Princeton University - Nassau Herald Yearbook (Princeton, NJ)

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Glilamf ilagg Qbratinn 3x1 gtpmreciatinn of Qiugnaphg J. DAY BROWNLEE, JR. Q One inestimable good of a college education is that it awakens and sometimes even begets in one a desire to read, to know of the happenings and thought of the ages 5 a longing to come in touch with the feeling and spirit of by-gone days 3 to understand the past, and so be the better fitted to appreciate the present and the future and ind oneis place among the toilers and helpers of the human race. Broad-mindedness is synonymous with this desire, and it is a characteristic of every cultured college man. But among the various means tending to satisfy this realization of our insuiii- ciency and to- move us along our forward Way, I Would speak for biography-a kind of Writing Which too often in oneis reading is not given its rightful and deserving place. It em- braces both his-tory and literature. It brings one in touch with great men and great minds. It stirs man's best and highest emotions 5 urges him on to do things and then to greater, better accomplishment. It is an unfailing tonic to the tired and oft- times disappointed struggler, giving him new life and hope to do his part, to meet his troubles, to iight and conquer. History is impersonal. Biography is personal. History treats of men in the mass and, when it does of necessity deal with the individual, cannot enter into the man to man spirit. Biography is the more specific, through it the influence of a man on an age is seen the more clearly, his individuality shines through the pages. We get an insight into the lives of men that history, no matter by Whom it is Written, how true the recital or Iinshed th-e style, can never impart. When you read a history of an 28

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age, you obtain a knowledge, a general understanding of the importance of that age 5 of its causes and eiects, and of its prominent men: but it does not take vital hold on your imagi- nation, a hold which is apt to incite you to action. Read a biography of one of its leading characters 3 the record of a man who helped, or perhaps made the age famous. The period assumes a new significance, workings that were only hinted at in the history are made clear, an interest and impulse is aroused which the direct story of the aims, failures and triumphs of the man alone can create. There are many kinds of men and consequently there are many kinds of biography. There are histories of men noted in social, military, literary and political life. By means of this Wide range' of choice you have the opportunity of contact with differing opinions, you see questions from many standpoints, the conceit is taken out of you, you are made to think and the breadth of the mind is immeasurably increased. You may not have thought much of life, but you may yet be awakened to its reality, to a realization of service due, for the force of reality is experienced in biography as in no- other form of literature. And an appreciation of this fact is inva.luable, because life is real, although its true import may not have occurred to us while here in the university as it is bound to when we leave these college walls. Then, a ready, a fruitful knowledge of biography cannot but be of practical benefit in helping you to find your- self and to know your surroundings. - The study o-f man' never fails to fascinate. Who is there who does no-t enjoy sitting in a great railway station, watching the thronging hundreds of all class-es and conditions. Involuntarily the eye roams through the continually changing crowds, until it lights upon some one marked man, whom it follows as far as it can see. This is reading character, biography, not on paper, but in the face, Hgure, dress and general bearing of the man. ' The individual man has been, is and will be the maker of history. It is onlyby reading a definite record of his life that we get a true, a just sense of the bigness or smallness of his nature, of his trials and troubles, of his failures and successes. 29