THE COLUMBIAN UNIVERSITY 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 HERBERT PUTNAM, Litt.D., LL. D 
 
 LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS 
 
 AT THE 
 
 EIGHTY-SECOND ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 
 DEPARTMENTS OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
 
 JUNE 3, 1903 
 
 AT THE NATIONAL THEATER 
 
 Washington, d. c. 
 
 fmm 
 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 JUDD & DETWEILER, PRINTERS 
 1903 
 
oil .2.T- 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS. 
 
 President Needham, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
 
 To a librarian such an occasion as this is a tempting one. 
 We are at the National Capital, under the shadow of a con- 
 stitution, at the heart of a national system, based upon 
 books ; constructed — with some compromises ! — upon discus- 
 sion of the best models which books afford. We are under 
 an administration whose first magistrate is a historian and 
 man of letters, whose second — to go no further — is a man of 
 letters and historian. We are in an era when men from 
 academic life are being incessantly and increasingly drawn, 
 into the public service, and asked to bring to its problems 
 j udgments formed by the study of books. And the occasion 
 itself is an academic one, — with every justification that that 
 implies for eulogium of the power and of the instruction 
 which through books are brought to us from the ages past 
 and from the lands beyond our gate. 
 
 Such an occasion is, I say, for a librarian a tempting one ; 
 for an audience therefore perhaps a perilous one. And yet the 
 choice of a librarian to deliver an address to a graduating 
 class is singular. For you who are leaving the academic 
 portals are supposed to be laying aside books. You are 
 leaving them to take up life. At some institutions you 
 would leave them in ashes : you would burn them, as things 
 
2 
 
 whose utility, so far as you are concerned, has passed, and 
 for whose recent tyranny you might now show your just 
 contempt. You are about to enter upon life itself; and 
 have no longer use for books, which give you life only at 
 second hand. This occasion would then be the least appro- 
 priate for a panegyric upon books or an exposition of the 
 uses of books. But I propose neither. I have been asked to 
 say something to you not about books (though they are not 
 forbidden), but about libraries ; and not about libraries in 
 general but about a particular system of libraries, the system 
 which forms part of the laboratory equipment of your uni- 
 versity itself. This may be to the purpose : for as alumni 
 and alumnse, the interests of your university will be with 
 you still a chief concern. You will wfish to do all in your 
 power to augment its resources : you will at least wish to be 
 able to state with clearness and precision just what these 
 resources are, in order that the university may secure a 
 proper repute for them, which will draw to its faculty men 
 of strength and to its student-body men and women ambi- 
 tious for the best. This will be your duty to it as graduates, 
 your primary duty, and a small enough acknowledgment of 
 the benefits which you have received from it. 
 
 I incline to take as text a passage from an unfamiliar 
 book : perhaps the only book within your reach which you 
 have not read during the past four years. It is the Cata- 
 logue of Columbian University. And the passage is that in 
 the introduction entitled the “ Educational Advantages of 
 Washington.” Part of it deals with the opportunities, at 
 the Medical Museum and elsewhere, for the study of normal 
 and morbid anatomy and of dental perfections and im- 
 perfections : matters of intimate concern, but not within my 
 
3 
 
 field. Another part calls attention to the Government labo- 
 ratories of science, whose methods offer a profitable field of 
 study and whose apparatus is to some extent made available 
 to student investigators. The most of it, however, consists 
 of a statement of the library resources in Washington, with 
 a reference to the Resolution of Congress, approved April 12, 
 1892, which makes such of them as are subject to the federal 
 government “ accessible * * * to students of any insti- 
 
