Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SCHOOL, COLLEGE, AND CHARACTER FATHERS, MOTHERS, AND FRESHMEN BY virtue of the authority committed to me," says President Eliot on Commencement Day, " I confer on you the first degree in Arts; and to each of you I give a diploma which admits you, as youth of promise, to the fellowship of educated men." The college sends her alumni into the world with nothing more than a warrant that they are presentable intellectually. Yet her unwritten and unspoken purpose is not so much intellectual as moral; and her strongest hope is to stamp her graduates with an abiding character. A college stands for learning, for culture, and for power; in particular, it stands for therecognition of an aim higher than money- getting. It is a place where our young men shall see visions; where even the idlest and lowest man of all must catch glimpses of ideals which, if he could see them steadily, would transfigure life. The Bachelor of Arts is seldom, on his Commencement Day, a scholar either polished or profound ; but he may be in the full sense of the word a man. Though the responsibility of the Alma Mater for the manhood of her sons gets little formal recognition, whoever loves her feels it none the less, and knows that her good name depends not so much on her children's contributions to learning as on their courtesy, their efficiency, their integrity, and their courage. The college herself, as represented by her governing bodies, feels this deeply, in a general way, but does not know and cannot find out how far her responsibility reaches into details. Intellectual discipline she professes and must provide, — subjects ofstudy old and new; instructors that know their subjects and can teach them: and she is happy if she has money enough to make these things sure. Thus beyond what is spent for the ...