Westminster College - Argo Yearbook (New Wilmington, PA)

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Q, fl J Yin-Jef r ,ski And who, that walks where men of ancient days Have wrought with godlike arrn the deeds of praise, Feels not the spirit of the place control, Or rouse and agitate his laboring soul? The arresting influence of character and the monumental significance of the primary buildings of an institution-what a background upon which to exercise one's self in the processes of expression which is education! Buildings may be mere piles of stones but buildings associated with the experiences of influential char- acters are transformed by the power of the association. One moment the structure of 'fOld Main on a college campus may be a great dead building, as silent and uninspiiing as any of the other structures in the neighborhood, the next moment it has been taken up and separated from all its mates forever,-a sacred building, a foundation of inspiration, a Hre of poetry and of life-and out of our use of the gcgwer of association cornes much of our best education and our deepest responsi- 1 ity. Association with the venerable! Not only the buildings that are old on a campus, but also the contents and usages of them are monumental, and conse- quently, are transformed into inspiration of those attitudes and disciplines through the exercise of which inexperience and immaturity may become culture and com- petence. The classic halls of Old Main may become for the student the avenues of approach to education, if during student days one seeks to live in the lnter- preter's I-louse. Desire for an acquaintance with the classics is, therefore, in'evitable for fthe true collegian, since he is he who is a member of a body of associates or colleagues whose serious purpose is an excursion into the atmosphere and presence of the cultural whereby he may experience a quickening and a training which will make him in some degree a master among men,-the acquisition of a valid naturaliza- tion as a citizen of the world of thought, the world of educated men. The true collegian will desire to be no smatterer merely, able barely to spell its constitution out, but one who has really comprehended and made use of its chief intellectual processes and is ready to lay his mind alongside its tasks with some confidence that he can master them and can understand why and how they are to be performed. Professionals in the field of achiefuernent-collegians are digressing from the delect- able Held who in student days avoid serious contact with the classics. I know that to some minds the word classic is cold and repellant, suggesting something which people tell us we ought to like and which, in consequence, we like the less. It is well to remember a helpful word of Professor Barrett Wendell's that a classic would not be a classic if it had not interested thousands of human-beings, and that what has interested thousands of human beings cannot be without interest to us! Reverent of Old Main , seeking acquaintance with the classics, how mem- orable may be college days, described by james lVlartineau: To a pure and thoughtful mind, nothing can prevent the college years from being a glorious time. The large draughts of knowledge at the moment of most intense thirst, the first trial of the wings of thought out of sight of the home-nest and high amid the moun- tain airg the fervid friendships springing from a common trust in what is true and goodg the fair perspective, changing with the ideal colors, of promised and still promissory years,-these give an unconscious splendor to that time, seldom re- vealed but by the advent of a paler light in our maturity? ff' w,,' fa, ff f 1 a. 1 fr ff 'U ' 03 112' ' rg ll Wir, 'rt ll 'if 1.- ffl 'f 1 v -4-if--41--.diffii Q ' ,, , - 'slew is 1, Q Q1 l gil l Nine l

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T, L x 7554 diff 'If I ,Viz v JT4' fr 1 I' film ilk? 'VJ 1 f v ir' or - -am .- fs 'ff- . 'fi 'N 1, f fl- N fwf' -in ' wi'-' i 'f 2 1 , , -a Uv- f A if r , P 1 o 'f W W' ff W'-1f'7u-VN-45' ' , 1f.f'1.,-H617 'T flf Ellie Zhuraiinn uf Assuriatiun with the llenerethle At the Commencement season in the deepening twilight on the southern steps of Old Main of their student days, a group of college graduates were sitting in reminiscence at the fortieth anniversary of their graduation. The substantial gray- haired executive of an influential business corporation is speaking: 4'lVlen, deeply I am grateful for the opportunity of returning to the associations of student days. l am not ashamed that I have for this building such a feeling inf the heart of me that l want to kiss the stones of its foundation, as my tribute of appreciation of those men of the primitive days of the College whose sacrificial devotion made the institution possible. l read in French history that during the Revolution, A mob swept down a street blazing with cannon, killed the soldiers and pushed on. A few 'blocks be- yond, a white-haired man signaled for them to stop. They were about to trample him in the dust, when their leader exclaimed, 'Citizens, it is De la Eure. Sixty years of clean life are about to address youl' Then the mob stopped, listened, and turned back. And l recall the exclamatory question of William Wordsworth, A A Il ,g, . 'Q Eight -Q

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T. 1 mu g w 41,41-1','fgJt f4'sJ ii'7'?vvti7'V' 417 f viii-2 jf -fii:jfi Qr 7 '- vfg 6 ,, 1: Q if ff W' If V'-of sfkih ' f'Hf,1fw.,-157' it flf Mhturettiuxt fflfhrnugh lgevsnnalttg I. A Western College recently declared: Character is the most important subject in the curriculum. It may not be beyond criticism, but expresses a high ideal. We would say the same thing. We count it the supreme thing in Education. We aim to cultivate a love for truth and righteousness, to make young men and women to be true and pure and right. We wish to be a manufactory of persons of character. Dr. Stoors, in an article on the Puritan Spirit, said: The Personal Soul in castle or in cabin, in palaces or in chains-that is the supreme thing on the planet, for which indeed the planet was builded and is maintained. When Spurgeon was talking to his students one day he said to them: ln the promotion of a style, the principal thing is the preacher-the man. What you want your address to be, that you must be yourself. ' ln every line of culture, the same thing is true, Ruskin, in his Modern Painters , says: Art is concerned with the rendering of ideals. He urges the introduction from the outset of the moral sense as the criterion of Art. So let it be in every kind of culture. Let the moral and spiritual elements be emphasized. lt has ever been to the front with us. Il. ln moulding character, the strongest influence in any school is the personal ele111.e11t. Someone says: Personal force never goes out of fashion. l. What a force is the personal influence of students on one another? Was it Tennyson who said: l am part of all that l have met . We absorb from those with whom we mingle. Who is there that did not in school have a chum-a man Friday- whose fellowship was congenial and perpetual? Could not something be said from this angle in favor of select groups or clubs, massing the infl-uence of a set of boys or girls. Men live again in minds made better by the presence of others. We are fortunate, as a college, in hav- ing such a good constituency to draw from, in gathering a large percentage of our student body from the homes of a good class of people, from Christian families. They come from communities and congregations and families where God is known and Christ is the ideal for man or woman. They bring this with them and give it in measure to the new community of which they form a part. It is good for a young person to become part of such an aggregation, to plunge into such an atmosphere. lt was a line testimonial to Gladstone, given by a Bishop of England-'fl was saved from illness and worse things by getting to know Gladstone. And ten years after he left Oxford men said: Undergraduates drank less in the 40's because Gladstone had been so courageously abstemious in the 30's . 2. Then, what a strong personal influence is exerted by a teacher in College! ls it too much to say that the very greatest influence on character comes from a teacher who is revered and loved. l wonder if the roll were called if l might not find what I have said confirmed by our own college history. My space is too limited to set forth what I know to be true about men and women of the past, not now living except in the loving thoughts of their pupils- jeffers and Mehard, Oella j. Patterson, Professors john Mitchell and S. R, Thompson, and may l not include in the list Robert lVlcWatty Russell who not long ago passed from us. l hear their praises, and those of the living as well. May their memories and influence con- tinue, and may character be always kept as the chief thing in our curriculum and the chief instrument in its achievement be-a man or woman. -ROBERT GRACEY FERGUSON. ,A ily l 0