fundamental, and so it becomes worth while now and then to restate such truths. Perhaps, too, this topic may not appear to be very closely related to the general subject of our conference, "The influence of the JAMES R. WHEELER'S ADDRESS 115 University in the world," but it is closely related to the conception of education which defines the functions and limits of a University, and it is a vital element in the present active discussion of the problems of university education. As yet we are only beginning to realize the nature of true University work and to perceive how totally inadequate the old popular American idea of a University really is — a college with a collection of professional schools about it, medical, legal, technical, etc., with graded courses of instruction which are adapted to definite and fixed careers in the social structure. A larger and less limited idea of the University began to find realization among us a little over a quarter of a century ago, and now in various parts of our broad land we may witness the gradual growth of a truer University ideal, which is revealing itself with all the slow and safe conservatism that characterizes healthy changes in education and politics. Coinciding with this development in higher education, and no doubt in part causing it, we have been watching for a still longer time the gradual metamorphosis of the old American college, the institution which has for so many years been the expression of the popular ideal of liberal education. Many have lamented these changes, which now and then have appeared to involve some loss and which have certainly for a time confused the general conception of liberal training, so that today one sometimes hears criti- 116 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT cisms of collegiate work which look as if some reaction against the new-found freedom in the choice of studies was likely to set in. But the old order passed away naturally and inevitably under the pressure of the many new subjects which over- loaded the college curriculum, and whatever system or systems shall eventually issue from the present somewhat confused state of affairs, it seems highly improbable that anything like the former scheme could or should be revived. The feature in the situation produced by these educational changes which may rightly cause anxiety is not so much the loss of this or that study from a given course which a student pursues, as the loss of a popular belief that there is such a thing as a liberal education. This seems to me much more important than the question of the duration of col- legiate training, which may well be different for dif- ferent persons. How much obscured this belief may become is seen in one way by the number of different degrees which are often given for what is thought to be collegiate or liberal training. When we have A. B.'s and Ph. B.'s and B. L.'s, and heaven knows what, in one place and another (not indeed everywhere), is it at all wonderful that the essential difference between collegiate training and that of technical schools, which are properly professional, should be overlooked by many? Why not add a few more degrees and consider that the engineer, the chemist and the student of agriculture has also JAMES R. WHEELER'S ADDRESS 117 had what is called a liberal education ? I ain far from wishing to make any comparison of the merits of one form of training with those of another. Such comparisons are about as foolish and futile as those between the merits of the sexes. All forms of educational training are of course valuable, but they are valuable for different purposes in our complex social structure, and our recent educational development has greatly tended to confuse the con- ception of what is liberal and what professional, a distinction often very difficult and in some cases impossible to draw, as we approach details. But when we come to consider the effect produced on mind and character by different forms of educa- tion great caution is necessary, since the formal part of an individual's training is often the lesser part of the whole process. I am reminded of a witty remark once made to me by an eminent gen- tleman in a leading university where the question of requiring Greek was under discussion. He said, "I used to believe in this requirement, but when I heard all the members of the Greek department argue for it, I perceived that no one of them possessed the qualities which all said came from a study of Greek, and so I have come to doubt the soundness of my former belief." Probably this was a somewhat unfair statement of the case, but the anecdote suggests the undoubted truth that most of us tend to exaggerate the general intel- lectual and moral effect of studies through which 118 UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT we ourselves are conscious of having attained growth and inspiration. And if this be true with reference to the effect of particular studies, it is of course true in the case of systems of education, since life itself must after all remain the great educator; and so the experience of men who, like Odysseus of old, have seen the cities of men and have known man's mind may frequently supply the lack of early liberal training. Studies, as Bacon says, "teach not their own use ; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation." Yet, while we admit the fact that no system of education makes the man more than in part, we need not minimize the importance of the role to be assigned to early liberal study in the formation of mental and moral traits, or take a pessimistic view of the future of the American College as the home of liberal study, if only it shall continue to uphold the idea of such study with definiteness, wisely adapting this idea to meet the real and essential needs of the hour. What then is this idea, and how amid the sharp competition of the different fields of study which lie before the student are we to apprehend its essential quality? When a student undertakes to fit himself to be a practicing physician, or a lawyer, or an engineer, to train himself in fact for any definite career, or when as a worker at the University he undertakes some special line of research, he of course aims at JAMES R. WHEELER'S ADDRESS 119 something which is perfectly definite and obvious. The idea and purpose which underlie his efforts are easily apprehended by anyone. But when he seeks what we call a liberal education, many honestly think that time is wasted (and for some minds it probably is); but in general such an opinion simply betrays a lack of imagination on the part of him who holds it. It shows him to be in the largest and truest sense unpractical, since it leaves out of account any well directed attempt to produce what that intensely practical man Aristotle would have called a e£i ' ■■■■"'■■■■.''•■•''''•■'.