Princeton College

“ As Dean Pine said to the Princeton alumni a short time ago:
The typical boy entering a college like Princeton in these days is much more vitally interested in other boys and in sports than in books. To him the lure of college is not in its studies but in its life. By aid of the preceptorial system and other means we are having a good deal of success in transforming these careless young fellows into fair students. But a considerable proportion of them find the undergraduate life and activities so absorbing that in respect to study they will respond to no other impulse than compulsion. ”

“ Now at Princeton, what there is of a town is little more than a setting for the University. There are no outside distractions, such as theatres and the like, as at most large institutions of learning. The campus life is the only life, and the college students are dependent upon the college world for all their amusements and between-hour interests. Everyone keeps in touch with everything that is going on. ”

“ It is only when society is old, long settled to its ways, confident in habit, and without self-que stioning upon any vital point of conduct, that study can affect seclusion and despise the passing interests of the day. America has never yet had a season of leisured quiet in which students could seek a life apart without sharp rigours of conscience, or college instructors easily forget that they were training citizens as well as drilling pupils; and Princeton is not likely to forget that sharp schooling of her youth, when she first learned the lesson of public service. ”

“ The preceptors intended for less modern purposes brought to Princeton a large group of younger men from various institutions who have given it new life. The efforts for a graduate residential college, which in Dean West's words should "show that God is the end of all our knowing and Christ is the Master of the Schools," or, in President Wilson's phrase, should be "quick to look toward heaven for the confirmation of its hope," will lead to a true graduate school for the training of professional scholars and the advancement of knowledge. ”

“ The most developed form of knowledge, that which has created modern civilization, and opened up a new world of truth to the human mind, he passes by as if it had no existence. He advocates the theory of college education of which Princeton has recently illustrated the practice—the theory to which students are immolated. It is an insult to the intelligence of the age. Any college, supported by forced exactions upon the people, which omits the sciences from its curriculum, is an outrage upon the community ”

“ In consequence of this disposition, what is now Princeton College was founded in 1746. This institution was first called the "College of New Jersey," and was established at Elizabethtown. It was in its early days a very small seat of learning; for, when the Rev. Mr. Dickinson was appointed to be its president, the faculty consisted entirely of himself, and his only assistant was an usher. There were then about twenty students in the college. ”

“ Why they have not come to occupy the prominent place that two similar organizations hold at Princeton, the Clio and Whig societies, whose two marble temples are one of the distinguishing marks of Princeton's Campus, is a matter for speculation. Probably the fact that Princeton long remained a college while Michigan early became a university with a more inclusive curriculum, will best explain it. As it is, however, these societies have in the past done a great service for the University and deserve to survive. ”

“ Editors, essayists, college presidents and reformers assure us that we are on the verge of a change, and perhaps a great change, in our system of higher education. They dilate upon the indisputable fact that most of our older colleges have made rapid strides within the past ten years, augmenting their endowments, erecting handsome buildings, establishing new departments of study and increasing the number of students. Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Amherst, Princeton, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, were never so well off, in point of money and men, as they are at this day. ”

“ During the fourteen years of his administration the college increased from 603 to 1354 students, and the faculty from 40 to 100 instructors, while 17 new buildings were added to the equipment. On October 22, 1896, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the first charter of the College of New Jersey, the corporate title was changed to Princeton University. ”

“ But principles are more important than men; and this journal represents certain principles at variance with the policy of the authorities of Princeton University. President Patton's resignation was not a surprise to those familiar with the inside history of the university, nor do they regard the material growth of Princeton in money and men during the past fourteen years as due to him. Dr. McCosh was in advance of his church and his college; he did much to forward the teaching of organic evolution and of psychology as a science. ”

“ For those just approaching the verge of manhood he has often given signal proofs of his solicitude. In 1832 he was invited to deliver an address before the two Literary Societies of this institution, and in 1835 he received an invitation to perform a similar duty before the Societies of Princeton College in New Jersey. ”

“ In this way, the members of the team know that they have the support of the college, and this makes them play harder. This builds up college spirit.
Every college has its own freshman and sophomore traditions; one at Princeton is, that shortly after college opens there must be a rush about the cannon, between the freshman and sophomore classes. All those who have witnessed this sight, know that it is a vital part of Princeton undergraduate life. On that night in my freshman year, great care was taken by Cochran that none of the incoming football material engaged in the rush. ”

“ In the language of President Thwing, it may be said that "it is to the people that the college and university desire to give more than they receive from the people. It is not unjust to say that the people are debtors. The community has given to Yale, and to Princeton, and to Harvard, much, but Yale, and Princeton, and Harvard have given to the community more. For the college and the university are set to hold up the worth of things to the mind, and these things are the worthiest. ”

“ Regis's."
"Why?"
"Because it's a gentleman's school, and democracy won't hit you so early. You'll find plenty of that in college."
"I want to go to Princeton," said Amory. "I don't know why, but I think of all Harvard men as sissies, like I used to be, and all Yale men as wearing big blue sweaters and smoking pipes."
Monsignor chuckled.
"I'm one, you know."
"Oh, you're different—I think of Princeton as being lazy and good-looking and aristocratic—you know, like a spring day. Harvard seems sort of indoors——"
"And Yale is November, crisp and energetic," finished Monsignor. ”

