In Extremis

We do not attack extremes. Extremes are healthy. Nearly every great man in history has been an extremist. But the enlightened followers of extremes have always deliberately tried to understand, and generally have understood, representatives of the opposite extreme. It is just such understanding which should justify a man in the extreme he believes in.

The hackneyed dilemma has lately been: athlete or aesthete. Much of the misunderstanding between the factions so personified is a result of intolerance a concomitant of refusal to consider the possible rightness of the opposite view.

The Dartmouth paradoxically believes in both extremes. But not for a minute do we countenance any justification for the existing lack of sympathy between the two groups. In fact, we believe such differences as are alleged to exist are unnecessary and should be revealed as such.

Aestheticism, popularly conceived, is supposed to result in snobbery. Athleticism, if we may call it such, is believed by too many to necessitate boorishness. The representatives of both extremes on the campus are wrong.

That being athletic and possessing such intelligence as is necessary for the cultivation of good taste are not mutually exclusive was shown by the high scholarship of the football team last fall, and the basketball team this winter. On the other hand, that aestheticism does not mean bloodlessness is shown by the numerous acknowledged aesthetes deeply interested in outdoors in general and the work of Cabin and Trail in particular.

We believe that many of the aesthetes would get more good from a game of baseball on the campus (if they tried it) than out of their next single excurson into literature. And we also believe the majority of the athletes would get more good out of attending the next musicale than out of their next athletic indulgence (if they could be so persuaded).

At least, representatives of each extreme might in this way be able more completely to understand what the other men get out of their extreme. It is just this understanding The Dartmouth advocates.

We believe that aestheticism and athleticism might mix in a very satisfying manner. The natural and healthy way is to prefer one more than the other, and to act accordingly. But it is unhealthy to follow one extreme to the utter exclusion and intolerance of the other. --The Dartmouth.