| VOL. III; NO. 1.-WHOLE WO, @. Hat it i Hine ialeeny 1 i a a oe ma Ww. 8, GRORGEH 4 .00., PRINTERS & GIXDEIS, PANBING, MICH. BROAS, the One-Price Clothier, Undersells them all on Clothing, Hats, Caps, and Gents’ Furnishing Goods. CORNER MICHIGAN AND WASHINGTON AVENUES, LANSING. SOHNSON & FOLEY, RETAILERS oF FINE DOMESTIC AND ) PEN GROCERIES, OLD LAND OFFICE, " &. CASS EY, PHOTOGRAPHER, Tn-wites sou to Call at his Reems and Daamine his “Av orl. LIGHTING AND POSING DONE WITH THE GREATEST CARE, Corner of Washington and Michigan Avenues. Special Rates to Students. U.H. FORESTER, | F/RST GLASS LIVERY. WHOLESALE ASD WETADL Books, Statiouery, Toys, aud Fauey Goods. | STUDENTS’ PATRONAGE SOLICITED. Consen Srone, OPERA EnLock, iAITeETITG, © =" aerouE. JIMMY MARKEY. COLLEGE HEADQUARTERS WESLIEY EMERY, . . — AT— WHOLESALE AND RETAIL ! ALSDORF & SON’S| BOOKSELLER AND. STATIONER. Correspondence Sollcited., DRUG STORE. BcHooL Toons ForsIsHen For Finst INTRODTCTION. . . , Libraries Furnished at Eowwest Fates. Droes, Perrcars, Cimuicans, Tomnr ARTICLES, AND A CENERAL LINE oF NovELTIFG axn Fancy Goops, 16 Michigan Avenue, - LANSING, MICH. | THE COLI ; EGE SPECULUM. ee Vou. III.—No. 1. LANSING, MICH,, AUG. 1, 1888. WHOLE No. 0, Good Luck. W. D. BARRY, UNION LITERARY SOCIETY, The aim of every person starting in life should he success. Success in acquiring an education, success in choosing a profession, and su®ecess in transacting the business of life. From earliest times the iden hing been prevalent that luck is a chief element of success. Persons who have accumulated a good fortune are eommonly spoken of as favored with moc luck, while others wlio have been unsuccessful almost invariably attribute their failure to bad luck. We read of persons “ born to good luck,” “ following a lucky star,” and “finding luck in odd numbers.” What seems to be more reasonable is that good Inek comes to us, not by ehanece; but is the result of a good aim, a thorouch preparation, good judement, and industrious habits. Many persons are always wating for some cood ‘luck that will make them more fortunate. Some gpend the greater part of their early life waiting for a lucky opportunity to enter some prosperous business that will help them to success. This good Inck that appears to the casual observer, to make fortunes lies mostly within ourselves.. It comes mainly by our own exertions, and personal effort. As the plilosopher has said, ‘the mould of a man’s good fate is in his own hands,” - [tis true many things come to us unexpectedly, as favors, and opportunities, aud events, which seem beyond our control; but usually these can be traced to causes which naturally produce certain effects. Bimply an act of kindness may be rewarded by some great favor. .A person’s natural ability is often the cause of his good luck. ~ There is a kind of accidental luck, as in games of chance and lotteries, which is entirely beyond the eontrol of persons engaging inthem. As a majority of persons who invest in. these speculations do not receive the prize for which they seek, he who wishes to succeed will not trust to luck in this way, The wreck of thousands who have sought fortunes by lot- teries and vain speculations teaches us that good luck ig in no such road. To trust one’s fortune to the outgrowth of chance would be to practice a belief that the world is not governed by law. Soattributing good luck to natural causes is more in accordance with the common order of things. Everywhere do we see order and har- mony, in events as well as natural phenomena. In every employment we find that industry is rewarded, the laborer who manages well becomes prosperous ; ability and skill accomplish great results. ~The attainment of good luck as applied to success in life is secured mainly by finding just the position nature has desiened us te fill, ‘Tis should be deter- mined by our best judgment and most careful reason, and not by chance. He who lets some acenent influence him in the choice of a profession 1s likely, after a sad experience and logs of time, to learn that ir i failures will depend upon how well we he has been following a calling for which he has neither taste nor natural ability. When we. are engaged in pursuits we delight in, and those are our natural callings, we become more active and as a natural result good luck will follow, The preparation made for any. work determines largely the success of its future. If a person. has natural ability he will be improved by cultivation. Every person needs culture and knowledge in order to insure snecess in any-ealling. The discipline received in Aeequiring a sufficient knowledge for one’s business becomes an important factor in bringing about good results, The educated man makes chances, he sees farther ahead in his business, and places himself in the way of good luck. ; Another chief source of good luckis habits of indus- try, Fortunes that are gained in a short time come with but little effort, and are likely to slip away quite as easily. Thus the good is swallowed by the bad, and leaves the sting of loss behind. The fruits of industry require a longer time to grow and mature, but are more lasting when once.obtained. Strong obstacles in the way to success are often overcome by habits of industry, The. first, efforts in performing some difficult work may