service in their generation; but these times demand
new measures and new men. It is conceded that
we shall probably be for many years a military nation.
At least a generation of vigilance shall be the price
of our liberty. And even of peace we can have
no stronger assurance than a wise and wieldy readiness
for war. Now the education of our unwarlike days
is not adequate 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,—banded and sworn