Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

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the self-control which JOmerson names as an essential clement of Ijcnitifiil manners. There is abundant testimony ulscj from Swartlimcjrc f M-adiiates that the social life of the colle[, e is most valuable trainin for the social life of the world. The College Catalogue names the twenty ]jeriods of recitation re- quired each week in the courses of study leading to a degree. The social curriciilton includes twenty- one periods of social ojjportnnity afffjrded by the associations of the dining-hall. Three times every day the students meet in the great dining-hall as twenty or more separate breakfast and lunch and dinner parties, social clubs that may make the time set apart for meals a time for the practice of the fine art of social intercourse. Eat, as in the presence of the king, one of our mentors teaches us. The presence of the king subdues every selfish impulse to secure most and best of things. The presence of the king restrains the hand from childish trickery and modulates the voice to gentle tones. The presence of the king stimulates to thought and wit and pleasant anecdote. Thus, may Swarthmore ' s dining- hall be made a school of beautiful manners. Then there are other social occasions that are elective — the appointed social-hour in the recreation-time after dinner and the occasional formal re- ceptions. Of course, the value of these social opportunities depends en- tirely upon the spirit in which they are entered into. Social intercourse of men with men, of women with women, or of men with women, that has a basis of sincerity and frankness and mutual respect, is always a most im- portant factor in social cultivation. Every moment of social intercourse that calls out the best that is in us and holds us to our best, broadens and deepens the intellectual and the spiritual life. A very practical question is the limitation to which the social inter- course of students should be subject. Because they are separated from their homes, away from the natural censors of their friendships, all their inter- course with each other should be characterized by that fine reserve, that delicate respect for each other that does not allow of hasty, indiscriminate intimacies. There is another thought that may be helpful to The Hal- cyon ' s undergraduate company. In the association of young people as 19

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Wartl n ore ' s ocial life. THE oracular saying, All things come to him that can wait, is veri- fied again. At the Alumni Banquet, in ' 91, one of the guests was asked to speak of the influence of the social life at Swarthmore. It was felt by the speaker that a meeting of Swarthmore graduates, to whom the social life of the college had become a thing of the past, was a less important occasion for the consideration of this theme than would be a company of Swarthmore ' s undergraduate students. Now, The Halcyon invites a contribution upon this theme, and The Halcyon ' s banquet is spread not only for the Alumni, but for the undergraduates as well. So, the waited opportunity has come. The social life of Swarthmore is unique, for it is unusual for college life to keep so much of the semblance of home as Swarthmore does. The first requirement of the day is a requirement of most homes — that the mem- bers of the household shall punctually give the good cheer of their presence at the breakfast table. It is a severe strain that Swarthmore home-life has to bear in making up its household from fragments of so many households the wide country over. And it sometimes happens that young people care- fully nurtured at home, young people of pleasant manners while under the restraining eye of father and mother, Avhen brought into the society of their peers and left to self-direction find themselves for a time like a steam-engine without a governor, and with similar results. These are they whose un- regulated conduct sometimes makes life hard in the Swarthmore household. But there is abundant testimony that sooner or later such members come to 18

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students the element of personality must be kept in abeyance, the sense of personal possession cannot wisely be indulged. Every feeling of admiration, of genuine affection for another that takes us out of ourselves is one of the good gifts straight from the hand of God to be enjoyed reverently and thankfully. But among students, the desire for personal appropriation of that which we admire or love is to be kept absolutely in check. There will come of this self-restraint not only safety from unhappy complications, but a strength and depth of character to be felt in the maturity of manhood and womanhood. This, then, is the opportunity of Swarthmore ' s social life, to promote that intercourse among its young people which shall stimulate sincerity and frankness, tempered with a delicate reserve and accompanied with noble behavior. 6 t £ o . - € y0 ' O( .