 tution of higher education now incorporated or hereafter to 
 be incorporated under the laws of Congress or of the District 
 of Columbia.” The resolution uses the term “ collections,” 
 which includes much more than books : but every govern- 
 ment institution or bureau mentioned contains a library, and 
 the list starts off with the Library of Congress. The state- 
 ment in the catalogue is clear; but I should like to expand 
 it a little. The list includes but twelve institutions and 
 bureaus. Twenty-two others supported by the federal Gov- 
 ernment have collections of books which under present prac- 
 tice are now in fact equally accessible to the student and to 
 any serious investigator. There are thus in the city of AVash- 
 ington thirty-four governmental libraries freely available for 
 research. These libraries now contain in the aggregate over 
 two million books and pamphlets and over a half million 
 other articles literary in character — manuscripts, maps, music 
 and prints. If we add to them the contents of the District 
 Library and of the libraries of private associations and insti- 
 tutions, — The Catholic University, Georgetown College, Co- 
 lumbian itself, and others, — we shall have a total not merely 
 greater than is to be found in any other city of this size in 
 the world ; but one which in proportion to population rep- 
 resents several times as many volumes per capita as exist for 
 public use in any other city of the world. 
 
4 
 
 The character of these collections is still more significant. 
 If you will take that catalogue of your university and will 
 check through the list of courses you will find not one to the 
 pursuit of which some governmental library cannot contrib- 
 ute ; and only one to which the government fails to furnish 
 a practically efficient, if not entirely complete, working 
 library. (The exceptional course is Biblical literature: but 
 even this may not require literary resources more elaborate 
 than the needs of Congress have called for in the Library of 
 Congress.) The most significant circumstance is, however, 
 that of these thirty-four governmental libraries thirty-three 
 exist for the purpose of developing each a collection within 
 a particular field, while the thirty-fourth (the Library of Con- 
 gress) as a national library is a library general in scope and 
 has for its field all literature. 
 
 The library of each scientific bureau is seeking every book 
 within its means which will aid to the work of that bureau. 
 These libraries as a whole are thus developing in response to 
 the needs of specialists and under their direction. Now the 
 scientific work of the federal government in the bureaus 
 touches almost every branch of the natural and physical 
 sciences. The resulting collections of books are thus coming 
 to be large and efficient special libraries covering most of the 
 sciences which enter into the curriculum of a university. 
 The student of medicine has accessible to him the Library of 
 the Surgeon-General’s office, which is not merely the largest 
 but the most efficient medical library in the world. The 
 student of the common law has in the library of the Supreme 
 Court (a division of the Library of Congress) a collection of 
 Statutes, Reports and Commentaries which is one of the 
 largest in the United States, though for lack of space it can- 
 
5 
 
 not for the present be fully efficient, nor even uniformly ac- 
 cessible. The student of the civil law, of international law, 
 of comparative jurisprudence is not yet adequately provided 
 for ; but he is to be. The libraries of the Department of Agri- 
 culture, of the State, War and Navy Departments, of the De- 
 partment of Justice, of the Bureau of Education, of the Geo- 
 logical Survey, of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, of the 
 Patent Office, of the National Museum, of the Weather 
 Bureau, of the Labor Bureau, of the Naval Observatory, rep- 
 resent each a collection specially constructed for specific and 
 authoritative service within the particular field indicated by 
 its title. 
 
 Of course the material accumulated in these collections 
 will be primarily that which aids the investigations or bears 
 upon the operations of the Government. But even thus it 
 covers pretty nearly every division of pure science, the nat- 
 ural and physical sciences, law, medicine and mathematics. 
 It does not cover the philosophical sciences, theology, phi- 
 lology, the fine arts or belles lettres ; nor in any general 
 way sociology. It touches technology only in the library of 
 the Patent Office, and history chiefly in the library of the 
 State Department. But all these subjects for one reason and 
 another, and in particular because they are not covered by 
 any other governmental collection, are a particular obliga- 
 tion upon the Library of Congress. 
 
 When the resolution of Congress took effect eleven years 
 ago the Library of Congress was a huge but undigested mass 
 of material, partly shelved, but in larger part in heaps, on 
 the floor, in closets, in vaults, under stairways — 700,000 vol- 
 umes crowded into spaces in the aggregate capable of afford- 
 ing accessible accommodation for less than half that number. 
 
