Keuka College - Kiondaga Yearbook (Keuka Park, NY)

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22 THE COLLEGE RECORD. burdened with a life-long sorrow. The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful ; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but through the ethereal medium of joy. Such was the scarlet letter with its symbolism, its gloom, and its lack of reality ; but in spite of its faults, the book is a master- piece— America's greatest contribution to the world of literary art. And the author ? He was an artist who could give to the word romance a new meaning in a country still in its infancy ; he was a student of nature and of the soul ; he was a man of simple life and simple faith, a man of sincerity, a man of conscience, a mystic, a philosopher — in short, he was Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Puritan. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS. Carl Churchill. X A 7HILE this article was under consideration many let- V ters Were sent to the principals of schools, both public and private, in New York and other states. These letters carried inquiries about the particular schools with which these men were connected, and also invited opinions as to the advantages and disadvantages of both public and private schools. The most of the letters were fully an- swered, and have been of great service. In many cases the experience of the men. addressed has been wider and more valuable than that of the writer, and his own view has been broadened, and, in several cases, modified as a result of the inquiry. If there has come also a feeling of doubt as to his fitness for the task of discussing the subject, it has not strong enough to deter him from persevering in his original plan, for it is hoped that after all necessary deduc- tions for error have been made, there may remain enough of truth to be of service to those choosing schools for their own training or thai oi others. This was the object in view when | In- subjec t ns undertaken. A word about the schools considered may be appropriate. They were, for the most part, in New Vork State, and this may atfe t. i , some extent. the conclusions reached.

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THE COLLEGE RECORD. 21 Hawthorne had lived so much in the past that he knew the life of early Boston ; its people were even more familiar to him than those of his own home town. The view point for the favorite study here is secrecy. In Hester Prynne we watch the development of a soul that grows steadily strong as it works its life upward to the highest ideals possible after sin has once been admitted and publicly pun- ished ; in Dimsdale w e watch another soul developing downward under the influence of sin concealed from a trusting public. The result in Dimsdale's Puritan conscience is a remorse that eats away his very life in the course of the seven years of the story. Old Roger, to whose charge Hawthorne lays the greatest sin, is also touched by the sin of the romance, but in him revenge is the only result — revenge of the darkest nature. Not even the elf child Pearl, Hawthorne's fairest creation, escapes the evil influences. With consummate skill Hawthorne enters into the spirit of his story, and here, as nowhere else, he gives us a psycho logical study of his characters. With the hand of a master he keeps the theme ever before the reader. The scarlet letter blazes from every page, never for one moment allowing us to forget its presence. The book is all Puritanism, dark and gloomy ; only the wild rose at the prison door and the elf-like child relieve the sombre cast of the story, and even Pearl is so overshadowed by the sin of her exist- ence that she intensifies rather than relieves the gloom. The book is without joy in its religious suggestions ; Hester dares to believe that possibly in the life to come there may be happiness for them, but Dimsdale refers only to the broken law and says : Let this be alone in thy thoughts! fear, I fear! Hawthorne has been criti- cized for making the picture so dark, but he couldn't have done otherwise. The Puritanism of early Boston was dark, unlovely, and unforgiving, and Hawthorne would have been untrue to his art if he had made the story bright with suggestions of forgiveness and eternal happiness. When sin has been once admitted to a life, even as an incident and not as a habit, its evil influences can never be entirely overcome. Though the scarlet letter ceased, in after years, to be a cause of reproach, it was ever a type of something to be remembered with sorrow. Hester longed to be the proph- etess of a new truth that should place the world on saner and surer grounds of happiness, but she recognized the impossibility that any mission of divine and mysterious truth should be confided to a woman stained with sin, bowed down with shame, or even

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THE COLLEGE RECORD. 23 Enough other States were considered, however, to have a decided influence, and the fundamental differences between the two systems would remain unchanged in all States. The schools to which inquiries were sent were representative institutions ; the public schools being those in small or moderate sized cities, and the private schools those whose standing is assured. The number of institutions consid- ered is not large enough to admit of sweeping conclusions being drawn. The most that can be expected is that ten- dencies will be shown. It can hardly be said that the public and the private schools are active competitors. It would be impossible to give an answer to the question, Shall I send my boy or girl to a public or to a private school ? that would serve in all cases. Indeed, the question would hardly occur in this form. It would appear in a form calling for a decision be- tween an actual public school and a possible private school. Yet in so far as the material upon which they work is the same or similar, and so far as their ends are not materially different, they certainly compete for the work of educating the youth ; and it is a fact that the development of the public high school and the wide extension of its privileges have led to a corresponding decrease in the activities of the old-time academies. The comparatively recent legisla- tion providing for the payment by the State of the tuition of non-resident pupils materially affected the private schools in New York State. Of course the private schools whose patronage is from the wealthy alone do not show this effect. Also, in States where the public schools are generally not well organized or administered, private schools flourish. From these indications it would seem possible to find some valid grounds for comparison, yet the wide variations in the schools of both classes make it easy for the inquirer to be deceived by differences that are characteristic of in- dividuals only. The point on which there would seem to be the least probability of hasty generalization is the point of religious influence. The public school avowedly ignores this, the reason being that it must receive those of all religions and