reduced to a scale of Spartan simplicity; let camel's-hair and leathern
girdles take the place of broadcloth, and meat be locusts and wild
honey. But so long as treasures of art and treasures of wealth are
lavished on churches, and courthouses, and capitols, and private
dwellings, so long as earth and sea are forced to give up the riches
which are in them for the adornment of the person and the enjoyment of
the palate, we cannot consistently bring forward either principles or
practice to defend our neglect withal. If the experiment of a rough
and primitive life is to be tried, let it be tried at home, where
community of interests, and diversity of tastes, and the refinements of
family and social life, will prevent it from degenerating into a fatal
failure; but do not let a horde of boys colonize in a base and shabby
dwelling, unless you are willing to admit the corollary that they may
to that extent become base and shabby. If they do become so they are
scarcely blameworthy; if they do not, it is no thanks to the system,
but because other causes come in to deflect its conclusions. But why
set down a weight at one end of the lever because there is a power at
the other? Why not wait until, in the natural course of things, lever
comes to an obstacle, and then let power bear down with all its might
to remove it?

Doubtless those who look back upon their college days through the
luminous mist of years, see no gray walls or rough floors, and count it
only less than sacrilege to find spot or wrinkle or any such thing on
the garments of their alma mater. But awful is the gift of the gods
that we can become used to things; awful, since, by becoming used to
them, we become insensible to their faults and tolerant of their
defects. Harvard is beloved of her sons: would she be any less beloved
if she were also beautiful to outside barbarians? Would her fame be
less fair, or her name less dear, if those who come up to her solemn
feasts, filled the idea of her greatness, could not only tell her
towers, but consider her palaces, without being forced to bury their
admiration and reverence under the first threshold which they cross?
O, be sure the true princess is not yet found, for king's daughter is
all glorious within.

Deficiency takes shelter under antiquity and associations: associations
may, indeed, festoon unlovely places, but would they cluster any less
richly around walls that were stately and adequate? Is it not fitte