6 
 
 It was not and could not be systematically classified ; it had 
 not and could not have complete or exact catalogues, — nor 
 any catalogue accessible to the public. It lay in the Cap- 
 itol — a building primarily for legislative uses. It was ad- 
 ministered by a force of but forty-two persons, who were in 
 addition charged with the entire copyright business — and 
 had no adequate facilities for any part of their business, 
 much less a margin of facilities which could give aid and 
 comfort to a reader. The fund for increase was but $10,000 
 a year. 
 
 Today the Library of Congress is a collection, including 
 duplicates, of over 1,100,000 books and pamphlets and nearly 
 half a million other articles. It is housed in a building 
 devoted to its sole use : the largest library building in the 
 world, the most commodious, the most efficient in equipment 
 for the work which it has to do ; — a building which pro- 
 vides for ample classification and display of the material, 
 for reasonable growth and for a multitude and great variety 
 of service ; — a building which may accommodate a thou- 
 sand readers at a time and differentiate them to their best 
 advantage. As against forty-two employees for all purposes 
 there are now in its service (including the force caring for 
 the building, the Copyright Office, and the Branch bindery 
 and printing office) four hundred and eighty-seven per- 
 sons. From $10,000 a year the funds for increase have 
 risen to $100,000 a year. The Library still receives without 
 cost two copies of every book or other article entered under 
 the copyright law ; it has the benefit of the international 
 exchanges of public documents ; and it is the custodian of 
 the library of the Smithsonian Institution — a superb collec- 
 tion of the publications of learned societies. The books are 
 
7 
 
 shelved ; and a modern, expansive system of classification 
 is being applied to them. A card catalogue, not merely by 
 authors, but also by subject, is being compiled, and as com- 
 piled is made available to the public. Reference lists and 
 bibliographies of special subjects of current or of scholarly 
 interest are being issued in book form and freely distributed. 
 The Library has still Ainsworth Spofford and the other men 
 who with him made the collection at the Capitol useful in 
 spite of harassing conditions. And it has gained numerous 
 other experts, including some who are in a different sense 
 specialists — who have had specific training in the subject 
 matter of various departments of knowledge. It has, for 
 instance, such specialists in history, in economics, in the- 
 ology, in philology, in chemistry, in physics, mathematics, 
 astronomy, biology, ethnology, technology, music ; compe- 
 tent linguists, of course (books are now being catalogued in 
 over a hundred different languages and dialects); accom- 
 plished bibliographers ; highly trained classifiers and cata- 
 loguers ; experts in the art of making books useful, and 
 whatever else goes to the technique of library administra- 
 tion — but also specialists. 
 
 This large force, except as it may be caring for .the plant 
 or directly busy with the reader, is engaged in systematizing 
 the collection, in equipping it with efficient apparatus, and in 
 aiding to develop it by wise choice of material to be pur- 
 chased. To their counsel is added that of many users of the 
 Library who are themselves specialists : the scientists in the 
 government service, members of the faculties of near-by in- 
 stitutions of learning, — of your own faculties. With these 
 and other resources of counsel the Library is now, with its 
 more ample funds, in a way to develop systematically. It 
 
8 
 
 is progressing toward its goal. And this goal is: an organic 
 collection covering every department of literature save such 
 as are of necessity more appropriately covered by other gov- 
 ernmental libraries within the district. 
 
