Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

Page 21 text:

Stanford Quad 1905 Biding Our Time OWELL (.)ljservi ' s, Sonictinies to thinks tlu ' stiulent ' s wiser Ijusincs ti ' ixHl many collegf students lia ( disci imtiturc. for the scholarslii]) Id-! bask and ri]X ' n is nic- s. Tliis nia hv. A J thonght so to their committee are stick- for the strenuous hfe. loreover, the basking •nt does not always ripen in good form or in tlie fashion the p et contemplated. Too often lie grows tough instead of mellow. But, however it may Ije with the student, it is sometimes well for a I ' niversity to bask and ripen for a space, for a time to forego its ambi- tions, to take stock of itself, to consider its hopes and fears, its strength and its deficiencies, before entering on new lines of intellectual develop- ment. This Stanford is now doing. Her Stone Age is still on. Great ])uildings, beautiful as the dream of the founders arise as if by magic. When this continues the same magic cannot be applied to other things. Each interest must take its turn. It is men which make the University, but in the nature of growth, the best comes last because the best is choicest, costliest, most enduring. Buildings, then books, then men in the second period of I niversity building. In the first, the condition is reversed ; men, then books and then buildings. The first nucleus of young, eager, enthusiastic radical teachers has become the dignified serious gray-haired group of wise advisers, the men wdio have made the Stanford of the past, who will shape the growth of the Stanford of 15

Page 20 text:

The last of day must yield to storm and night, Behind the low, black hills a single star — The long moan of the sea sounds from afar, The sheeted fogs troop in. impalpable, white, Aslant before the wind ; the spray flies light, The fishing fleets are homing from the bar, And where the storm-blue piles of cloud-wrack are A circling sea-gull ' s wing glints silver- bright. dark north, but I love thee, yet I see In dreams the lotus summer-land, where falls The mellow sun on pleasaunces palm-set. Red roofs and ivied towers — they know not me, Banished am I from those enchanted walls, And wake to thee, distraught with all regret.

Page 22 text:

Stanford Quad 1905 the future. While the buildings continue to rise, the University may well bask and ripen as its wiser business. In this time it can solidify its work. We can be sure that all its teaching is good teaching, that the institution is in reality a cherishing mother for all who are able and willing to make use of her good services. We can consider the relative values of things and choose that which is best worth keeping. We can purge our athletics and all our common interests from every form of selfish graft. We can develop the college spirit of which honor systems, in fact if not in form, are necessary outgrowths. On the soundness of the present, the growth of the future must depend. The Stone Age is nearing its end, the buildings once completed, we shall be eager to fill them with material for training, with men who can carry on intensive work, with students worthy of the men and their surroundings. Let us then bask and ripen as we can. Let ns clear the decks so as to be ready for action when the time comes, and these two metaphors mean really the same thing. Let us be sure when the new Stanford, the greater Stanford becomes a reality, that none of the friendliness of spirit, the clearness of thought, the sweet youthfulness of the early years shall be lost in the rush of development which tlie future shall surely bring. When we are rested we can strike our gait, and we mav be assured that no institution so solid as ours will grow more rapidh ' , not in numbers, for we do not pride ourselves on being the centre of population, but in scholarship, enthusiasm, loyalty, in everv academic virtue which the Stanford of the past has striven to make her own. D.wiD Starr Jordan. P f f