ASSOCIATE EDITORS,
CHARLES RICE, Ph. D.
CHARLES F. CHANDLER, Ph. D., M. D., L.L.D., etc.
ARTHUR H. ELLIOTT, Ph. D., F. C. S.
HENRY H. RUSBY, M. D.
VIRGIL COBLENTZ, A. M., Ph. G., Ph. D.
THE ABILITY OF CONSTRUCTION.
At this stage of the world’s history men of ability and even of genius in a certain sense are not rare. The result is that in all of our institutions of learning the requirements become more stringent and by the time graduation arrives we see the survival of only the very best men. We find the same classes of men throughout life that we find in college—we find men of energy and slothfulness, men devoted to pleasures and by nature politicians, men of ability of construction and men of power in criticism. While at College the training to-day is chiefly analytical and the result is that men are prone to examine everything closely and some even learn to take delight in tearing things to pieces. There are some men who are utterly ruined so far as their inward happiness and that of those about them is concerned by their critical tendencies. They do this to the detriment of their own energies and abilities of construction and hence never or but seldom build anything, but employ their days in tearing down what others have built. The critic is necessary and essential in every department of labor where human thought is allowed entrance. Criticisms that are honest always help the builder and are a gain to posterity.
It is questionable if it is desirable for the conscientious young man to encourage in his life a too critical tendency. It is not necessary to look at the bright side of the affairs of life, or even to look upon men charitably, so to speak. It is sufficient for every young man especially to look upon events of life as they are. It is decidedly important for the man of aspiration to look upon life with its duties when he has had sufficient rest and food and exercise. Wrongs may be righted and errors corrected in but two ways: the thoughtful way and the thoughtless way. The thoughtful way is always attendant of health and with a broad minded and large hearted individual. It is not our desire, however, to dwell too long upon the subject in the abstract as we are anxious to reprint the closing words of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge’s Phi Beta Kappa oration delivered last June at Harvard College. He said in closing:
“How then is a university to reach the results we ought to have from its teachings in this country and this period? Some persons may reply that it can be obtained by making the university training more practical. Much has been said on the point first and last, but the theory, which is vague at best, seems to me to have no bearing here. It is not a practical education which we seek in this regard, but a liberal education. Our search now and here is not for an education which shall enable a man to earn his living with the least possible delay; but for a training which shall develop character and mind along certain lines.