be fruitless, yet by. giving more thouglit, more attention, and more energy sue- cess 18 almost certain. The lives of eminent. men, both past and. present, teach us that good luck is the fruit of careful thought, industrious habits, and personal effort. The riches of Vanderbilt and Gould were acquired and kept only by careful planning and foresight in their business. The fame of Washington and of Webster that distin- guishes them from the rest of their fellow men is not the result of uncontrolled powers. The invention of the steamboat, the electric telegraph, and the electric light are examples of what industry and genius have brought forth. In the business of every day life the successes and perform our parts. The skill of the doctor governs his success in treating patients, the wisdom and discipline of the lawyer brings his chents, and the earnest labors of the farmer are the sources of his rich harvests. The different degrees of good luck attained by per- sous of various callings is like a company of tourists starting out to elimb some high mountain. A lar number will linger at the base contented with- out accomplishing any thing rather than overcome the ditheulties before them. Some will start vigor- ously, but lacking energy and persistence may be easily turned from their purpose. Only a few, the most ambitious, will reach the sumit, and accomplish the task which they first set out to perform. So it 18 in life; we gain prosperity only as we strive for it. Lf we aim at success, and exert allour strength toward its achievement, good luck, as we are pleased to call it, will erown our efforts, —_ Ix MakING up your list of papers for the coming year, don't forget Tur Srecutum. THE COLLEGE SPECULUM. The Student's Abuses. LYNN BONHAM, DELTA TAU DELTA. The average mind regards the student as one of the few but fortunate persons j He lias nothing to do but have a good time. True he docs not have to labor from sunrise till sunset, but he must do what is far more wearing, use his mind; and that too more hours per day than the most energetic mechanic thinks of employing his muscle. Even among our own number there is a misapprehension of study. ‘The freshmen looks forward wit fond antici- pation to the time when he will be a senior, and can enjoy his ease, Ifthe student who does his duty has time for amusement and reading, it is because he has learned how to study, and can thus grasp the subject presented to him without the effort it costs the untrained mind. ‘These are but trival things and ones which the | aindent can stand, but there is one real abuse in the truest sense of the word that he can not stand, viz., cramming. A fact whieh both teachers and students have been slow to learn is that “scholarship is not power, and that the alility to acquire is not the | ability to do.” Large numbers of both teachers and | students refuse to recognize this fact, although it has been repeatedly demonstrated to them in the sad wrecks of young lives shattered on that fatal rock, cramming, Still the colleges and academies all over the land, with a few notable exceptions, offer medals, money, and other prizes as incentives to higher echolarshipe. : It is a pleasant thing for the friends of a student to sea him receive the first prize in a class of one hun- dred, and they feel justified in predicting for him a brilliant future; but how bitter their disappointment. Instead of beholding him a blessing to lis country and an ornament to society, they have the pain of placing him in an early grave, or still worse seeing him go through life a wreck, a burden to himself and his friends. The practical world has ceased to expect much of its valedictorians, and prize-medal bearers. It de- pends on those whose power of growth has been slower, and whose vitality has not been checked by excesses of any kind during the years of physical development. "These are the men that have done and always will do the world’s work. All the prizes ever offered will not quicken the dila- tory student to effort, but they do call forth from the ambitious student who needs no such incentive, but on the contrary should be restrained, exertions which prove his ruin. If prizes must be offered they should not be to the student having the highest class stand- ing, but to the student of good standing who improves his physical condition and requires it to keep pace with his mind. If prizes were offered in this way our collezes would graduate men mentally equal to the graduates under the present system, and instead of mere pygmies we would have men in the true sense of the word, The young man who enters his life work with a firm and healthy frame, and the ability to use such knowl- edge as he possesses is of unestimably more value to himself and the world than the scholarly man whose system is the haunt of disease, and whose brain is the lumber house of Greek roots and mathematical form- ula. The tendency of the age is to extremes, and a cer- tain class of students go as far in the opposite diree- tion by cultivating muscle at the expense of brain. living in the paradise, ease. | | blighted by _ Nothing could be better for the student than a judicions employment of athletic sports, but the severe course of training through which many put themselves draws all the nervous energy from the brain to the