University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Yearbook (Oxford, MS)

Page 25 text:

LIBRARY

Page 24 text:

taking of the University out of politics , the expanding of professional de- partments, and, finally, the splendid organization of the higher life of the Uni- versity and her neighbor community-these and other good things, some already come, others in the process of coming-are making this University of ours to know and feel and act out her mission. But the future! Real men of an enlightened age do not live in the past, and the present, except as it is a vanishing line between past and future, is nothing but the future as it is a-happening. What shall we make of our University? Our responsibility is great indeed, for, or- dinarily, education, like Christianity, ex- tends its influence from above downward, successful democratic reformers and revolu- tionists are usually aristocrats by nature and training. We University people ought to be the leaders in working out practical and practicable ideals. Now, be it known to all men who by some mischance do not already know, that ideals fnot merely ideasj are the guard-lines of reality. We may not become what we aspire to be, for the uliesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, but assuredly we seldom become what we do not aim to be. All of us, like the savage, may build better than we knowg but enlightened man builds as well as he can and in accordance with a plan. What shall we plan for the future? The University must be more truly the servant of the people, nolnlesse obligeg the greatest among us must serve the brethreng the greatest must be the servant of all. The Alma Mater ought to merit the love and devo- tion of all our people, for every boy and girl that is nurtured, trained and developed here is a child of that greater if sterner parent, the State, which the University represents in kindly form. No man is too humble to send his child here. No son of a noted sire has any special privileges here. Our aristocracy is that of leadership and service, God's aristocracy and the first-best of nature and nurture. The University must be the advance guard in our State of broad I8

Page 26 text:

tolerance. If we are secure in the truth of our political and religious beliefs, we can generously afford to give and take in a kindly spirit of charity and common sense, instead of assuming that necessarily and by divine decree wis- dom will die with us. By their fruits ye shall know them, ought to be our University principle and practice. This University reflects the prevailing senti- ment of her mistress, the State, and is, therefore, orthodox and Southern 3 but mu t she therefore fail to be American and Chris- tian? Now, true Christianity and true nationality are toler- ant and charitable. May we always live up to the noble maxim: ln essentials, unity: in non-essentials, libertyg in all things, charity. The laws of nature and the teachings of Christ alike belong to God- they are essentials. But ec- clesiastical dogmas, however worthy and widespread, and partisan dogmas, however traditional and bred-in-the-bone, are not essential enough to make us insist on intellectual in-breeding instead of intellectual cross-fertilization. We shall be iight in prohibiting the inculcation of what our people regard as political and religious heresyg but we shall be wrong in calling a Unitarian an atheist or in treating a National N Republican as an outcast. These last few sentences are but the individual expression of the writer of this article, but they nevertheless ring true to the key-note of real university spirit everywhere. Our University ought to encourage the investigational spirit. We belong to our age and nation as well as to Mississippi. We must keep in the current, for lVlississippi's sake, if for no other reason. If our blood is as potent as we think it is, let us show what red blood can do and not talk too much about our blue blood. There are scientific, social and commercial prob- lems that we, as a people, are well fitted to work on. And we are loath to believe that there is any class of scientific problems, however psychological, or however metaphysical, that our strong-brained folk can not investigate success- fully. A university without investigation is no university at all, the modems tell us. The most important leaders in modern thought and practice are often to be found in the ranks of scientific investigators. Shall we not do our part in re-thinking the thoughts of God in nature? - , 20