dequate to the emergencies of
this martial hour. We must be seasoned with something stronger than
Attic salt, or we shall be cast out and trodden under foot of men. True,
all education is worthy. Everything that exercises the mind fits it for
its work; but professional education is indispensable to professional
men. And the profession, _par excellence_, of every man of this
generation is war. Country overrides all personal considerations.
Lawyer, minister, what not, a man's first duty is the salvation of his
country. When she calls, he must go; and before she calls, let him, if
possible, prepare himself to serve her in the best manner. As things are
now, college-boys are scarcely better than cow-boys for the army. Their
costly education runs greatly to waste. It gives them no direct
advantage over the clod who stumbles against a trisyllable. So far as it
makes them better men, of course they are better soldiers; but for all
of military education which their college gives them, they are fit only
for privates, whose sole duty is to obey. They know nothing of military
drill or tactics or strategy. The State cannot afford this waste. She
cannot afford to lose the fruits of mental toil and discipline. She
needs trained mind even more than trained muscle. It is harder to find
brains than to find hands. The average mental endowment may be no higher
in college than out; but granting it to be as high, the culture which it
receives gives it immense advantage. The fruits of that culture,
readiness, resources, comprehensiveness, should all be held in the
service of the State. Military knowledge and practice should be imparted
and enforced to utilize ability, and make it the instrument, not only of
personal, but of national welfare. That education which gives men the
advantage over others in the race of life should be so directed as to
convey that advantage to country, when she stands in need. Every college
might and should be made a nursery of athletes in mind and body,
clear-eyed, stout-hearted, strong-limbed, cool-brained,--a nursery of
soldiers, quick, self-possessed, brave and cautious and wary, ready in
invention, skilful to command men and evolve from a mob an army,--a
nursery of gentlemen, reminiscent of no lawless revels, midnight orgies,
brutal outrages, launching out already attainted into an attainting
world, but with many a memory of adventure, wild, it may be, and not
over-wise, yet pure as a breeze from the hills,--band