Goshen College - Maple Leaf Yearbook (Goshen, IN)

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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-

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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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160 GOSHEN COLLEGE RECORD. JUNE dividual efforts unfolds personality and brings man a long way towards his highest destinly and end. By ori- ginality is not meant to be able to produce somethingg absolutely new. NYhat we call new is but a different combination of the old. Every dis- covery, invention, book, speech, thought, law, organization however new is like every object of creation but a recombination of old material, methods and principles. But this comlbination and recombination is the great saving and purging progress of life and humanity. Bly this process the error and evil of society is burned away and truth is disseminated and human ipersonalities are forced into the image of God. He who never thinks and feels for himself can not even appreciate and interpret the originality of others. To appreciate VVordsworth,s picture of a sweet lonely maid as: A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye Fair as a star when only one Is shining in the skyu one must see with the inward eye and love the virtuous lonely child that resembles the violet by a mossy stone modestly drinking in the dew drops of heaven and smiling in the dancing sunbeam. To feel the truth of Shakes'peare's words about the uni- versality of good that We find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks. sermons in stones and good i-n every- thing , one must have been personal- ly enticed by the hold charm of na- ture's symphony and grand orchestra and her sublime gallery adorned with pictures that blend earth and heaven in one surpassing panorama of beauty and granduer. To live in a consum- ing conviction that love is the pearl ci great price, the crowning character- istic of any personality one must feel the sweetness andlight of love and that infinite nobility it ,bestows upon the possesslor. 'To appreciate any his- toric event, masterpiece of art, theory of life or worthy ideal one must enter into its signifiance by perslonal ability and personal effort. But with the present apiportunitfy for dissemination of knowledge we are in grave danger of living, acting and thinking vwhlolly on the suggestions of others. VVe be- come bookish .and imitators, actors but not lprodiucers. VVe hide in the cloak of cronventionality and t-hus our individuality is crushed and ground in the cogs of popular opinion. Seoimetimes we detest ecicentricities. but 'eccentricities when seasoned with intelligence, and smoothed bly reason are fruitful sources of truth, knowl- edge and life. Thomas A. Edison, the Menlo Park wizard, has peculiar habits, but he is also a Hercules in the field of invention. Socrates was brand- ed fby some as mad and corrupt, but his teachings were so full oif truth and inspiration that they were not written on perishable parchment but in t-he hearts and minds of his disciples. Abraham Lincoln was once the object ef ridicule and scorn because his soul was too great for his awkward and homely body. But he thought for himself, he was original and thus he became able to solve the slavery pro- bleim, defeat Douglas and feel the great heart throbs of the nation which he inoarnated in his Gettysburg speech and which today pulsates with those immortal verities. Pestalozzi was al- most illiterate, ill-dressed, a poor speaker and a poor disciiplinariang but