DePauw University - Mirage Yearbook (Greencastle, IN)

Page 31 text:

transmitterg and the model college is one that teaches man the supplementary arts of getting and of giving: the proper balancing of income and outgo. Therefore, if the first ideal of DePauw University has looked toward scholarship, the sgqongl has looked toward expression. The third ideal has related to motive. it does not suffice that a man should know and dog the burglar may meet these two conditions, and so may the dema- gogue. Alciabiades knew some things and probably expressed them well: but he has never been of credit to Socrates because his knowledge and skill were urged by a bad heart. Judas' failing was not an inability to receive the instruction of his Teacher, nor yet a lack of executive capacity: it was rather an unwillingness to surrender to the ideal motive. These illustrations show both what a school shouhl strive to do and what a school in some cases may be unable to do. The history of lDel'auw will prove that. notwithstanding some of her students or even gi-aqlimtcg have not responded to the supremest motives, there has been through all these sev- enty years a faithful effort to purify the sources of human life. This work has iJCCI1 done in genuine breadth. liorn and mothered of a par- ticular denomination, gladly confessing her obligation and mission within a cer- tain Church, Del'auw has opened generous doors to men of all faiths and of none. Many types of Protestants, Roman Catholics, jews. and representatives of the oriental religions have lived a free life here,-conscious that the atmosphere was persuasive like a gospel, but conscious, also, that the atmosphere did not suggest sectarian pressure. And yet the ceascless emphasis has been upon the point that out of the heart, the region of purposes, are the issues of life. Hence an ideal of Del'auw has been to furnish men with pure motives and high inspirations. The fourth ideal is that of service. lt comes inevitably out of the first three, just as when you bring certain chemical elements together they are sure to form a compound, so when you get scholarship, expression and motive in right order and right relations, service must come. NVe can gather it all into a sentence: Sclmlczrsliijv c'.1'jv1'vs.rrd 1llllfCl' flu' proper llIf0fI Z'C isszms in .t'Cl Z'I'L'C. The scholar with- out expression becomes a curious book-wormg the scholar without a proper mofivc becomes a refined rascal: but the scholar with wisdom in the expression of his life and goodness in the motive o ' ' ', Not all DePauw graduates have been mastered by these four ideals. Some f his heart becomes a good servant. have not been scholarly,-having barely made the per cent required for a parch- ment. Some have not learned how to express themselves effectively and have really lived in an intellectual cloister. Some.-greatev the pity !-have not yielded to the 31

Page 30 text:

of scholarship it may be said in smiling indcpendencez' Not an inch. l.et us be fair! lt is good to maintain ideals even when ideals are not expensive. llut it may be truly said in reference to Dellauw that she has maintained her scholastic ideal and that, when necessary, she has cheerfully met the cost. Ilaving to depend utterly upon the gifts of the philanthropic and the fees of students, she has still marked more than one failure after the names of rich men's sous and has surrendered a thousand fees rather than surrender one principle. ,ln days of prosperity and in days of adversity it has been the same. Wfhen men talked as if her doors might close, there was never a suggestion that lower endowment and lower enrollment were accompanied by lower scholarship. ln the darkest times the scholars lamp ceased not to burn. VVheu it was apparent that the income would not properly conduct various departments, they were closed, one after one. and the scanty funds were concentrated upon the College of Liberal Arts. Law School, Theological School, Normal School. Medical School,-all these were closed-even though some alumni were left to bitter mourning. And all this was done in the name of the ideal of scholarship! Verily, we have good right to say that Delfauw University has kept this faith! The second ideal may. for want of a more accurate name, be called that of expression. Men talk about the fountain of knowledgef, NUC have believed in that figure of speech here! lfrom the day when Matthew Simpson came to Green- castle and entered upon a career that was soon to proveihim one of the kings in expressing the ideas and moods of life. even down to this hour, Del'auw has been in a deeper sense a School of Expression, This does not refer to, anything as Su- perhcial as mere elocutiong nor yet to anything as mechanical as mere rhetoricg it rather refers to a total relation to life. Men have been taught here not to wrap their talent in a napkin or bury their pounds in the earth. So I have said that we have believed that knowledge should be a fountain rather than a pool, a flowing river with a wide outlet rather than a Dead Sea shut in to staleness and inaction. A critic said once that the De'l'auw man was not modest. Pressed for his exact meaning, he came in brief to this: That the l'Jei'auw man went after a problem or a task with rather remarkable,assurance! I am not convinced that the criticism was not at heart a compliment. At any rate, I hold the ardent hope that our grad- uates may never become of the timorous and shrinking type. Perhaps the most noticeable example of this ideal of expression has been in DePauw's relation to oratory. lt is not enough that men should know: they should be inspired and taught to tell. ldeas are for circulation. The model man is both a receiver and a 30

Page 32 text:

supreme motive and so have not always stood for the best things. And some, fail- ing in one or more of these high preparations, have not been genuine servants. But all such in their sincere moments will confess that their failure has been in spite of the influence of the Alma Mater, For to the ideal of scholarship, expression, motive and service our institution, whether as Asbury or as DePauw, has held for seven decades. ,ln the larger future she will write them yet more distinctly on her banners and seek to persuade her sons and daughters forward to the place of their fulfillment ! - l a EDWlN H. HUGHES. if kr of 'fe V t p32