To-day above all things we need the influence of men and women of

yct01

To-day above all things we need the influence of men and women of
friendliness, of generous nature, of hospitality to new ideas, in short, of
social imagination.But instead, we find each political party bitterly calling
the other dishonest, each class suspicious of the intentions of the other,
and in social life the pettiest standards of conduct. Is it not well for us that
the colleges all over the country still offer to their fortunate students a
society of the most democratic sort,--one in which a father's money, a
mother's social position, can assure no distinction and make no close
friends? Here capacity of every kind counts for its full value. Here
enthusiasm waits to make heroes of those who can lead. Here charming
manners, noble character, amiable temper, scholarly power, find their full
opportunity and inspire such friendships as are seldom made afterward. I
have forgotten my chemistry, and my classical philology cannot bear
examination; but all round the world there are men and women at work,
my intimates of college days, who have made the wide earth a friendly
place to me. Of every creed, of every party, in far-away places and in near,
the thought of them makes me more courageous in duty and more faithful
to opportunity, though for many years we may not have had time to write
each other a letter. The basis of all valuable and enduring friendships is not
accident or juxtaposition, but tastes, interests, habits, work, ambitions. It is
for this reason that to college friendship clings a romance entirely its own.