it is a short step from the love of the complex and engaging world

yct01

it is a short step from the love of the complex and engaging world
in which we live to the love of our comrades in it. Accordingly the third
precious interest to be cultivated by the college student is an interest in
people. The scholar today is not a being who dwells apart in his cloister,
the monk's successor; he is a leader of the thoughts and conduct of men.
So the new subjects which stand beside the classics and mathematics of
medieval culture are history, economics, ethics, and sociology. Although
these subjects are as yet merely in the making, thousands of students are
flocking to their investigation, and are going out to try their tentative
knowledge in College Settlements and City Missions and Children's Aid
Societies. The best instincts of generous youth are becoming enlisted inthese living themes. And why should our daughters remain aloof from the
most absorbing work of modern city life, work quite as fascinating to
young women as to young men? During many years of listening to college
sermons and public lectures in Wellesley, I always noticed a quickened
attention in the audience whenever the discussion touched politics or
theology. These are, after all, the permanent and peremptory interests, and
they should be given their full place in a healthy and vigorous life.