ral and educational life of
the state." But Jeff knew that many believed Frome and Merrill to be no
better than robbers on a large scale. He knew the methods by which they
had gained their franchises and that they ruled the politics of the city
by graft and corruption. Yet the chancellor was always ready to speak
or write against municipal ownership. It was common talk on the streets
that Professor Perkins, of the chair of political science, had had his
expenses paid to England by Merrill to study the street railway
system of Great Britain, and that Perkins had duly written several
bread-and-butter articles to show that public ownership was unsuccessful
there.

The college was a denominational one and the atmosphere wholly orthodox.
Doubt and skepticism were spoken of only with horror. At first it was of
himself that Jeff was critical. The spirit of the place was opposed to
all his convictions, but he felt that perhaps his reaction upon life had
been affected too much by his experiences.

He asked questions, and was suppressed with severity or kindly paternal
advice. It came to him one night while he was walking bareheaded under
the stars that there was in the place no intellectual stimulus, though
there was an elaborate presence of it. The classrooms were arid.
Everywhere fences were up beyond which the mind was not expected to
travel. A thing was right, because it had come to be accepted. That was
the gospel of his fellows, of his teachers. Later he learned that it is
also the creed of the world.

What Jeff could not understand was a mind which refused to accept the
inevitable conclusions to which its own processes pushed it. Verden
University lacked the courage which comes from intellectual honesty.
Wherefore its economics were devitalized and its theology an
anachronism.

But Jeff had been given a mind unable to lie to itself. He was in very
essence a non-conformist. To him age alone did not lend sanctity to the
ghosts of dead yesterdays that rule to-day.

CHAPTER 3

"Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist. He who would
gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of
goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at
last sacred but the integrity of your own mind,"--Emerson.

CONVERSING ON RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY, THE REBEL LEARNS THAT IT IS
SOMETIMES WISE TO SOFT PEDAL IDEAS UNLESS THEY ARE ACCEPTED ONES

During his freshman year Jeff saw little of his