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lay morals-第23部分

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laughter;  whose active feet in the 'College Anthem' have beguiled so  many weary hours and added a pleasant variety to the strain  of close attention。  But even these are too evidently  professional in their antics。  They go about cogitating puns  and inventing tricks。  It is their vocation; Hal。  They are  the gratuitous jesters of the class…room; and; like the clown  when he leaves the stage; their merriment too often sinks as  the bell rings the hour of liberty; and they pass forth by  the Post…Office; grave and sedate; and meditating fresh  gambols for the morrow。

This is the impression left on the mind of any observing  student by too many of his fellows。  They seem all frigid old  men; and one pauses to think how such an unnatural state of  matters is produced。  We feel inclined to blame for it the  unfortunate absence of UNIVERSITY FEELING which is so marked  a characteristic of our Edinburgh students。  Academical  interests are so few and far between … students; as students;  have so little in common; except a peevish rivalry … there is  such an entire want of broad college sympathies and ordinary  college friendships; that we fancy that no University in the  kingdom is in so poor a plight。  Our system is full of  anomalies。  A; who cut B whilst he was a shabby student;  curries sedulously up to him and cudgels his memory for  anecdotes about him when he becomes the great so…and…so。  Let  there be an end of this shy; proud reserve on the one hand;  and this shuddering fine ladyism on the other; and we think  we shall find both ourselves and the College bettered。  Let  it be a sufficient reason for intercourse that two men sit  together on the same benches。  Let the great A be held  excused for nodding to the shabby B in Princes Street; if he  can say; 'That fellow is a student。'  Once this could be  brought about; we think you would find the whole heart of the  University beat faster。  We think you would find a fusion  among the students; a growth of common feelings; an  increasing sympathy between class and class; whose influence  (in such a heterogeneous company as ours) might be of  incalculable value in all branches of politics and social  progress。  It would do more than this。  If we could find some  method of making the University a real mother to her sons …  something beyond a building of class…rooms; a Senatus and a  lottery of somewhat shabby prizes … we should strike a death… blow at the constrained and unnatural attitude of our  Society。  At present we are not a united body; but a loose  gathering of individuals; whose inherent attraction is  allowed to condense them into little knots and coteries。  Our  last snowball riot read us a plain lesson on our condition。   There was no party spirit … no unity of interests。  A few;  who were mischievously inclined; marched off to the College  of Surgeons in a pretentious file; but even before they  reached their destination the feeble inspiration had died out  in many; and their numbers were sadly thinned。  Some followed  strange gods in the direction of Drummond Street; and others  slunk back to meek good…boyism at the feet of the Professors。   The same is visible in better things。  As you send a man to  an English University that he may have his prejudices rubbed  off; you might send him to Edinburgh that he may have them  ingrained … rendered indelible … fostered by sympathy into  living principles of his spirit。  And the reason of it is  quite plain。  From this absence of University feeling it  comes that a man's friendships are always the direct and  immediate results of these very prejudices。  A common  weakness is the best master of ceremonies in our quadrangle:  a mutual vice is the readiest introduction。  The studious  associate with the studious alone … the dandies with the  dandies。  There is nothing to force them to rub shoulders  with the others; and so they grow day by day more wedded to  their own original opinions and affections。  They see through  the same spectacles continually。  All broad sentiments; all  real catholic humanity expires; and the mind gets gradually  stiffened into one position … becomes so habituated to a  contracted atmosphere; that it shudders and withers under the  least draught of the free air that circulates in the general  field of mankind。

Specialism in Society then is; we think; one cause of our  present state。  Specialism in study is another。  We doubt  whether this has ever been a good thing since the world  began; but we are sure it is much worse now than it was。   Formerly; when a man became a specialist; it was out of  affection for his subject。  With a somewhat grand devotion he  left all the world of Science to follow his true love; and he  contrived to find that strange pedantic interest which  inspired the man who


