174
THE YALE PRESIDENCY.
A Plea for a Business Man, and for
Less Worship of the Golden Calf.
S "67 fleld
tter from Yale ‘67 in the Spring
oi cal Republican. ]
I find myself largely at one with the
advocates of the Old as contrasted with
the advocates of the New at Yale, in
their insistence on the validity of the
old idea of a college education,—one,
namely, which shall give the mental
faculties a discipline distinct in charac-
ter from the attainment of knowledge
as such. The case seems to me exactly
analogous to the difference between
muscular exercise in a gymnasium and
such muscular exercise as the mechanic
or farm laborer puts forth. In the one
case, the quest is for agility and strength
as such; in the other, for the results
of the exercise of strength and agility.
When, in the past, college instructors
have been charged with graduating stu-
dents who had small store of available
knowledge at command, the entirely
just and pertinent answer has been pos-
sible, that the student has been grad-
uated with a mind adapted to the ready
acquisition of all knowledge. In a
sense, the distinction is a fine one, and
yet really a vital, broad and very im-
portant one, and I should hope no man
would be chosen to be president of Yale
who was not alive to the value of this
distinction, and who was not largely
faithful to the idea of a classical edu-
tion, as such. AUEERe Sere: i
I put in the saving adjective “largely,
because, in common with a great many
others, [ have welcomed such inroads on
the old method of giving a classical
education as admitted of the substitu-
tion of a modern language for Greek.
It has long seemed to the writer that in
the preparatory school, as well as in the
college and university, if a student’s
mind be well drilled in Latin and
mathematics, a modern language
could very advantageously be substi-
tuted for Greek. It was no small cause
of mortification and inconvenience to
the writer, whose student life at Yale
did not cease till his 24th year, to find
himself living in Europe with only the
most primitive and inadequate knowl-
edge of any modern language,—French,
German, Italian, Spanish. It seems
that as much as this should be conceded
to the demand for “available knowl-
edge,’ that one or more of these lan-
guages should be substituted in the col-
lege curriculum for Greek.
In the further demand so often urged
in these days, that a college president
should be a good business man, the
writer, in a sense, most emphatically
assents. To begin with, a good busi-
ness man in these days must of all things
be a man of accuracy. ‘First and fore-
most he must know his facts; he must
know them very definitely and almost
always, as business is done to-day, in
considerable detail. There is a scholar-
ship of business as well as of literature
and science. And again, that the high-
est executive officer of a university like
Yale should have the executive force
of a good business man would seem a
matter of prime moment. Not only
is this important in administering the
business of the college, but the man of
fine executive force has almost always
a certain decision of character, a certain
firmness and tone of nerve tissue, con-
ducive in a high degree to strong per-
sonal influence. This quality also re-
sults often in a personal magnetism of
radical value, in the art of teaching as
such. A good illustration was the late
Gen. Francis A. Walker, during the last
years of his life, at the head of the Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Technologv. His
teaching was forceful, because his char-
acter was forceful. He powerfully stim-
ulated his students, by reason of the in-
cisive, aggressive enthusiasm of his own
manly nature.
qe te Pe Ray of a man like this at
Bie bie at university is an admira-
oDject-lesson to the student of the
qualities needed in the business world
Meh i ao many of the students at
present time (as well as of
many of our colleges) are going to be-
naan men. Very many of
sons of business men, who
have sent them to college somewhat re-
luctantly, because the college graduate,
as such, has heretofore been regarded as
not only not helped by his college
course, but possibly hindered. J have
YALE ALUMNI WHEEKI,Y
epee omuinnassitent i
in mind the case of a very successful
business man, not himself a college
graduate, who is always glad to employ
college graduates, providing they have
worked hard in college, and have not
studied books, either, wholly to the ne-
glect of a study of men. Unfortunately
this proviso has excluded any free or
general employment of them. Huis com-
plaint is that they are apt to be pedantic,
to have lived too much in books, to un-
derestimate the knowledge gained of life
itself, through a hand-to-hand struggle
with life, in comparison with the sec-
ond-hand knowledge derived from text-
books. How very, very common this
objection is among business men, those
who are best conversant with them
most fully realize; and the very sight,
at the head of an institution like Yale,
of a man like Gen. Walker, embodying
in his own person and character the
qualities of force, practicality, and what
I have called ‘business scholarship,”
would quickly draw the favorable notice
of very many moneyed men, who at
present hestitate to send their sons to
Yale, or any other college. I am well
aware that the combination of qualities
named is not easily found. But if it is
possible to find it; it would seem to the
writer that every possible effort should
be made rather than fail in the search.
It would even be better, in the judg-
ment of the writer, to have the Univer-
sity without a president, for a period of
a year or two, rather than to make an
unfortunate choice. The place is a
large one, and we want a large man
in it.