 The Library of Congress was established primarily for the 
 use of Congress; but in its content it was never merely a legis- 
 lative library. With its present resources it is becoming a 
 library not merely national, but general. It is seeking to ac- 
 quire every book not already in possession of the Govern- 
 ment, which is in content a contribution to knowledge. 
 Countless books there are which it can never acquire : which 
 are nevertheless the relish of the collector and give distinc- 
 tion to great libraries abroad. But these are books, or 
 editions, whose interest is in their form or rarity, not in their 
 content. Manuscripts also it will lack which are literary 
 memorials and sources of history. But in so far as these bear 
 upon American History it is likely to secure the substance 
 of them in copies, transcript or facsimile. For it will en- 
 deavor to secure for use at Washington the substance, and 
 where possible the form also, of every document which at 
 present requires of the investigator a trip to London or Paris 
 or Rome or Madrid or Seville or Simancas or the City of 
 Mexico. For the study of American history indeed this 
 Library and this city must be the centres. The manuscript 
 sources in the present possession of the government would 
 alone require this. The first two grants by the Carnegie 
 Institution for historical research recognize it: one is for a 
 statement by experts, more precise and more thorough than 
 has ever before been accomplished, as to the nature, value, 
 location and availability of these sources; another is a grant 
 for the maintenance at Washington of an expert and assist- 
 
9 
 
 ants, who shall aid, advise in and direct research involving 
 the use of them. 
 
 But I refer to American history chiefly by way of example ; 
 for I can think of few branches of research involving the use 
 of books for which Washington will not in time offer ex- 
 ceptional facilities. 
 
 The Library of Congress still specially serves Congress ; 
 it has a special duty to serve the Executive departments and 
 scientific bureaus of the government; but it has in addition 
 an ample margin of service to render to inquirers at large. 
 It is a free public library; it is such to a degree not indicated 
 by its title. It is, to be sure, a library primarily for refer- 
 ence use. So is every national library in the world ; so are 
 most of the great research libraries eyen of this country. As 
 a library of record it has a duty to preserve ; as a library for 
 research it may perhaps best aid serious use by ensuring that 
 the bulk of its collections shall be found by an investigator 
 within its walls. 
 
 But these considerations do not preclude the issue for 
 home use of a book required for a serious purpose by an in- 
 vestigator who cannot use it within the building. Indeed, 
 the only regulation of use that has been formulated express- 
 ing the intent of the administration is : “ The broadest pos- 
 sible use consistent with the convenience of Congress, the 
 freest possible use consistent with the safety of the collec- 
 tions.” 
 
 Consider then what Washington is to offer — what Colum- 
 bian University is to offer : not a library but a whole sys- 
 tem of libraries, — special libraries in particular fields of 
 knowledge, and a general library covering every remaining 
 field of knowledge and, so far as possible, all existing pro- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 curable literature. The system is, to be sure, not yet organic. 
 The various constituent libraries have heretofore been devel- 
 oped independently and without due regard for the field and 
 the service proper to each. But a cooperation is now en- 
 tered upon which will mean: a proper differentiation of 
 each ; uniformity of methods ; the centralization of cata- 
 loguing ; cooperative bibliographies ; the interchange of 
 material ; and mutual service. The result may be an or- 
 ganic system of libraries unparalleled elsewhere. Did rhet- 
 oric permit I might call it “ the most unique ” library sys- 
 tem in the world. But rhetoric doesn’t permit ; — also, that 
 title has been appropriated by another “ library system ” 
 with which we need not enter into competition. 
 
 This library system of the government is a laboratory for 
 the university ; and it is a laboratory maintained without a 
 dollar of expense to the University — a prime consideration ; 
 for the University is poor. Of course it is poor : a univer- 
 sity cannot reputably be otherwise than poor. I think, how- 
 ever, of another university of whose problems I have some 
 knowledge, — of Harvard, — also poor — with a great library, 
 to be sure, the greatest academic library in this country, but 
 in deep perplexity for a building in which to accommodate 
 it and for funds with which to increase and to administer it. 
 A meagre $70,000 a year is all that it can spare for increase 
 and administration. And I cannot but contrast the fortune 
 of Columbian, with even greater collections at its disposal, 
 maintained and increased at a cost of a million dollars a 
 year, but for which it does not have to divert a dollar from 
 its precious funds for instruction. 
 