'Settled HOTI'S business … let it be … Properly based OUN … Gave us the doctrine of the enclitic DE; Dead from the waist down。'


Nowadays it is quite different。  Our pedantry wants even the  saving clause of Enthusiasm。  The election is now matter of  necessity and not of choice。  Knowledge is now too broad a  field for your Jack…of…all…Trades; and; from beautifully  utilitarian reasons; he makes his choice; draws his pen  through a dozen branches of study; and behold … John the  Specialist。  That this is the way to be wealthy we shall not  deny; but we hold that it is NOT the way to be healthy or  wise。  The whole mind becomes narrowed and circumscribed to  one 'punctual spot' of knowledge。  A rank unhealthy soil  breeds a harvest of prejudices。  Feeling himself above others  in his one little branch … in the classification of  toadstools; or Carthaginian history … he waxes great in his  own eyes and looks down on others。  Having all his sympathies  educated in one way; they die out in every other; and he is  apt to remain a peevish; narrow; and intolerant bigot。   Dilettante is now a term of reproach; but there is a certain  form of dilettantism to which no one can object。  It is this  that we want among our students。  We wish them to abandon no  subject until they have seen and felt its merit … to act  under a general interest in all branches of knowledge; not a  commercial eagerness to excel in one。

In both these directions our sympathies are constipated。  We  are apostles of our own caste and our own subject of study;  instead of being; as we should; true men and LOVING students。   Of course both of these could be corrected by the students  themselves; but this is nothing to the purpose: it is more  important to ask whether the Senatus or the body of alumni  could do nothing towards the growth of better feeling and  wider sentiments。  Perhaps in another paper we may say  something upon this head。

One other word; however; before we have done。  What shall we  be when we grow really old?  Of yore; a man was thought to  lay on restrictions and acquire new deadweight of mournful  experience with every year; till he looked back on his youth  as the very summer of impulse and freedom。  We please  ourselves with thinking that it cannot be so with us。  We  would fain hope that; as we have begun in one way; we may end  in another; and that when we are in fact the octogenarians  that we SEEM at present; there shall be no merrier men on  earth。  It is pleasant to picture us; sunning ourselves in  Princes Street of a morning; or chirping over our evening  cups; with all the merriment that we wanted in youth。



COLLEGE PAPERS CHAPTER III … DEBATING SOCIETIES



A DEBATING society is at first somewhat of a disappointment。   You do not often find the youthful Demosthenes chewing his  pebbles in the same room with you; or; even if you do; you  will probably think the performance little to be admired。  As  a general rule; the members speak shamefully ill。  The  subjects of debate are heavy; and so are the fines。  The  Ballot Question … oldest of dialectic nightmares … is often  found astride of a somnolent sederunt。  The Greeks and  Romans; too; are reserved as sort of GENERAL…UTILITY men; to  do all the dirty work of illustration; and they fill as many  functions as the famous waterfall scene at the 'Princess's;'  which I found doing duty on one evening as a gorge in Peru; a  haunt of German robbers; and a peaceful vale in the Scottish  borders。  There is a sad absence of striking argument or real  lively discussion。  Indeed; you feel a growing contempt for  your fellow…members; and it is not until you rise yourself to  hawk and hesitate and sit shamefully down again; amid  eleemosynary applause; that you begin to find your level and  value others rightly。  Even then; even when failure has  damped your critical ardour; you will see many things to be  laughed at in the deportment of your rivals。

Most laughable; perhaps; are your indefatigable strivers  after eloquence。  They are of those who 'pursue with  eagerness the phantoms of hope;' and who; since they expect  that 'the deficiencies of last sentence will be supplied by  the next;' have been recommended by Dr。 Samuel Johnson to  'attend to the History of Rasselas; Prince of Abyssinia。'   They are characterised by a hectic hopefulness。  Nothing  damps them。  They rise from the ruins of one abortive  sentence; to launch forth into another with u
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