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THE MAROON TIGER
37:
'pedial Articles
IS YOUR HEAD ON STRAIGHT?
Once the Romans had a god that was called Janus.
He was a powerful god. The gates opened and closed
at his command. His emblem was the key to success.
He had two faces and could look in several directions
at the same time. This god always looked over the
past and peered into the future. Janus became our
January. He opens the door to Wie new year.
There are many people who would like to lie like
him if they could, but they have only one head and can
look but in one direction at the time.
But there are some people whose heads are not on
straight. There are some people whose heads move
about on a pivot. They look not in one direction long.
Then there are those whose heads are on sidewise. They
see everything on a bias. They criticise and look for
nothing but failures and disappointments. And one can
suppose from the frequency with which they speak of
them it has been their privilege to enjoy them.
There are also people who can look only in one
direction, but who try to look in another direction at
the same time and constitutionally become cross-eyed.
They do not see things as they really are, but dream as
to how things ought to be.
There are some people who can see only the dark
side of life—the pessimists. They have no definitely
set aims or purposes. Their heads are always down.
They see nothing but filth and dirt. They are those
people to whom President Roosevelt referred to as
muck-rakers.
There are also those whose thoughts and ideas are
easily changed. They get much divertisement out of di
vagation. They flutter about aimlessly like a butterfly
which is attracted by several different colors of flowers.
It is very difficult for them to give out the right informa
tion because they, themselves, are doubtful.
On the other hand there are some people whose
heads are on straight. They plan and have definite
goals in view. They are the ones who think and devise
better methods of living for the masses. They live and
die. hut the good or evil that they do lives after them,
and is not “buried with their bones.”
Mohammed still lives in his practical and disasterous
influence in the East. Napoleon still is France and
France is almost Napoleon. Martin Luther’s dead dust
sleeps at Wittenburgh, but Martin Luther’s accents still
ring through the churches of Christendom. Shakes
peare, Byron, and Milton all live in this influence for
good or evil. The Apostle from his chair, the minister
from his pulpit, the martyr from his fame, the states
man from his cabinet, the soldier on the field and the
sailor on the deck, who have passed away to their graves,
still live in the practical deeds that they did in the
lives they lived, and in the powerful lesson that they
have left behind them. No man liveth to himself. No
man dieth to himself, others are interested in that death.
The men who make the marks in life are the ones
whose heads are practically on straight. It is our task
while in college to try to get our heads on straight.
—L. H. Purvis
WHY STUDY THE CLASSICS?
Occasionally a student on the campus thunders such
questions as these to some member of the classical
school: “What’s the need of studying those old dead
languages?” “What good is Greek and Latin?” “If
you aren’t going to teach them, then there’s no need of
studying them because you can’t speak them.”
It is to those anxious inquirers, particularly, that I
direct this article which is by no means an exhaustive
discussion of the subject, but will acquaint one to some
appreciable degree with some of the aims and objectives
of the humanities.
First, a study of Greek and Latin is worth the while
because of their disciplinary objectives; the develop
ment of certain desirable habits and ideals which are
subject to spread, such as habits of sustained atten
tion, orderly procedure, overcoming obstacles, perse-
verence; ideals of achievement, accuracy and thorough
ness; and the cultivation of certain general attitudes such
as dissatisfaction with failure or with partial success.
It is evident that the development of these mental traits
are not the province of the classics alone, but should be
sought in every subject in the curriculum. However, if
these traits can be developed through the study of the
Classics, and if their spread to other situations and
experiences can be effected, then the importance of this
objective for all students who ar studying them is ob
vious.
Again the study of the Classics develops the habit
of discovering identical elements in different situations
and experiences, and of making true generalizations.
The study of Latin and Greek offers peculiarly favor
able conditions for the development of this habit be
cause the numerous contacts it affords with the other
linguistic experiences of the pupils.
Students of Latin and Greek also show an increased
ability to speak and write correct and effective English
through their training in adequate translation. Since
language is an instrument not only for the expression
of thought, but for thinking itself, an increased or im
proved efficiency in the use of the mother tongue for
these two inter-dependent functions is of unquestionable
value to every pupil. One important element in an in
creased ability to speak and write correct and effective
English is the possession of an enlarged and refined vo
cabulary. The contribution which a study of the Clas
sics may make to a knowledge of words derived from
Greek and Latin is of extreme value.
The most important objectives seem to me to be the
cultural objectives. By cultural objectives, I mean those
concerned with increasing the student’s fund of informa
tion, developing his capacity for appreciation, extend
ing his intellectual horizon, and broadening his sympa
thies by direct contact, through the study of their lan
guage and literature, with the mind of a people remote
in time and place. The development of a historical
perspective and of a general cultural background through
an increased knowledge of facts relating to the life, his
tory, institutions, mythology and religion of the Greeks
and Romans; an enlarged appreciation of the influence