 In 1814 George Ticknor in Boston had to send to New 
 Hampshire for a German dictionary and to ask Edward 
 
11 
 
 Everett for the loan of a German grammar. A Euripides in 
 the original could not be bought at any shop in New Eng- 
 land. When he went to Gottingen he was astonished at the 
 profuse expenditure there for books and in contrast the per- 
 sonal poverty of the professors. When a professor appeared 
 in a new waistcoast the class burst into applause. — “ How,” 
 he asked, “ did they behave when he appeared in a new 
 coat ? ” — “A new coat ! — a professor in a new coat ! — Gott 
 bewahre ! — Such a thing never happened ! ! ” 
 
 Well, conditions have improved since Ticknor’s day. 
 There is now a fair abundance of books at most seats of 
 learning. At Columbian, at least, they are likely to be had 
 without depriving your faculty of the luxury of an occasional 
 new coat, and of leading the fashion in waistcoats. 
 
 I have been led to speak of these conditions to you this 
 evening because I could speak of them as a* librarian, and 
 though not as librarian of the university, yet in a sense as 
 one of the librarians to the university. The facts may be 
 familiar to you, but the estimate of their significance from 
 the technical and comparative standpoint of us who are 
 dealing with them professionally may be less familiar. Per- 
 haps you have been utilizing these resources to the full ; at 
 all events you will desire them to be utilized by your suc- 
 cessors; and certainly you will desire them to count their 
 fullest in the reputation of the university and its power of 
 attraction. 
 
 I have kept my promise to abstain from the trite theme of 
 the uses of books. You know more of these than I can tell 
 you, — or than you yourselves will ever know again. This 
 
12 
 
 occasion is for you the apex, — the summit of the hill of 
 knowledge, — unsullied by experience. It is not merely a 
 parting of the ways, — it is a parting of the wise. You will 
 never be so wise again. You will know more; but you will 
 never again be so wise. You will never again have the in- 
 terest in books that you have had in the past few years, nor 
 the confidence in their solution of the problems of life that 
 you have today. The book which is now to concern you is 
 the book of life. The book of life isn’t easy reading. And it 
 has no index. Rather, I should say, it has an index, and 
 the index is where indexes should be — at the end. But it 
 is shut to you till you reach the end. Indeed it is a book 
 which each of you must not merely read but must write for 
 himself. Write it fairly, write it sturdily, and it will be a 
 book to last, even though it never find a publisher. It will 
 at least form a section of that awful ledger, kept by the un- 
 erring accountant, which is to yield up its debits and credits 
 against you at the final commencement day. 
 
 Cotton Mather used to oblige his children “ to retire and 
 ponder on that question ‘ What should I wish I had done if 
 I were now dead.’ ” A salutary but somewhat sombre diver- 
 sion, — to which I shall not now invite you, though I might 
 find precedents. The world is a cheerful world today ; and 
 the most interesting world that ever was ; and the book that 
 your life is to write may if you like be a cheerful and inter- 
 esting book, and a helpful one ; for full of service as the 
 world appears, help is still needed. 
 
 It is a fashion of commencement addresses to advise you 
 how T to write it. I am not the one to advise you, and I shall 
 not try. I have undertaken rather to say something of the 
 opportunities which you are leaving than of those which lie 
 
13 
 
 before you. If I should say anything of these latter, it would 
 be only to urge you to apply to them the ideals, the stand- 
 ards, and as many as possible of the methods for which the 
 academic life stands. Freedom is one : the academic freedom, 
 which follows an argument to its consequences, however in- 
 convenient ; freedom to form an opinion, and to hold, and 
 to utter it, even though it differ from your neighbor’s; 
 tolerance for his opinion though it differ from yours ; respect 
 for the accumulated judgment of the past as against the 
 whim or emotion of the present. But I need not recapitu- 
 late them. They are familiar as the qualities most precious 
 of the academic life. Do not, I beg of you, assume that 
 they must be abandoned in the practical life. 
 