“ It is not in the power of language to devise a formula so elastic as to embrace Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Trinity, Cornell and Michigan University, without at the same time ignoring the characteristic features of one or the other. Even if we admit that there is a vague ideal unity underlying the so-called college system, by virtue of which it is a system and not a mere aggregate, we shall not make much progress in our search after the proper definition of the term "professor." ”

“ The dropping of 680 incompetents in six years at Princeton and the loss of 50 'specials' at Harvard in 1910, has a meaning in progress precisely opposite to the so-called great gains of some colleges. We must rid ourselves of the notion that there is any credit per se in enrolment gains. Any college—without exception—can increase its numbers if it is willing to pay the price ”

“ Yale and Princeton, the two most conservative of our larger universities, have recently taken action that will bring their college courses more into harmony with those of other leading institutions, by giving greater opportunity to elect scientific in the place of classical studies. ”

“ It is going to take the hardest kind of work to beat Yale on our own grounds. We must play them off their feet the first five minutes. I wonder if you men who are in Princeton to-day truly realize the great tra [Pg 177] dition of this dear college. Thousands and thousands of young men have walked across the same campus you travel. The Princeton of years gone by, is your Princeton to-day, so let us ever hold a high regard for those whose places we now occupy. ”

“ The tutorial system of the English colleges is to be introduced. Princeton aims to return to the old-fashioned college, and may be congratulated on the fairly consistent methods that it has adopted. The experiment in one of our larger institutions will be followed with interest.
Columbia has also adopted a new program of studies. A B.S. degree has been established for students who enter without Latin, but no plans have been made for a course in the sciences. ”

“ The theory to which the Princeton students were offered up is that college knowledge is not to be of the useful kind that is necessary to save life. Utilitarian knowledge—that which instructs people how to preserve life and maintain health, and deal intelligently with practical affairs—is decried in these institutions as vulgar and unfitted for educational purposes. Knowledge for its vital life-uses is flatly repudiated, and the courses of study are made up with reference to quite other objects. ”

“ Ten years afterwards the college was established at Princeton.
The manners and customs of the college must have been very primitive, and we will give a few of the rules which were made for the students: "Every scholar shall keep his hat off to the president about ten rods, and about five to the tutors. When walking with a superior, they shall give him the highest place, and when first going into his company, they shall show their respects to him by first pulling off their hats ”

“ The college-edifice at Princeton is a stately and durable one, constructed of stone; and it will afford satisfaction to the reader, to be informed, that in this building is deposited the Rittenhouse Orrery. He will derive additional pleasure from learning, that this grand machine has, lately, been repaired in some considerable degree, and at a great expence, by the ingenious Mr. Henry Voight, of the Mint: by whom, that belonging to the University of Pennsylvania, has likewise been put in good order. ”

“ When Princeton's day of prosperity came, he showed that he knew how to apply money wisely, as before he had been able to do grand work without it. The system of scientific expeditions to the West, which has so greatly stimulated the study of natural science at Princeton, and added so greatly to the treasures of her museums, was organized under his direction; and the wonderful growth of all the departments of natural science in the college must be in very large measure attributed to the wisdom and foresight of Guyot. ”

“ Where possible the leading families sent their sons to some Eastern college, Princeton being naturally the favorite institution of learning with people who dwelt in communities where the Presbyterians took the lead in social standing and cultivation. ”

“ That the question of the college course is not solved is proved by the changes continually being made in the programs of studies. The seven leading universities in the east are Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins. Harvard has consistently maintained the free elective system and Johns Hopkins the group system, but the other five institutions have recently revised their requirements for the undergraduate course and the bachelor's degree. ”

“ In 1868, he was chosen president of Princeton, and his administration, lasting for nearly a quarter of a century, was remarkably successful. Under him, the student attendance nearly doubled, the teaching staff was more than doubled, and the resources of the college enormously increased. During these years, too, he continued his philosophical work, publishing a series of volumes which are the most noteworthy of their kind ever produced in America.
The temptation is great to dwell upon other educators connected with the great universities: Ira Remsen,page 223 and his contributions to chemistry ”

“ He was graduated at Princeton in 1822, and was at once offered a place in the navy by the secretary, who witnessed his graduation, but declined it. He taught four years in Fredericksburg, Va., and in 1826 entered the Theological seminary at Princeton as a student; at the same time was a tutor in the college till 1829, when he was licensed to preach by the New York presbytery. He became professor of mathematics at Princeton in 1830, which chair he held until the time of his death, declining the chaplaincy and professorship of moral philosophy at West Point. ”

“ In the early days of our history it was the especial function of the college to train young men for the ministry. In a somewhat later period it was notably true of institutions like Yale and Princeton that their training seemed to fit many men for the law and for statecraft. ”

“ When the men referred to were graduated every American college was small; even Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia were small, and two of them had fewer students than are claimed by some colleges whose presidents are bombarding the generously inclined with letters, circulars and speeches denouncing the evils of great universities; on the other hand, even the smallest colleges of the older days had more genuine college students than can be found in two thirds of the mendicant concerns to-day. ”