Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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preacher, liberal, eloquent, devotedg the ardent champion of great causes, the superb organizer, the captivating lecturer and writer. Those who knew him remember, per- haps first of all, his marvelous personal power, his quick, appreciative sympathy, the grace and charm of all that he did and was, his unsurpassed gift of making himself beloved. All this and much more might be said. Much of it is far too intimate and sacred to be said. But as members of an institution of learning and the liberal arts of which he was the head, we may properly think of his eager and unfailing interest in all that is humanly lovely and of good report, in all the noble activities that vivify, enrich, intensify, the common life of men. It was characteristic that in his address at the funeral services of President Fairchild, his mind dwelt almost exclusively upon the momentous events that President Fairchild had witnessed, of the wealth of life that his eighty years had seen. President Barrows' half-century, too, was a stirring time-as momentous, doubtless, as the age of St.,Philip-and we may be sure that he rejoiced not only to live in such a time, but also to reflect that he was contributing his force towards the solution of the great problems of his day. This bent of his own mind could hardly fail to influence his ambition for the college over which he presided, and in which he earnestly believed. He desired that Oberlin should continue to be, as it has long been, in vital connection with the life of the country, that it should make citizens rather than scholars, that its sons and daughters should exclude themselves from no beneficent activity and no humane enjoyment, that their spirits should be exalted and their lives enriched by whatever enriches and exalts the spirit of man--and this in the interests ofthe life of service, for which, as sons and daughters of Oberlin, they have been trained. He might have echoed the beautiful words of Bernard of Clairvaux: Smit namquc qui scirc 'volunt co fine tantum, ut .vvimzt,' ct turpis curiositas csl. Et sunt qui scirc volunt ut sciantur' ipsi,' ct turpis 'Ucmilas esl. Ersuut item qui scire volunt, ut scicntiam .mam vcnda1it,' 'verbi causa, pro fwcmzia, pro l1ouorilm.r,' ctlurpis quac.rtu.v est. Sed sunt quoque qui scire volunt, ut aedificcn-t,' at clzaritcu est. Et item qui scirc volunt, ut acdificcntur, ut prudcntia ml. lt was not granted to him, as to some of his predecessors, to see the effect upon the college of a long presidency, but loyal and loving hearts will rejoice to perpetuate his influence and to aid in the realization of his ideal. One thinks of lllIld.S0l'l1ClZll11CS4ZlS of Tennyson's Ulysses-an eager, though-not a restless spirit, rich with the gifts of experience, yet still drawn on by gleams of that untravelled world, whose margin fades forever and forever. Life in all its fulness was not' too large for his eager spirit here, and into the fulness of lifeawe believe that he has entered. ' C. H. A. WAGER. 14

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President Barrows N the twenty-sixth of May, 1595, St. Philip Neri, founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, died at Rome. His long life of eighty years had covered one of the great periods in the history of Italian civilization-what may be called the high noon ofthe Renaissance-the age of the Medici in Florence, of Leo X. and Gregory XIII. in Rome, the age of Galileo, of Michelangelo, Titian, and Patil Veronese, of Ariosto, Tasso, and Machiavelli. The fascinations of art and learning and luxury had so wrought upon men that their eyes were sealed to the beauty of holiness. To St. Philip. though he was pl1ilo.mplzia af sncris litlcris cruditus, virtual Paganism was far too heavy a price to pay for the intellectual and artistic achievements of the age, great as these were: yet, in Cardinal Newman's words, he perceived that the mischief was to be met, not with argument, not with science, not with protests and warnings, not by the recluse or the preacher, but by means of the great counter- fascination of purity and truth. While it cannot be said of President Barrows, as of St. Philip, that he despaired of the efficacy of argument and science, of protest and warning and preaching, against the unrighteousness of his time, yet it can be said that as we knew him, his chief weapon was the great counter-fascination of purity and truth , tl1at, like St. Philip, he preferred to yield to the stream and direct the current of science, literature, and art, and to swceten and to sanctify what God had made very good and man had spoilt. Of him, as of St. Philip, it is true that what he did was to be done by the light and fervor and convincing eloquence of his personal character and his easy conversation. In the same Discourse of the Idea of a University from which I have been quoting, Cardinal Newman makes an eloquent distinction between the methods of science and the methods of literature, in the course of which occurs a description of literature that applies almost equally well to the type of character that I have in mind: Literature does not argue, but declaims and insinuatesg it is multiform and versatile, it persuades instead of convincing: it seduces, it carries captive, it appeals to the sense of honor or to the imagination or to the stimulus of curiosityg it makes its way by means of gayety, satire, romance, the beautiful, the pleasurable. What more telling description of the true humanist, the cultivated spirit that directs the highest human attainments to ends higher than their own? The light and fervor and con- vincing eloquence of his personal character! What more precise account of the method of President Barrows during the last four years of his life? Yes, he was like St. Philip in this, that he was willing to use the world's best achievements for his own high ends-the artistic genius of Milton and Rembrandt, the attractions of high place gained by patriotic statesmanship, the compelling charm of human wit and sym- pathy and eloquence. He gave us a spectacle of an abounding interest in life, in all its manifold expressions of grace and power, an interest that was only a handmaid to his devotion to that favor which is life, and that loving- kindness which is better than life. This is not the whole story. Others think of President Barrows as the great 13

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THE GOOD OLD OBERLIN This is the sorrowful story Told by our Madame J., When she talks with her old-time cronies Of the Oberlin of today. 't There go a man and a maiden Together as sure as you liveg Not a sign of rain in the heavens! What earthly excuse can they give? Sundays, can you believe it? The girls go wherever they please, Not a single chaperon near them As they stroll off by twos and by threes. If, oh appalling idea, A man had invaded their nook, They' turned their backs straightway upon him, Dared not to speak nor to look. Now, in the old times, the good times, If they wished to stir out of the door, They went to the grove after dinner To come back precisely at four. For to speak to a man on a Sunday Is a deed as distressing and dire, CI know you'll agree when I say itj As walking with one after choir. Free from all rules are the home girls, 'Tis thc worst thing that yet has been done, For can mothers control their own children As well as a dean who has none ? 15 This is the sorrowful story Told by our Madame J., ' As she talks with her old time cronies Of the Oberlin of today.