 The most of you have pursued a course in science ; and you 
 have had an opportunity afforded in no institution outside 
 of Washington, of a near view of a great body of scientific 
 workers, working at small compensation for great utilities, 
 unmercenary, devoted, absorbed in the pursuit of truth for 
 truth’s own sake, furthest removed from commercialism. 
 That is a privilege which your Catalogue does well to rank 
 high. Those of you who have pursued the liberal arts have 
 had in addition a larger participation in that literature 
 which brings to you the example of other men of other 
 times. If this literature can mean something to you here- 
 after, I would not, in spite of my pledge, urge you to lay it 
 aside. I would not advise you wholly to abstain from the 
 use of books even in your practical affairs ; — I would not 
 recommend this even to those of you who are to become 
 librarians ! 
 
 Lord Palmerston used to boast that he “ never read printed 
 books.” Well, Lord Palmerston was a considerable man of 
 
14 
 
 affairs. He sat in sixteen parliaments and held office for 
 nearly half a century as Secretary of War, Secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs, Premier and First Lord of the Treasury. 
 He “ raised the prestige of England throughout Europe to a 
 height which it had not occupied since Waterloo; created 
 Belgium, saved Portugal and Spain from absolutism, rescued 
 Turkey from Russia and the highway of India from France.” 
 Signal achievements. And yet they might have been more 
 admirable by a more admirable man. Lord Palmerston’s 
 boast was, to be sure, an affectation. He was a college bred 
 man, and his last act, at eighty years of age, gouty and de- 
 crepit, was to ride to Harrow to lay the foundation of the 
 school library. He did read books. But he preferred to be 
 known not as a reader of books but as a reader of people. 
 He read these not ill, but basely. He studied human nature 
 from its selfish side; he judged men by their worst notions 
 and utilized their worst impulses. He studied and used the 
 art of making the worse appear the better reason. He was 
 “ content to have the same predilections as the majority; to 
 have the same likes and dislikes as his country : ” a form of 
 patriotism doubtless, but not the highest patriotism in a 
 leader who from his very eminence is able best to see the 
 higher justice, and has power to make it plain to others. 
 Contrast the great leader who was preeminently the man 
 of books. The “unapproached supremacy” of Gladstone 
 lay in his insistence on the ethical; his assertion of the 
 higher morality as against selfishness and present expedi- 
 ency. He was an idealist; and it was his idealism — the 
 result of a profoundly religious nature fostered by incessant 
 contact with books — it was his idealism that was his motive 
 of action and his power. Can any one doubt which charac- 
 ter has left the nobler impress? — It may be a complacent 
 
15 
 
 thing to have changed the boundary of an empire : it is a 
 finer thing to have kept fixed before a great people the 
 boundary between^ right and wrong. 
 
 Large examples, I know, and large affairs. But in the 
 moral world, as in the aesthetic, it is not the size of the affair 
 that counts, but the quality you apply to it. 
 
 If you have gained ideals from .books, or otherwise from 
 your academic life do not be ashamed of them and do not 
 hesitate to apply them. They may not be so musty after 
 all, nor prove so inapplicable to the present uses of society. 
 The ancients cannot tell us much of service to the industrial 
 arts of today or to modern commerce. In technology the 
 entire body of classical literature isn’t a circumstance to that 
 25 K. W. dynamo which you installed in your machine 
 shop last year. But when it comes to the moral, the social 
 and the political questions, and the matters of taste and 
 feeling, even the ancients still have something for us. As 
 to these “no greater men are now than ever were.” So 
 Emerson thought and said, and Emerson touched no mean 
 height himself. 
 
