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Pure Scholarship-Its Place in Civilization

BY HENRY FARRAR LINSCOTT,

Professor of Latin in the University of North Carolina.

As often as I think of the conditions of modern life, one fact appears to me with startling clearness. The past twenty years have created in America a new type of civilization, or, more exactly, have added a new element to the composite life already existing. The characteristic of this newly created civilization is the development of industrial and commercial enterprise, and, incident to that development, the increased dignity and importance of that phase of living and thinking. It is clear that, now as never before, brain energy and capacity are being applied to industry and the conduct of business. And the world has rightly conceded to commercial enterprise a dignity and an importance commensurate with the training and mental capacity of the men engaged in it.

Illustration of this fact will be clear if we but answer the question, "Who were the leaders of thought and action in the civilization of one hundred, fifty, or even twenty years ago?" Evidently the trend of life was shaped by the preachers, teachers, editors, lawyers, and literary men of that day. They were almost the only exponents of mental and social culture. Our colleges then trained men primarily for such lines of activity; all the youth of intellectual promise sought, in these fields solely, the opportunity for applying their unusual mental gifts. Business was looked upon as a good field for physical endurance and a certain uncouth native shrewdness, but for brains never; at least in that day an unusual mentality would not have viewed commercial activity as a means of acquiring the highest attainment. Such a man might aim to write a poem, but never to build a bridge; his ambition might be to lead his church or the bar of his country, but never to be the master mind in the business world. To-day, as you know and I know, all this is no longer true. The field for trained intelligence is as wide as the life of man. There is almost no form of activity to which brain power is not attracted by the certainty that merit will be recognized and a generous dignity

accorded. Applied science, transportation, manufacturing, finance have been advanced and ennobled; to them much of our best intelligence has been attracted; they are all on a par with literature, the ministry, or law with respect to their dignity and the estimation accorded by broad-minded people. And, in this modern American society, the business man is no longer slighted and ignored. He is as much a representative citizen as any class. He is as brainy and broad-souled and sympathetic and often as cultured intellectually and socially. He is asked to hold important offices; he serves on great committees; he can speak and write; he is asked to welcome foreign potentates. Surely the business man is a leader in society. The world yields him not wealth alone; it exalts him and calls him great and honored and noble.

We shall accept these conditions and, if you agree with me, we shall call them good. For in this way civilization has been more nearly completed; its limitations have been widened, and trained intelligence has been made a more positive essential of effective and successful living. And surely there is no good reason for a jealous guarding of the sacred portal of the abode of culture. I do not know what culture is, I cannot define it; but I have a well settled conviction that the man who builds a bridge is as much a man of culture as he who writes a poem; that the preacher or lawyer may not claim this fair name and deny it to him who conducts a great business enterprise.

I shall refer you to a single danger incident to this change in our life, and that is the possibility of the over-development of one element of life to the detriment of others. This tendency has often been noticeable in the history of man. Circumstances may aid the growth of one phase of living and thinking, while society seems to run mad with favor and enthusiasm for a part of its duty. To that part is turned the intelligence, the energy, and endurance of the race. There is a swift and splendid growth and men are glad and point in exultation to what they have done. But, in the moment of pride, the very structure to which they point is becoming top-heavy: it will fall upon and crush its builders. For illustration let me refer you to the history of Greece and Rome. During the first two centuries of the Christian era, there was a splendid life in western Europe. It combined the glory

that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome in a magnificent civilization, the Graeco-Roman, aesthetic, wealthy, industrious, orderly. But in the moment of its greatest splendor, that life was crumbling into ruins. These races had given their enthusiasm and energy and intelligence to many lines of thinking and acting, but they had not given due regard to all lines of thinking and acting. They had developed in literature, art and architecture, in law and government, in commerce and in wealth. But they had neglected the moral law, they had not as a race foreseen the future of the human soul and they had failed to safeguard the division of property and prevent the creation of a contrast between the fortunate few and the oppressed masses. That civilization was over-balanced, developed on the one side, neglected on the other. Men were secure in the pride of their institutions: they were complacent, happy and then in a flash came the change, and the world was turned upside down. The side of highest development, which had been uppermost, came down with a crash and the manner of life which had been "despised and rejected of men" passed over the ruins of the old into the glory of a new living. In these facts from history we may find a warning: indeed we should also hear a voice prompting us to strive that our civilization may not become top-heavy and fall in ruins. For a civilization, to be secure and permanent and genuinely fair, must be symmetrical, rounded and perfect like the sphere. It should not be a monstrous shape, like a geometrical figure with bumps and excrescences from one axis and depressions or flat places at another. For, in such monstrosities, there can be neither beauty nor strength nor stability, though the mass and splendor of the parts be great.