museles. Sports are for recreation and amusement, and in limited amounts serve well this end, but in excess lose all their stimulating effect, impair the mind, and destroy the finer sensibilities. While there are unquestionably a large number of students graduating each year, whose lives have been too hard study, there are as many more who have shortened their days by too much athletic training, and a still greater number are injured by dissipation. Dissipation does not necessarily imply debauchery, but irregular hours and various excesses. We as students abuse ourgelves in a shameful degree, yet we can not complain for it is self inflicted abuse. Every may requires a certain amount of recreation, and it may be secured in various ways. .Amusement and recreation are terms whose meanings are sadly confounded, They may be synonymous, and again may be widely different. Recreation implies re-crea- tion or the restoring of wasted energies. Amusement may or may not serve thisend. All sports and games serve as recreation just so long as they rest the body, but when they begin to tire, they lose their only value in ceasing to be recreation. At different times men require different kinds of recreation; at one time none will serve so well as sleep, while again sleep can only be secured after the refreshing influence of a judicious indulgence in ath- letic sports of some kind, As has been seen this is an age of extremes, and we as students help the rest of humanity in keeping up the reputation of the times. While many of our number are ignoring sport to the detriment of their constitutions, perhaps as many of us are cultivating brawn at the expense of intellect. As we Jook upon the prominent men of our time, as the two great pul- pit orators, Beecher and Spurgeon, we see men of fine physique, men that have required brain and muscle to keep pace. By comparing the lives of sueh men with those of extremists, we will see that the way to secure the greatest good for ourselves and the world is to avoid excess in all directions and cultivate a symmetrical development. — a A Knowledge of the Classics not necessary to Culture. A. C. REDDING, ECLECTIC SOCIETY. Ever since it was proposed to introduce physical science into education, its advocates have met with opposition from two sources; from the practical busi- ness men, who claimed that it was worse than nee- less, and from the supporters of the classics. ‘The practical man believed, and there are many to-day in our own State who still believe, that science is nothing but mere speculation, and to be indulged in only by a certain seleet few who have more leisure than busi- ness, and that theory and practice are opposed to each other. The advocates of the classics on the other hand, claimed, with apparently much self-satisfaction, that there is nothing in the whole range of science capable of giving culture, and worse than all, that a continued THE COLLEGE SPECULUM. devotion to scientific researeh tends to make the mind narrow and bigoted, Some think that the worst thine they can say of a searcher after nature’s laws is that | he is a “mere seientifie specialist.” This last elass of eduentors zealously hold to the illusion that only those who have a knowledge of Greek and Latin, however little, are educated, and to prove their state- ment they bring forth the erent men of aneient letters, It isn erent mistike to SUP Ose that there have not been a8 great orators, statesmen, and poets as Demosthenes, Pericles, and Homer in every promi- nett nation, ‘Their oratory was elaborate, powerful, brilliant, and effective —so do we find it in every age, and with every people, hey made great statutes, but there is no civilized nation in existence that has not made as great. In the power of delighting the ear, or moving the passions their poetry may have equaled ours, but was in no way superior. In all useful knowledge the Greeks were sadly deficient. As amiatter of curiosity or amusement the actions of the ancients may oceupy our spare moments; and some provision must be made for studying them at our Universities. But there is not a partiele of utility In them. If we assume that nothing is useful or desirable unless it contributes to personal comfort or material well being, tis very easy to show that any pursuit Which admits, however slightly it may be, of any other uEpose is useless, and therefore undesir- able. It should be our purpose rather to seek that which will do the greatest good to the greatest number, — Education implies some change to be wrought in the individual himself, and this leads to a consequent manifest change in his views and actions. If this is unnecessary, education, at best, is worse than use- less. If all that is desirable is to make him limit his views to things immediately around him then, per- haps, no education is needed at all, But since all our attuinments must come through a course of train- ing on the mind itself, it is this which has to be effected first. Useful here must be useful for mental culture and nothing else. Performing simply by rule means the use of the hands without the head. ‘ To be practical is excellent, but to be practical and noth- ing else is the definition of a machine.” ‘To assume that a study is useful because that which it deals with is useful is absurd in the extreme.