Goshen College - Maple Leaf Yearbook (Goshen, IN)

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l58 GOSHEN COLLEGE RECORD JUNE THE NEED OF HARVEY L. STUMP, A. B. fMajor Subject, Philosophy, There is no standstill in human ac- tivities. As individuals we are de- veloping or declining. Nature is growing or decaying. A nation in- creases or decreases in power, wealth a11d morality. Truth and righteousness are subdueing evil and error or else falsehood and wrong are in the as- cendency. lf a civilization does not advance then slowly but surely it re- treats. Noftfhing in the universe of man's experience is stationary and constant, Everything is in motion, moving towards suiblimer ends or loos- ing its present significance. Man too must go forward or re'main behind. Life is restless and changeable and to stay alive in body, heart and mind one must keep growing. And the fundamental law of growth is activity. To posses any kind of strength there must be self effort and self assertion. Power must come from within or no- ORIGINALITY where. And most certainly it is true of moral and intellectual power. No man has ever become wise by vacant- ly staring at the oracle of wisdom and saying to him, Oh everlasting' and infinite seer fill me with all under- standing while I sleep and rest my soul at ease . No man ever dreamt himself into a Hnlancier, artist, poet, hero, statesman or saint. To be ori- ginal men must work. Thomas A. Edison has truthfully said that success or original work requires ninety-eight per cent perspiration and two per cent inspiration. It is easy to imitate but difficult to think independently or to think at all. lt requires no effort to lean but it does to stand erect. There are multitudes who can, follow but few who are able to lead. Taggers, on-hangers and sheer imitators are in abundance but few who blaze their own way, forge their own thoughts and stamp their own. personality and individuality upon everything they touch. The great barrier to originality whether in thought, scholarship, busi- ness or national affairs is the old and ancient. Customs, past ideals and conventionalities control us with magic power. And so we go on in the same old ways, tilling the soil, moulding our architecture, transacting business, writing books, ruling na- tions, educating humianity, believing the same beliefs, loving the old ideals and methods for the same old reasons all because we are held in the iron hiand of the past and customary. Cer- tainlly we need to hold to healthy re-

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1910. GOSHEN COLLEGE' RECORD. 157 thing that the crowned heads of Eu- rope so much feared during the last century, or eivzen at the present, as the clamour of the masses for constitu- tional government. The great struzgi- gle now going on in England is one incident to the extension of repre- sentative government, in which a rep- resentative body is trying to secure the preponderance in legislation over a non-representative body. Vwfhile, in the case of some of our American Re- publics, representative government has not proven very satisfactory, its extension, among all nations may gen- erally be taken as indicating the grad- ual liberation of the masses from poli- tical bondage. Butt we are not only interested in observing what forces have been and are at present operative in making our age what it is, but granted that these may be allowed to run their na- tural course, what will- the end be? The belief seems to persist among those who profess to be students of this subject, lthait there is a course for our civilization to run, a destiny to ac- complish. Vlfhile this destiny may not be a conscious one to the great majority of men, we believe it is capa- ble of being discerned by those who conscientiously put forth the effort. Granted that there are no adverse forces introduced, that those now operative be allowed to run their normal course, we believe that the goal toward which we are traveling is that state of society in which each in- dividual, without disadvantage of birth, privilege or position, shall have a fair chance to obtain the fullest possible expression of his personalilty. This I believe to be the utmost that any e civilization can do for a person. That is, simply make the conditions favora- ble for the fullest development of the capacities and powers of the indirvi- dual. Certainly no past civilization has done this except for only a limited numfber -of men. There have been cer- tain restraints operative to prevent this condition of society existing, some of which we have briefly spoken. They may be spoken of summarily as being political, economic, intellectual and moral. From all these restraints man must have a reasonalble degree of freedom. Politically there are cer- tafinly fewer restraints than there has ever been in the history of men. ln fact our political freedom has outran our economic and moral freedom. In some states men enjoy more political freedom than they are capable of us- ing wisely, It is still true, however, that large numbers of men in our own age and country do not enjoy a rea- sonable degree of economiic freedom. This is almost the whole contention of the socialists. Such writers on poli- tical economy as Marx, Mills, and Bentham, trace all the ills of society to the restraints due to econlomic in- equality. VVhile this is deduced from a materialistic interlpreitation of his- tory, which is subject to grave mis- oonception, such inequality certainly does 'exist to a degree. It is still pos- sible for some men to obtain undue advantage over their felllows and fail to give them adequate reward for their labors. It is still true that many persons are denied afair chance to de- velop their full powers and capacities because the struggle for existence con- sumes their time and energies. But the time has come when such con- Continued next mQI1tl1.

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1910 GOSHEN COLLEGE RECORD. 159 verence for the old because it contains the condensed wealth oif 'th-ought, wis- dom and .experience of man with in- stitutions to propagate his ideals and happiness. But whenever the anci- ent and the usual block the Wheels of progress and thwart individual asser- tion they have missed their real 'func- tion and usurped the sublime right of personal freedom and self-realizatilon. Look at China shackeled in ignorance and superstition and almost ready to gasp her last breath of national ex- istence as a penalty of holding insensi- bly to the tradition of the elders for thousands o-f years. There she lay bound and helpless in customs and cruel deadening ancestral ritualism when a breeze of western civilization anfd christianity swept over her and made her cfonscious off a country which bloomed unprecedently rapid from a weak unnoticed republic to a recognized leading, stirring, world power as a result of independence and originality, To obey the outward, the external of the past is not reverence but slav- ery. If you would respect the old seek its heart, its fundamental pur- pose and apply it freshly to the pres- ent and specific conditions. No insti- tution, tradition, theory. creed, ideal or custom, however old, has the right to demand suppfort and attention be- cause it is old. The question is not age but truth and validity. To justly claim our loyalty a thing must show its credentials of truth and helpfulness. lt must aid man tfo realize his highest destiny or else be condemned and dis- carded. All things. past or present. should be placed in the great seive of truth and reason not of time. And in this respect the last century has been the most exceptional century of the past. X It was a period of marvel- ous originalityg and progress was as a logical result commensurate with with that originality. Countless in- ventions of endless kinds and classes were wrought, industrial reforms and social regeneration were instituted, political administration miade demo- cratic and representative, and there- fore 'prosperous and peaceful- hostile national policies substituted largely bly arbitration and friendly diplomacy, educational methods and standards greatly renovated, religious tolerance and personal sacrifice for world-wide dissemination of Christian holiness in- augurated. There were cihanges and combination innumerable, complex and unparalleled in all time. VVhy? Because humanity as a whole, and not only a few individuals, asserted its likes and dislikes, its wisdom and ignorance, because men and women everywhere in the occident and in parts of the orient contrirbuted in their own way, their individual thoughts, skill and experience. The world al- wa-ys needs if not immediately recog- nized the persons who can say, think. vwork, lead. suggest and direct in their own peculiar manner. Both for the sake of self-realization then and so- cial progress originality is indepensi- b-lc. ingenuity that is used constructive- ly and fror moral ends is a vital ex- pression of life and makes for happi- ness and improvement. But custom is conservative and tends towards stagnation and death. Mere imitation pnoduces human parrots, parasites and machines. Wliile self-reliance and in-