Wherein then lies the possibility of that undue development which should be avoided? Evidently it lies in the fact that the trained intelligence of our country may be drafted, in an excessive degree, to industry and commerce and finance because these fields now offer not only the largest emolument but also abundant honor, glory, and fame. The average sensible and industrious young man, if given his choice, will select the course that will bring a good income when the conditions of honor and creditable standing in his community are equal. If asked my candid opinion, I shall say frankly that I think that the young man is right. I do not mean

to approve greed and sordidness, the ideal which makes the acquisition of property the only object in life. But I do approve the desire of a good income which shall win comfort and happiness for self and for those dependent. I do approve the desire to read good books, enjoy fair opportunities of travel and wear excellent clothes. It is right for every man to wish to eat good food from a good table in a good house over a good carpet, put down by good tacks. And in a modern world the living of that sort of life costs money. Therein lies our danger. The best incomes are to be secured in applied science, manufacturing, business, transportation, and finance. These are the attractive fields for the intelligence of our country. We may talk, if we please, about the beauty of self-denial and the joy of the service of mankind, but, as long as the present conditions prevail, the brains of the country will forget all this beauty and joy and will take the good income which will win them comfort. This is not necessarily selfishness. It is often merely self defense. No man need follow that course which will clothe him poorly, make him eat bad food and subject his wife and children to discomfort.

Evidently these conditions are a most serious menace to the field of pure scholarship which it is my purpose particularly to defend. The danger to which it is exposed will be better understood from a discussion of the character of the scholar's life and the scholar's work. Pure scholarship is that form of mental activity which has no application in the practice of the arts and sciences, which then is concerned solely with the investigation of truth as manifested in nature or in the work of man, literary, artistic, historical, economic or social. The emoluments of this scholarship are small. For wealth is a product of the application of knowledge in art. It is not necessarily a product of the knowledge itself. In the average instance the scholar has neither the time nor the inclination to search for the application of his discovered principle; he is not usually able to finance and exploit it in such a way as to secure money from the public. And the lack of emolument is especially burdensome by reason of the fact that great discoveries of truth are never made suddenly but are the results of years of preparation and hard work. The reward, if any, usually comes in the last years of life. It does not guarantee happiness and comfort during the many years of study ' and effort.

Again the scholar must prepare himself for his work by years of hard training, comparable with which the strictest military discipline is but child's play. There is no easy way to the mastery of the equipment and method of the scholar. And then there can be no certainty of definite, tangible results. The man who learns how to build a bridge, knows that there will be bridges to build, and he is reasonably sure to find work. But the scholar must be ready to work ten, twenty, and if need be, forty years with no assurance that he will solve the problem in hand. He must be willing to die without accomplishing his purpose, and, if he have the true spirit, he will not be envious in the thought that another will take up the work where he left it, use his results and finally reach the solution for which he labored so long.

Finally the scholar cannot expect with certainty any large measure of fame and dignity. A few discoveries have made scholars famous in their lifetime but they are usually based upon the work of earlier scholars who are unknown. Marconi's name is famous and his life is insured for a million dollars but no one thinks longer of the discoverer of the ether waves: his life would not bring ten cents in any market. Yet who is the greater? One man discovered a great principle of physics and is unknown save to a few. The other is a clever manipulator of known principles and is famous and wealthy. And that is a good illustration of the world's treatment of scholars. There is loud acclaim aud honor and wealth for him who applies principles and makes things which the world can see and hear and smell and use with pleasure. But for the man who discovers great principles there is often nothing but silence and oblivion save in a select circle of holy souls who are specialists.

not see.

This is the meaning of pure scholarship. You and I who know the spirit and the purpose can see the scholar's life shining fair and golden bright to our eyes: but all the world cannot. It is, for the average man, obscured by a mist, through which he canAnd when once man passes through that cloud, he knows that he cannot look back upon much that is pleasant and good; that he cannot reach the things which other men know as comforts. Shall we wonder that the best and most intellectual of men will not pass along this cloudy way into seclusion and oblivion?

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