Part 10 (1/2)
The dollar stands out so strongly in all the undertakings of life that the ideal is often lowered or lost, the artistic suffers, the soul's wings are weighted doith gold The co down to its dead, sordid level It is the subtle raduate's a info your vision_ The money-God, which nearly everybody worshi+ps in some form or other, will tempt you on every hand
Never before was such pressure brought to bear on the trained youth to sell his brains, to coin his ability into dollars, to prostitute his education, as to-day The co, that it takes a strong, vigorous character to resist their te which bears little relation toof the , so overwhel that it often drowns the still small voice which bids one follow the call that runs in his blood, that is indicated in the very structure in his brain
Tens of thousands of young people just out of school and college stand tiptoe on the threshold of active life, with high ideals and glorious visions, full of hope and big with promise, but ion; the fatal ger their ambition with its vicious virus, and, after a few years, their fair college vision will fade, their yearnings for soradually die and be replaced by material, sordid, selfish ideals
The most unfortunate day in a youth's career is that one on which his ideals begin to grow diin to drop; that day on which is born in hierm, which so often warps and wrenches the whole nature out of its legitiuard to resist the attack of this gero out into the world, powerful influences will be operative in your life, tending to deteriorate your standards, lower your ideals, and encoarsen you generally
When you plunge into the swis, you will be constantly thrown into contact with those of lower ideals, who are actuated only by sordid, selfish aims Then dies the man, the woman in you, unless you are h and noble thing which the college diploma stands for presents to that which many owners of the diploma stand for a quarter of a century later! It is often difficult to recognize any relationshi+p between the two
Araduates, who are so transfor influences of the schools and colleges which are educating thenizable by their own tribes when they return ho influences operating upon thein to shed their polish, their fine eneral culture; the Indian blanket replaces their radually drift back into their forain
The influences that will surround you when you leave college or your special training school will be as potent to drag you down as those that cause the young Indian to revert to barbaris froh ideals and beautiful promise in which you have lived for four years to that of a very practical, cold, sordid materiality will be a severe test to your character, your , whose education counts for anything ought to be able to resist the shock, to withstand all teht to be able to do soher thancan not co infinitely better than to be a millionaire of money, and that is to be a millionaire of brains, of culture, of helpfulness to one's fellows, a rees you carry froe, whatever distinction you may acquire in your career, no title will ever mean quite so entleman
”A keen and sure sense of honor,” says Ex-President Eliot, of Harvard University, ”is the finest result of college life” The graduate who has not acquired this keen and sure sense of honor, this thing that stae education can ireat block of pure white marble, stands untouched before you You hold the chisel and mallet--your ability, your education--in your hands There is so in the block for you, and it lives in your ideal Shall it be angel or devil? What are your ideals, as you stand tiptoe on the threshold of active life? Will you smite the block and shatter it into an unshapely or hideous piece; or will you call out a statue of usefulness, of grace and beauty, a statue which will tell the unborn generations the story of a noble life?
Great advantages bring great responsibilities You can not divorce theations
There is coupled with it a responsibility which you can not shi+rk without paying the penalty in a shriveled soul, a stunted mentality, a warped conscience, and a narrow field of usefulness It is rovel, to stoop to mean, low practises, than for a man who has not had a liberal education The educated s, and he is expected to look up, not down, to aspire, not to grovel
We cannot help feeling that it is worse for awho has had all the benefits of a liberal education, than it is for one who has not had glies, because where ht to expect that wherever there is an educated, trained man people should be able to say of hioes a raduate, having once faced the light and felt its poill not turn his back on it; that he will not disgrace his _aliven him his superior chance in life and opened wide for hiht to expect that a man who has learned how to use skilfully the tools of life, will be an artist and not an artisan; that he will not stop growing Society has a right to look to the collegian to be a refining, uplifting force in his community, an inspiration to those who have not had his priceless chance; it is justified in expecting that he will raise the standard of intelligence in his community; that he will illustrate in his personality, his finer culture, the possible glory of life It has a right to expect that he will not be a victi influence of avarice; that he will not be a slave of the dollar or stoop to a greedy, grasping career: that he will be free fronoraiven superior opportunities, it si out of the ordinary for your fellows; a specialhas been put in your hand, its significance is that you should light up the way for the less fortunate
If you have received a norance and bigotry, you have no right to suppress it
Your education ation to live your life up to the level of your gift, your superior opportunity Your duty is to deliver your or, and force you possess
What shall we think of a ifts, who has had the inestie of a liberal education, who has ability to ameliorate the hard conditions of his fellows, to help to eery; what shall we think of this man, so divinely endowed, so superbly equipped, who, instead of using his education to lift his fellowthem doho employs his talents in the book he writes, in the picture he paints, in his business, whatever it may be, to ht as a decoy to lure his fellows on the rocks and reefs, instead of as a beacon to guide the into our houses and stealing, but what shall we do with the educated rascal who uses his trained ifts to ruin the very people who look up to hi you can do is to be what you ought to be”
A great man has said that no man will be content to live a half life when he has once discovered it is a half life, because the other half, the higher half, will haunt hiher life Never lose sight of your college vision
Do not permit yourself to be influenced by the maxims of a low, sordid prudence, which will be dinned into your ears wherever you go Regard the very suggestion that you shall coin your education, your high ideals into dollars; that you lower your standards, prostitute your education by the practise of lon, sordid hest thing insuccess, surely the lowest, the worst, cannot_”