In so far as securing a business man,
with a peculiar vocation for securing
pecuniary gifts for the college is con-
cerned, | must beg to sharply dissent
from a good deal that I have heard
talked and seen in print. I must con-
fess that I look with some distrust on
the extent to which munificent sums of
money have already been lavished on
our leading institutions of learning.
Where riches so greatly abound as they
do frequently now in the buildings and
endowments of our institutions of learn-
ing, riches are very apt to be worshiped.
It is exceedingly difficult to maintain
among the students themselves that
democracy which in the past has been
the glory of Yale,—which in former
years, at least, has made it possible for
poor men to secure an education there.
Nay, I believe scholarship itself suffers,
where a scale of living becomes preva-
lent which debars the poorer class of
students from attendance. In the trade,
political life and, I may even add,
church life, of to-day, the golden calf is
worshiped as never before in our his-
tory. We have a right to look to our
colleges at such a time for the main-
tenance of a life where higher ideals
prevail. They should be the very
sanctuaries of what, in character, is just,
democratic, high-minded. To a surpris-
ing degree, I think they have so far :
maintained this standard. But they are
in danger, even as the civil and political
life of the nation is in danger, from this
rampant materialism. And I for one
am a little weary of hearing the defects
of this and that college president con-
doned, on the plea that he is a good
man for the place, because he has ob-
tained access to the pockets of so many
rich men.
a am come 4
CURRENT YALE LITERATURE.
Professor Beers’s New Book.
It is no exaggeration to call the pub-
lication of Professor Beers’s “History
of English Romanticism in the Eigh-
teenth Century” a literary event. The
very title is stirring, and will be to
many readers a distinct shock. They
will rub their eyes, and look in wild
surmise at the words “Eighteenth Cen-
tury,’ which to most intelligent per-
sons connote something in literature
quite the opposite of Romantic. His-
tories and text-books constantly make
the statement that the English Roman-
tic movement began at the beginning
of this century, or in the last decade of
the eighteenth; so that it has become
a commonplace in criticism to call the
whole eighteenth century “classic,”
ignoring meanwhile two important
facts; first, that English Literature is
and always has been instinctively Ro-
mantic, and second, that Scott and Cole-
ridge had their literary ancestry.
To the philosophical student of litera-
ture, nothing is more interesting than
studies in development, in literary
evolution. Such a student will note the
difference between the prevailing verse
forms in 1616—the year of Shakspere’s
death, and in 1700—the year of Dry-
den’s death, and will ask himself the
question, What caused this astounding
change? And he knows that the only
way in which he can answer the ques-
tion for himself is by a minute study of
the literary productions between those
years. Even the most superficial reader
sees a total change in thought, atmos-
phere, and expression between the
literature of 1730 and the literature of
1800; and if he wishes to know the
various causes that produced this
change, he cannot do better than to read
straight through this volume by Pro-
fessor Beers.
The book before us is the fruit of
many years’ study and patient research.
For a number of years past, Professor
Beers has given a course of lectures to
graduates and advanced students in
English Romanticism; and these lec-
tures, which many recent graduates will
recall with pleasure, are now incor-
porated with many additions and refer-
ences in this published work. The first
chapter is called “The Subject Defined”
and treats very fully of the various
- definitions of the words Romanticism
and Romantic. These terms are heard
constantly in discussions concerning
literature and art; and yet no one has
ever given a wholly satisfactory defini-
tion of them. Mr. Beers’s discussion
as to what the word Romantic means,
is most helpful and suggestive; and the
large number of definitions he gives,
with the foot-notes referring to their
authors in English, French, and Ger-
man, make this opening chapter the
most valuable treatment of this vexed
question that has probably ever ap-
peared in print. Lovers of art and
literature will find it highly profitable.
-The definition that Mr. Beers accepts
for his own purposes is the one sug-
gested by Heine. ‘Romanticism, then,
in the sense in which I shall commonly
employ the word, means the reproduc-
tion in modern art or literature of the
life and thought of the Middle Ages.
Some other elements will have to be
added to this definition, and some modi-
fications of it will suggest themselves
from time to time. It is provisional,
tentative, elastic, but will serve our
turn till we are ready to substitute a
better.” (p. 2.) This definition seems
at first rather narrow and disappoint-
ing; and it is pleasant to note that Mr.
Beers does not adhere strictly to it, as
indeed would be impossible in a trea-
tise so thorough as this. I suspect he
will find this definition more useful in
nineteenth century literature than in the
early part of the eighteenth.
The chapters that follow treat of “The
Augustans,” the friends and contem-
poraries of Pope; the “Spenserians,” in
which Mr. Beers traces the revival of
Spenser and the imitation of the stanza
of the Faery Queene; the “‘Landseape
Poets,’ where the growth of a wider
appreciation of nature and the begin-
nings of the English school of land- -
scape-gardening are considered; the
“Miltonic Group,” in which chapter Mr.
