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THE PLASTIC AGE
191

for the college, but you have reached an ecstasy of

hauvinism that makes Chauvin’s affection for Na¬

poleon seem almost like contempt. “In the last batch of themes I got five telling me of the perfection of Sanford: Sanford is the greatest college in the country; Sanford has the best athletes, the finest equipment, the most erudite faculty, the most perfect location, the most loyal alumni, the strongest spirit—the most superlative everything. Nonsense! Rot! Bunk! Sanford has n’t anything of the sort, and I who love it say so. Sanford is a good little college, but it is n’t a Harvard, a Yale, or a Princeton, or, for that mat¬ ter, a Dartmouth or Brown; and those colleges still have perfection ahead of them. Sanford has made a place for itself in the sun, but it will never find a bigger place so long as its sons do nothing but chant its praises and condemn any one as disloyal who happens to mention its very numerous faults. “Well, I’m going to mention some of those faults, not all of them by any means, just those that any intelligent undergraduate ought to be able to see for himself. “In the first place, this is supposed to be an educational institution; it is endowed for that pur¬ pose and it advertises itself as such. And you men say that you come here to get an education. But vhat do you really do? You resist education with all your might and main, digging your heels into the