Butler University - Carillon / Drift Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

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upon a Peak g: : §4i ©-g ?i EiM nr ss 2. » problem of modern labor-saving devices is that the comforts they produce make people lazy. Anyone who has a goal nowadays desires achievement without ef- fort. And that is why very few students at- tempt the study of Latin and Greek. They know those languages are difficult to learn. No teacher of classical languages will promise any short cut to either tongue. Mastery comes only after years of diligent study. But the teacher will go on to say that the mind, like the body, is developed by exercise, and that the very discipline which the student undergoes while studying Greek and Latin may enable him to understand and appreciate the works of classical writers Balboa and his men were weary, most likely, and the climb upward was probably steep and difficult and fraught with dangers. But the summit was at- tained: and there before them was an infinite stretch of waters, a mighty stretch of waters upon which they had never looked before. No wonder that they gazed at one another with wild surmise — Silent, upon a peak in Darien. Mr. Gelston Forgotten Treasures While movie audiences thrill nightly to screen dramas, the real characters and the genuinely dramatic situations of English literature remain unread in books on library shelves. Interest in good literature is not much in evidence anywhere nowadays. Persons who wish to read turn almost entirely to modern American writers. They await eagerly one best seller after another, satisfied with any book that is frank and of pleasing style and futuristic cover. There are countless writers in America today. Are they all masters? Why not read books that have been proved, through many years of intelligent criticism, to be truly worth- while. ' ' Classic writers are harder to read than the moderns, but isn ' t that so because there is much more contained in their works? Modern read- ers have taken the attitude that a writer ' s mes- sage must be easily grasped; otherwise he has failed. But is the reader developed or benefited by ideas handed to him on a silver platter? Modern literature has made the modern mind completely receptive. That is its great weak- ness. And that is why classical English liter- ature is being neglected. Mr. Harrison

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f-S ' S: - Purpose Astray ROM their first electric train, children of the twentieth century glorify in the magnificent achievements of this age of scientific progress. People are ever re- minded that fast automobiles, tall buildings, and radios are due to the advancement of Science. Little wonder that Science means nothing more for them than speed, efficiency, and production! The advancement of Science has done away with the superstitions of the past: it has put in their place little more than a cocky skepticism. As if a whirring motor were capable of spelling out the destiny of mankind! However, it can be seen that what is really being criticized here is not Science itself but rather that foreign element which dominates Science today — namely, the practi- cal. Modern scientific investigation began with a desire to give life a deeper interpretation. But the utility element has entered and spread with stupendous rapidity. Natural Science needs to be separated from practical materialism and regrounded in a purposeful connected whole of life. Chaos is Wrong The human mind demands order of its universe. In compliance with this demand has developed the oldest of all sciences — mathematics. The extreme exactness of this science is due to the abstract quality of its ideas which are capable of unusually sharp determination. However, mathe- matics does not rest on grounds which are ultimately unlike and independent of those of other sciences. For mathematics is the science of all exact thinking. The solution of algebraic equations, the classification of plants, and the framing of constitutions are all mental operations having order as their common aim and ground. Modern empiricism proceeds on the assump- tion that the world of nature is an orderly whole capable of mathematical comprehension. The resulting progress in natural science conceptions would seem to prove the validity of that as- sumption. We are beginning to understand the ancient Pythagorean postulate that number is the source of all things. Mr. Johnson

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Where Are We Drifting CONOMIC thought is nothing new. Since Adam, men have been faced with the task of supplying Hfe ' s material wants. However, with the advent of modern economic theory, economics has exper- ienced an abnormal development and separation from true life values. A century or so ago, economics as an in- dividual science did not exist. Economic law was confused with moral codes: the pursuit of wealth as its own end was considered a deadly sin. Only in accordance with a popular mater- ialism has economics attempted to stand on its own feet, has money-making become the sole life aim for the vast majority of human beings. It is this attempt of economics to establish itself on an independent and meaningless foundation that must ultimately cause not only its own downfall but also that of the civilization based upon it. Economic theory which ignores morality and aesthetics is both dangerous and absurd. Beyond The Boundaries Persons who know much about language say that not even the most expert translator can put into another language the richness of style and fullness of meaning of the original. Literature inevitably loses much in being translated. A German cannot fully understand and appreciate Hugo until he knows French: a Frenchman can begin to comprehend Shakespeare only after he has mastered English: and an Englishman does not really grasp the wonder of Goethe until he knows German. What a tremendous amount of beauty and wisdom awaits, therefore, the student who is willing to expend the effort necessary to learn the European languages. His hours of labor will be long and hard, and determined applica- tion will be unavoidable: but beyond the drudg- ery he will find and appreciate the original flavor in the works of such minds as Goethe, Hugo, Cervantes, Dante, Ibsen, Heine, Kant, and Rostand.