Washington State University - Chinook Yearbook (Pullman, WA)

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more life giving power than all the materialism of the age. Could we grasp that mighty truth we would the better understand and ap¬ preciate the value of a culture which develops the soul and fits man for his true mission. The aspirations of humanity, the nobler im¬ pulses, the ideals we call beautiful have been aided in their expression by the fine arts. The achievements of man which minister not to his material necessities but to his love of beauty. A neglect of these in our educational system mean s a neglect of what constitutes the primary distinction between him and the animal seeking only for food and shelter. The culture derived from an understandings an appreciation, a love for these means a broadening of sympathy that can never come from an education that has only crude coin as its inspiration. So, one element essential to this culture is the study of art. Since the beginning of human history, almost, man has sought to embody his highest ideals in material handwork. The massive architecture of Egypt and Babylon, the sculpture of a Phidias in Greece, as weil as the paintings of a Raphael or a Michael Angelo, all represent the beautiful conceptions of the man who made them. Art is an inter¬ pretation, and he is the greatest artist who interprets best. The man who sees in the unhewn block of marble a beautiful statue, and he who spreads upon the can vas a significant picture, arc alike enrich¬ ing the world because they are putting in definite form and color, new ideas, new thoughts, new beauty. Another element which is a necessary part of culture is the study of literature. Would you have a keener perception of human con¬ ditions? Study the lives of great men, the passions of great .souls. Would you understand nature? Go and become acquainted with those who have seen the beautiful and divine. Much more can we know of life when we see its throbbings pictured in prose and poetry. The historian brings us face to face with past events; the biographer brings us into touch with great lives; the poet will show us that nature is “something for the gladness of heaven to shine through.” These have studied humanity with all its passions, sentiment, emo¬ tions, and interpreted it in terms which make men understand each other, and best of all themselves. Moreover, in studying literature we study that which if it has real 123

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The world is too much ruled by this commercial spirit, which weighs everything in the balance of dollars and cents. It is no longer confined to trade and business, but permeates almost every class of society. It is in our entire educational system, and lowers its real value. It enters religion and the church, and mars their sacredness. Life, to the majority, is coming to mean only the exchange of one ' s powers for compensation. To millions it is a daily struggle for food, raiment, and shelter; to other millions it means days of office toil with sleepless nights of worry. On the one side grim necessity, on the other the gratification of ambition. This mad race for the dol¬ lar is the all-consuming, all-absorbing passion. Young people preparing for usefulness are influenced by this idea. Students in colleges and universities are seeking after facts which in their application to their future will bring results that the eye can see, the hand can feel. As a part of education this is desirable, but taken as its end it is weakening to character. The most remarkable development in education in recent years is the application of tech¬ nical training. Today the effort is to make education more practical. The modern graduate would step from the commencement platform, full armed for the struggle before him. And yet, let me appeal to you. In all this educational tendency is there not this danger: that we shall make not men but mere machines? The true purpose of the school is not merely to furnish a technical training which may serve to keep the body alive, nor even the mere acquisition of knowledge, but a widening and deepening of the capacity to feel human senti¬ ments and divine passions. Life, life in its broadest and fullest sense, no longer limited by the material or even by the intellectual, but unrestrained in its right to draw strength and power from the souls of men, that is the need of the world today. Has not every soul felt the same longing, and listened with England ' s laureate to that inspiring voice? “Tis life whereof our nerves are scant, O, life, not death for which we pant, More life and fuller, that I want. Better for 11s could we learn that one deep and noble emotion com¬ ing not only from a mind that thinks but from a heart that feels has 122

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merit, will stand the test of time. New things may come and go; great business enterprises may be undertaken and abandoned; king¬ doms may rise and fall, but the masterpieces of a great soul express¬ ing in the language of a people sentiments which appeal to their lives, will live for centuries, quickening their impulses and influenc¬ ing their character. Homer spoke only to the Greeks; Goethe in his search for and attempted expression of the true meaning of life appealed to German hearts; Shakespeare, the great interpreter, spoke only in the tongue of the Anglo Saxon. But art is for all times and all tongues. Come and stand with me before some of the modeled dreams inherited from the golden age of Grecian sculpture. Gaze upon that wondrous marble—the Victory of Samothrace—the wings outspread, in one hand a garland, in the other a trumpet. Never will the beautiful pic¬ ture leave us. Never can we forget the impression made upon us. Or, pause within the vaults of old St. Paul ' s, upon whose walls in the long ago the gifted artists expressed his deepest religious con¬ ceptions of the divine truths as embodied in the idealized features of the Madonna and her child. As we gaze upon these materialized visions of a fading age, does not thought rush to meet thought, and are we not happier for the heritage thus left to us? Well, indeed, has it been written of those who have done so much for our own and coming generations: “Dead he is not, but departed, For the artist never dies. ' There is another art of expression which needs no translation be¬ cause it overcomes the barriers of language and time. Finding the language of words inadequate, man has found in music the most perfect expression of feeling. Among all people and all lands, music has been an expression of the highest emotions and loftiest ideals, and it has reached its highest perfection in the divine worship of Christianity. The seclusion of the middle ages shut in and preserved the life of the church from the turmoil of unsettled Europe. Yet. this seclusion also cherished the art of music which otherwise might have been checked in its growth. The intensity and earnestness which were beginning to characterize all lines of progress had its 124