THE WESTERNER.

CAMBRIDGE is no more than twelve miles from Concord, and yet there are students in Harvard College to whom New England thought is almost utterly foreign. The University is, of course, more or less cosmopolitan, and the Westerner tramples consecrated soil for perhaps a year and a half before he takes cognizance of the original thinkers whom it has nourished. I confess to a feeling of exasperation when one of these untutored minds propounds a view of life, or gives an estimate of character, without recognizing in any way the verdict of New England cultivation. Yet, although his lack of deference to authority is certainly due, in part, to ignorance, we must nevertheless admit the value of his new standards of criticism. He may have too little respect for the pleasures of the mind and too much for the pleasures of the body; too little aptitude for the amenities of life, and too much for its sensualities; but he has in any case, along with a good deal of iconoclasm, a profound respect for effectiveness, a deep admiration for the man who amounts to something. This does not apply of course to all Westerners, but to that particular and perhaps representative class whose characteristic is independence carried to an extreme. This man will not worship at the shrine of birth, breeding, or refinement, but he will render hearty homage to an energetic worker, an able leader, a manly man. Before the end of his course he will probably appreciate the value of literary pursuits, and even if he does not devote himself assiduously to the task of remedying his own deficiencies in this department, he is scarcely to be blamed. There are few Easterners whose culture is not rather handed down than acquired by labor, and it is more the home life and the society of the fellows than the school studies and the elective courses that give the stamp to a man. I have heard it said that Bostonians are not learned, they only have the faculty of assimilation, of selection and arrangement. If they acquire what little knowledge they have in this informal and easy manner, shall we blame our Western friend for not attempting the more difficult road to wisdom? Shall we not require the Easterner to apply his ingenious process of assimilation to the acquirement of Western virtues.