PAGE SIX
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 1924
lated there can be no education wor- it necessary to administer to the Uni-
I thy of the name. These principles versity of today such rebuke and ad-
B o o k s a n d W r te rs are being forgotten in the compli-monition as lay in ny:power through
cated institutional machinery of to- the withdrawal of this biography
day There is grave need that we from the University Press on the eve
should be reminded of them. of its publication and giving it to
NrILLINOIS won him his great distntion: as ;another publisher." Whether this re-
first president of the Illinois Indus- Our American universities show huke and adnonition will reform the
BpOGRAPHY anddadmonitioniodwill refrormsthr
BIOntheirhistory.trial University, as it was at first University of Illinois remains to be
The first is a time of struggle andUsen Buitsalorethtmy
called he saved the liberal artsofraref seen. But it s also true that many
SJOHN MILTON of the most incisive critics of the
A Biography. By Allen Gregry. course by the exercise of great tact, During the lifetime of thieir founders universities at present see no third
- alternative to institutionalism and
spite of the stormiest opposition; be hers, but a tremendous moral force
personally and directly inspired Ls- in the communities and FHate. . ..the anarchy of wayward caprice. An
One of the essentials of a good rado Taft, one of his students, with These institutions were great because OPen mind towards the nineteenth
teacher, according to George Her- his love for art and his ambition to of the presence in them of men in- might help us to revive some
bert Palmer, is a willingness to be he an artist; he labored indefatigably spired by a clear vision of the bear- 'of the spi't of disciplined individ-
forgotten. The remark recurs to our to stimulte popular interest in -art ing of education upon the entire so- alism-o axiomatic then, hut now
mind in reading this biography of and for the establishment of an art cial organism. All their acts official apparently so extraordinarily ditli
John Milton Gregory the first pei cult to understand..
Jden Mof Ggy the rssyo Ipresi- . museum. He served the nation as and private and all their teaching of -Louis Iundresold.
commissioner on the first Civil Serv- the ordinary university curriculum
The hook is written with filial piety ice Commission. He was a great were shaped and made dynamic by
and reverence by his daughter; it is reader, and in his later years a tray- that vision. These by their pres-
perhaps as competent a book as one eler, acquiring a speaking knowledge ence created an environment ini UNADORNED
would hope for on the subject. More of five modern languages. Such Pu- which' youth developed naturally to-
over, it leaves no doubt about the J ritanism as lingered in the old man!wards intelligent and upright citizen-
fact of Gregory's real distinction in only added seriousness and dignity ship. an environment in which men of EDITING THE DAY'S NEWS
whatever he undertook, nor about the to his liberal-mindedness and cosmo-' ripe scholarship could pursue the By George C. Bastian
genuine love and veneration which he politanism. search for truth unhampered by The Maeiltillan Company
inspired in the first generation off
ituntse theUfivrstygeneratinof Aside from its historical interest, lower considerations." Unfortunately.
studensat the epunivernsiofteIllnis.the biography throws by reflection an there has been a second stage, which
illuminating light on our own age. has too often elicited only uncritical "Editing the Day's News" is evi-
even more evanescent and shadowy I
We "moderns" all suffer more or less admiration. ."In this stage the great dently intended to be used as a text
than that of actors and singers, and
from that myopia, or lack of the his- impulses of growth bring the institu- book in journalism, because it says
i bly ln eitesendshediandogt torical imagination, which leads us ltion to power, prestige and often something about students in the in-
rious;bt eto suppose that the Dark Ages ex- enormous size. Such outward success troduction. If it is so intended, there
public dies away their names dwindltended up to the year of our birth.first chokes out and second conceals is something amusingly incongruous
into mere names and the tokens ofth
theirlWe patronize our ancestors and la- the lack of the educational vision in a review of it at the hands of an
regard showered upon them mt mt twthteeterpoetro p
tent with them their poverty of op-1which first gave the institution its amateur critic; and I shall therefore
tieemutotthemredavesstwnn'portunities. But Dr. Gregory, in vitality." try to be as modest as I can. Even
looker but as the faded leaves strewn
upoo their graves. The present vol- studying her father's life, has come That the enormous growth of uni- so, if you want an estimate of the
ime indeed is not intended for the to the conclusion that, though our versities has created new problems is, book from the standpoint of accuracy,
general public; it is addressed pri- institutions have grown vastly in however, generally known, and edu- completeness, or from some technical
ngrily to the old alumni of Illinois- size, the men in them are now of catonists everywhere are eagerly angle, you will have to consult an
t'iose whose-mellow memories go back lesser dimensions than in those early looking for a solution to them. Dr. established authority.
t'toy whose mellw mmorieoh bk days: "The great pioneer work of Gregory, herself a talented teacher, I have two technical remarks, how-
orly years and nsore Is the timoe!
when, as it seems to them, there were John Milton Gregory in Michigan and seems unnecessarily embittered. In ever, that I can make. I heard an
wheans it semto uthnitherw Illinois embodied and illustrated ed- her preface she tells us: "It was in authority make them. They are:
giants on earth. but whsicht perhaps ! ctoa
sems to us too often merely the age cational principles so sound and sincere love and loyalty to the true 1. The chapter on makeup is
of rude, imperfect, feeble fundamental that where they are vio- University of Illinois that I have felt good.
fort.
In the nature of his early environ
ment and education, in his spiritua
crises, and in his remarkable expan
sion of interests and ad;ustability
Gregory was probably typical of th
best in the intellectual life of Amer
ica is the nineteenthe centucry. Born
in New York state in 1822, and
brought up in a Puriten and Evan
gelistic environment, Gregory had
first a varied career as ceIool teachi
,reacher, editor of the Michigan Joul-
tal of Education, sum"critendent oi
public instruction or the state of
15liehi".ea, and president of Kalama -
o) .ttllege'. The diary for those
year recorcs an introspection wiich
autgured no good. As his practical
:ties grea., he found less aced less
timse for these confessionals ad more
for sweetness and light. When super-
intendent of public instruction he
wrsestle wi his soul thus: "I have
long to hold in check all feelings of
mere personal advancement or per-
sonal ease and to hold my mind hon-
estly to the work before me. I ex-
pect a future, but it is rather the
future that God shall unroll to me
than any that I choose for myself.
The cares and responsibilities oi
office have perhaps added to my
strength of mind and purpose, as they
have largely to my experience but I
fear they have not advanced my soul
in its inner and true life. I have
prayed less, but still my confidence
in God seems in some respects
stroneer. If my thoughts turn less
frequently to religious topics, so also
they are less inclined to dwell mor-
bidly o my own sinfullness. Not
forgetting my sics, I see more of
God's fatherly kindness and love, and
trist more peacefully and permca-
1etl to that.'
Aft' ac glimstlt c0ofthi In- rbti inner
lift, whichtt ~ctt 'p t c'the ear
I' fty, c: ].e cc' .urcie t 'ihe ('5r
II I I I
Ch16c lteand
Butter Scotch Sundaes
are delicici-s.
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