Beers discusses the wide influence of
Milton’s Il Penseroso; and the remain-
ing chapters are headed “The School
of Warton” (where the critical side of
Romanticism first appeared), ‘“The
Gothic Revival,” ‘Percy and the Bal-
lads,” “‘Ossian,” “Thomas Chatterton,”
and the work closes with a chapter on
“The German Tributary.”
The style of the book is just what
readers will expect~- from Professor
Beers; it is dignified, sincere, luminous,
and bright with an occasional touch of
delicate humor. This is a work that
one can read as steadily as though it
were a romance itself, instead of a dis-
quisition on Romanticism; and to men
and women of culture and wide reading,
the constant literary allusiveness of the
book will be one of its chief charms.
In a word, this history has that literary
flavor that comes from its author’s per-
sonality.
But the great value, the distinguish-
ing mark of this book is not that it is
a brilliantly written literary essay; it is
the fact that the whole volume repre-
sents original work, independent re-
search, and that, therefore, it is a dis-
tinct contribution to our knowledge.
Students of Eighteenth Century Litera-
ture cannot neglect the results at-
tained here; and hence the book re-
flects the greatest credit not only on
its author but on the University he
represents. This is what is meant by
calling this publicativn a literary event;
it is such an event as the appearance, a
Se
few years ago, of Professor Lounsbury’s
“Studies in Chaucer,’ which won so
instant recognition here and abroad.
This “History of Romanticism,” Mr.
Lounsbury’s “Chaucer,” and the ex-
tremely valuable publications by Pro-
fessor Cook and by the large number of
scholarly pupils who owe all their
training to him, prove conclusively that
whatever may be the shortcomings of
Yale’s English department, it has added
to the world’s stock of literary and
linguistic knowledge much valuable and
important material. Professor Cook’s
name is honored and well-known in
every German university, for his work
in linguistics; the students of Chaucer
the world over are familiar with Profes-
sor Lounsbury’s volumes; and _ this
latest publication by Professor Beers
1S sure to meet with the same recogni-
tion. It is to be hoped that his next
volume on ‘English Romanticism in
the Nineteenth Century’ may not be
long delayed.
Wma. Lyon PHELPS.
The “ Lit.”? Prize Essay.
The Yale News has the following,
editorially, on the winning of the Lit.
medal: ‘We wish to take this oppor-
tunity to congratulate Mr. Carleton
of the Senior class for his winning of
the medal awarded annually by the
Yale Literary Magazine. Mr. Carleton’s
essay was an unusually thoughtful effort,
full of that quality so little found in
college work—sincere and competent
appreciation, The paper was fully up
to the standard set in previous years;
indeed, owing to the difficulty of the
subject chosen, perhaps ahead of pre-
vious standards. The fact that the essay
was won by a Senior is a very gratify-
ing indication that there is a live liter-
ary culture in the University, one not
fostered and urged on by any idea of
material advancement. It disproves to
a certain extent the often repeated cry
that in Yale there is no real love of let-
ters. Mr. Carleton’s essay itself we
commend highly, but we also wish to
commend the literary interest and ap-
preciation which prompted his effort.”
The Crosby Yale Sketches.
The book of Yale sketches, by R. M.
Crosby, ’98, published by H. H. Tom-
kins, ’99, has already met with an excel-
lent reception. It fully deserves this.
Nothing of the kind, as far as the writer
can recall, has ever been put out here
which was its equal. Indeed, nothing
has ever been attempted along this line
before. Some of the drawings are of
very unusual merit, and would stand
very well in any collection. As illus-
trations. of this kind of college art, they
are, almost without exception, of an
unusually high order, and they empha-
Size, as only sketches of this nature
‘can, peculiar phases of college life and
bring recollections of some of its hap-
piest and choicest things. Many of the
sketches, one would imagine, would
bring back to the graduate whole chap-
ters from his college life. As a piece
of book-making, it is excellent. It is
a pleasure to know that it has been so
well received, and it is very safe to
prophesy that the demand for it will be
an increasing one for a long while.
List of General Reading.
The third edition of Professor Wm.
Lyon Phelps’s “‘List of General Read-
ing,” has just been issued. It is a little
circular of four pages, containing a list
of the best books in English Literature
from 1580 to 1898. The dates of the
births and deaths of the authors are
given, together with the year of publica-
tion for each book. The list is meant
to be a busy man’s guide to the best
reading, to works that are standard and
at the same time interesting. Essays,
novels, and poems are given, but not
histories and scientific works. Those
who wish a copy may obtain one by
sending six cents in stamps to 70 South
Middle College.
—_—____++—_—__—-
Very Graceful.
[Harvard Lampoon. ]
“The Seats of the Mighty”’—The Yale
Fence.
