THE LIFE OF THE SCHOLAR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2021, 5 March 1907, Page 4

THE LIFE OF THE SCHOLAR.

Mr. Haldane ,in tho courso of the lecont rectorial address in Edinburgh, said tho life of tho scholar made moro demand for consideration than any other lifo. Tho same concentration was required of tho finished scholar and of tho beginner. Nothing but tho passion for excellence, tho domination of a singls purpose which admitted of no foroign intrusion, could suffice for him who would roach tho heights. In no other way of lifo, not even in those which witnessed tho busy chase aftor wealth and political power, was such concentration to bo found as was required in tho way of lifo of tho genuine student. Whether ho bo professor or undergraduate, he must train himself away from tho idea of sponding much time on amusement unconnected with his work. The level of effort must ever he high if ho was to make tho most of the short span of existence. Ho had road roports of the fashion in which the Japanese Government had provided for tho training of tho officers who led their countrymen to victory in Manchuria. Tho. Japanese based tho whole of this training on a very high code of othics and of chivalry. Self-effacement, tho obligation of truthfulness, dovotion to tho service of his nation ■were tho ethical lossons in which the young Japanese officer was instructed with a thoroughness and a courage which, so fains ho knew, had no parallel in our time. Tho result was to be found in tho descriptions of tlioso who w’ero witnesses of tho fashion in which tho trenches of tho Russians woro stormed at Liao-yang and Mukden. This kind of concentration had at all periods of the world’s intellectual history boon demanded of, and freely givon by, the scholar. To liis mind the first' problem in tho organisation of a university ought to bo how to encourage this spirit in the student. It was not merely tho lecture-rooms and laboratories and libraries that were important—the places where tlioso who were busy in tlio pursuit of different kinds of learning met and observed each other were hardly less so. The union, the debating society, tho friendship of those who all these things wont to tho making of the scholar. Certainly in tho Scottish University of to-day there was no lack of either opportunity or provision for tho formation of the tastes of tlio scholar and tho habits of tho worker. A man might go from these surroundings to devote liis life yet moro completely to literature, or science, or philosophy, or he might go to seek distinction in a profession or success in commerce. Whatever occupation the student chose, lie was the better the greater had been his contact with the true spirit of the university. The university training could not by itself supply capacity, but it could stimulate and fashion talent, and, above all, it could redeem from the danger of contracted views. Thus tho university became, a potent instrument for good to a community, the strength of which was measured by the capacity of the individuals who composed it. The university was the handmaid of the State, of which it was the microcosm—a community in which also there were rulers and ruled, and in

which the corporate life was a moul iiig influence.