 For rules of conduct at least we need not await tomor- 
 row’s newspaper. Mr. Lowell once defined the aim of a 
 university as he thought it : to “ make a gentleman of 
 every youth put under our charge; — not a conventional 
 gentleman but a man of culture, a man of intellectual 
 resource, a man of public spirit, a man of refinement, 
 with that good taste which is the conscience of the 
 mind, and that conscience which is the good taste of the 
 soul.” An admirable epitome, and well suited to our era : 
 but here is a description of a gentleman who lived eighteen 
 centuries ago written by a gentleman who died over seven- 
 teen centuries ago. Consider if any essential be lacking. 
 
16 
 
 “ Gentleness, yet unwavering adherence to judgments formed 
 after due deliberation ; indifference to honors commonly so- 
 called ; industry and assiduity ; readiness to listen to any 
 scheme for promoting the public good ; an inflexible deter- 
 mination to render every man his due ; tact to choose the 
 proper time for severity and leniency * * * a sense of 
 
 fellowship with mankind. * * * In every situation 
 
 * * * contented, cheery, thoughtful of the future and 
 
 careful about small matters, without fussiness. * * * 
 
 Toward the gods not superstitious nor toward men dema- 
 gogical, obsequious, ox studious of popularity ; an enemy of 
 sophistry, vulgarity or pedantry, — in all things sober and 
 steadfast.” 
 
 Standards change ; and the relative proportions of things. 
 At Harvard in the 18th century they used to fine profanity 
 at two shillings sixpence and lying at but one and six. 
 Today we deprecate profanity, but we abhor a liar. Stand- 
 ards change ; but the essential qualities of a gentleman as a 
 pagan saw them seventeen centuries ago seem to tally fairly 
 with the essentials as we see them today. 
 
 I think Lowell’s aim for a university as a breeder of gen- 
 tlemen — gentlemen of both sexes — worthy of consideration. 
 But Mr. Lowell had it must be admitted an archaic notion 
 of a university. He would have preferred to see it “ a place 
 where nothing useful is taught.” You are going out into 
 the world to be useful ; you are to do practical things, not 
 merely to think true and agreeable things, and I would not 
 for a moment diminish your ardor for this doing, nor the 
 glory of the practical thing done. But where moral or aes- 
 thetic standards apply, where a principle is involved, where 
 an ideal offers, do not hesitate to assert it. You may be ridi- 
 culed: but ridicule isn’t fatal. You may even be charged 
 
17 
 
 with a rediscovery of the Ten Commandments ; but yon can 
 stand that. You will be in good company. Also, the world 
 is drawing round to the Ten Commandments, though it 
 doesn’t always like to be told so. 
 
 The fact is, at the bottom of its heart the world loves an 
 idealist: at first as it loves a lover, — half-quizzically, as 
 something fragile, visionary, to be protected from itself and 
 himself; — but then perhaps with ’a love that follows and 
 adopts. At the idealist it looks first with amusement, then 
 with suspicion, then with doubt, but finally, it may be, with 
 conviction. Throughout, however, it looks to see whether 
 he believes in himself. If he does, if he shows true, it finally 
 begins to think that after all he may have found something 
 that concerns it. 
 
 An idealist who fails is at worst but rueful. He has not 
 succeeded ; but he has stood for something that deserved to 
 succeed, — that may succeed later on. But is anything more 
 pitiable than the man who has made a compromise and 
 then finds that it wasn’t necessary ? — Is there any one more 
 sheepish ? He has retarded society ; and he has writ him- 
 self a coward. 
 
 I wish you good speed, — but I wish you even more a sure 
 footing : and in the long run (it is the long run you are now 
 entering upon) — in the long run the sure footing is principle 
 rather than expediency. Above all, I say, whatever the 
 affair, big or little, if you have ideals do not be ashamed of 
 them ; and if, as time goes on you find, as you certainly will 
 find, that by standing up to and for them you have not 
 merely bettered something outside of yourself, but have 
 made your own life simpler, clearer, heartier, cast a grateful 
 thought backward to the University which, with men — and 
 books — has helped to create them. 
 
 3