Bucknell University - L Agenda Yearbook (Lewisburg, PA)

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tical morality, in Wayland ' s Moral Scinuc: abi) e all, as given in that great repository of ethical truth, the New Testament. The student will bear in mind. ho ve er, that to know without doing is to build upon the sand. For complete moral action, right ends must be sought by right means, and with righteotis motives. Man has in common with the lower animals the will to live, as an impulse to action. This impulse is non-moral. He may also act from an idea of what is for his advantage. This is prudential conduct. A man may act from an idea of right, and this raises his conduct into the plane of the ethical. But doing right merely because it is right, and not with delight in right doing, is not the highest type of conduct. The highest motive is love. This is the supreme commandment on which depends all the law. Not that lo ' e supersedes law. Moral law is an ex- pression of the divine nature, and owes its validity to that fact; but God is love, as well as holiness; and the two are not opposites. The student, therefore, aiming at the highest manhood, must act from the highest motive, and pursue right ends by right means. This highest motive does not exclude the lower impulses, the will to live, nor the pursuit of happiness; but it subordinates them to itself, and, at the same time, purifies and ele- vates them. What was said of old concerning knowledge may be said of education. There are those who seek to know that they may sell their knowledge for riches, honors, or the like; and this is low venality. There are those who seek to know that they may be known, and this is mere vanity. There are those who seek to know that they may be upbuilt, and this is wisdom. There are those who seek to know that they may upbuild others, and this is love. Only those who seek to know that they ma}- upbuild and be upbuilt attain the true end of education, and so are ideal students. 23

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a struggle against the unfavorable or the distasteful; another would make it all play, doing nothing but what is agreeable. The truth seems to He between. The youth nmst do the task, must earn his character by the sweat of his face; and, on the other hand, he must play, must give scope to imagination and freedom. But in work or play, he must do. There is no telling where the boys will come out; but one thing is pretty w-ell settled, that unless a student develops energy, and force of will, he will achieve lit- tle in the world. Of course, the student will not confound energy of will with immobility or passive resistance to external incitements, nor with the seeming activity which is forever preparing to do, but achieves nothing. The direction of will includes the end, the means, and the motive. There is need, consequently, of enlightenment, and one function of the col- lege is to enlighten the student in regard to himself, the world, and God. This enlightenment itself develops character; for knowing is always active. Knowledge of the world in which his activity is carried on, and his growth takes place, involves not merely physical, chemical, and organic science, but especially knowledge of man, both as an individual and as organized into society. The student will consequently acquaint himself chiefly with man. This does not mean that he shall study only literature, history, pyschology, sociology, but that he shall mingle with men, and become one with them. A large proportion of the failures of students arises from their ignorance of men. This knowledge of self, the world, and God, a knowledge which should be growing constantly clearer and deeper, furnishes the materials for judgment as to means and ends. The more energetic and forceful is the man ' s will, the more need there is of sound judgment: else his very energy will lead to ruin. While the choice of a profession may well be deferred till the end of the course, the choice of the great goal of life should be made early. The only end worthy of a man is the realizing in himself of the image of God, and the working together with others of like mind in realizing that same image in the souls of others, and in society at large. In the attainment of this end, and in the choice of subordinate ends and means, there will be ample scope for the exercise of judgment. The chief rules for judgment must always be the moral law. Ethics, practical and theoretical, must therefore be the subject of profound and life-long study. The student will devote himself to the study of morality as revealed in history and biography, and in the great moral poets, Aeschylus, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, and Browning; as set forth in Kant ' s Metaphysics of Ethic, and, for prac- 22

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%n Memoriam Mrs. Margaret T. Sturgis, Class of ' 79, Died April 1st, 1896. 3ofin rccn Miles, One of the Founders ok Bucknell Uni ersity, Died December 20th, 1896. 3. Merrill Itinti, 5s q.. Class of ' 51, Died February 23d, 1897. 24