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INTELLECTUAL GROWTH

WISH to take a few minutes this morning to talk familiarly with you concerning some of the conditions of intellectual and moral growth. Students often fail to receive the full benefit of their study and instruction because they do not know how to co-operate most effectively with their teachers in efforts for their own improvement. There is no lack of willingness on their part-no lack of fidelity and skill on the part of their teachers, but simply a failure to put themselves in the position to receive the stimulus and mental uplift which might be obtained.

We have all observed the difference in the intellectual progress of different students. One seems to grasp every subject with ease and certainty. His classmates point to him with pride. If we meet

him after an interval of a few months we are impressed with his intellectual growth. Another makes little progress and becomes a hard problem to himself and his friends and especially to his teachers.

Now it is generally true that a student's advancement will be in proportion to his diligence in study, and this is what we naturally expect. But it was not so in the case of General Grant, it was not so in the case of Henry Ward Beecher. And there have always been enough instances of successful men who were poor students to keep some excellent people busy explaining and to afford great comfort to lazy and conceited students who want the rewards of hard work without being willing to do the work. In this college we have an advantage over some institutions in that nearly all who are here have come with a desire and a distinct purpose to improve. There are schools in which other

considerations prevail more largely, institutions whose students have little appreciation of the value of a college training. There are classes of people in every large community who have no aspiration for mental or moral improvement. Their feeling towards all that is above them is one of envy and hate, with no ambition to attain to excellence themselves. Thus the philanthropic workers who are carrying on the Hull House and other social and college settlements in Chicago and New York find their first and most difficult duty to be that of inspiring in the minds of those among whom they labor a desire for something better and a willingness to strive for its attainment. A college boy without ambition is a discouraging subject for his instructor. If he cannot become interested in his work, he might as well give it up.

If, then, we desire to grow, let us try and apprehend clearly the conditions

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and the means of growth. We shall thus be able to work intelligently to secure the desired end.

There are certain processes of development which go on in us unconsciously. This passive growth is no more credit to us than our increase of stature or of avoirdupois. It probably never raises a person above mediocrity. The growth which leads to real excellence is always accompanied with conscious effort. Great men do not become such by idly waiting and wishing. There is much in heredity, but there is more in education and environment. No blood was ever blue enough to make a man eminent except as he himself strove to attain eminence.

Intellectual growth requires, first, a consciousness of one's need of growth, and, second, a consciousness of one's capacity for growth. There are some people who feel no need of improvement; they are self-complacent in the belief that

they are great already. And there are multitudes whose sluggish and benighted minds never discover their own ignorance and feebleness. It is only as one realizes his need that we can hope for his improvement. One of the most salutary processes which certain students undergo at the hands of their fellows is to have the conceit taken out of them. While the methods by which this is accomplished cannot always be commended, and while we pity the victim, just as we would if he were having a bad tooth extracted, we are glad to have him cured of a disease which is worse than the toothache.

But many who are conscious of their need distrust their capacity for growth. Faith in ourselves, in the capacity of our faculties to respond to the demands which will be made upon them, is no less essential than the consciousness of our need of improvement. History abounds in inspiring examples of men who have