CHAPTER III.

INTELLECTUAL RELATIONS.
Wisdom is better than rubies. — Solomon.
The secret societies are claimed to be substi- tutes for the literary societies. On this view of the case, partly a true one, several things are ob- vious. The first is, that they are usually limited to a few, an objection which their advantages should be very great to atone for. Selectness and privacy, it may be said, give opportunity for free and sympathetic discussion and criti- cism. But this advantage must be largely over- set by the usual combination of so many heter- ogeneous elements, the advantages of which can hardly be literary, whatever else they may be. The societies are generally — not always — some- what political in character, and seek men prom- inent in various ways. Hence those who would make the strength of a literary society are usu- ally scattered through several clubs, and mixed up with men of very small literary taste and sympathy. The spirit of these institutions tends strongly to become political or social ; neither being at all favorable to a literary spirit. Still deeper objections are that secrecy and exclusive- ness are hostile to the growth of the love of truth, which by its very nature is diffusive, and, like friendship, more vigorous in the open air than in the hot-house. Then, too, while a select circle has some literary advantages, they are not those of public debate. The latter give oppor- tunity for those trials of intellectual strength
THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM. 37
which make the mind strong and active and ready, as athletic contests do the body. Before the Alumni meeting at the Yale commencement of 1873, Hon. William M. Evarts said that the great debating societies of Yale " furnished for the field for open and manly debate what could not be found in the small numbers and limited opportunities of the secret societies. They pre- pared the young man to withstand frowns and hisses as well as applause, and turned out men who could meet an adversary in debate without flinching. All this is wanting now, and cannot be supplied unless the old societies can be res- urrected." ^ In the debating societies of Cam- bridge and Oxford, says George William Curtis, '' the long illustrious list of notdd and able Eng- lishmen were trained, and in the only way that manly minds can be trained, by open, free, gen- erous rivalry and collision."^ Public audiences are needed, also, to develop the patriotism and public feeling which are among the best ele- ments of debate, as well as its inspiration. Lieber declares that "publicity is indispensable to eloquence. No one speaks well in secret be- fore a few."^ " Truth for the world " is uncon- sciously the thought of the young orator, and well it may be; for at the fountain-heads of in- fluence, among young men in school and col- lege, these discussions often have immeasurable results. " A debate whether Pope or Words- worth was the greater poet," said the Spectator^ in reference to the Cambridge Union,* "whether
^ Hartford Courant, June 26, 1873.
^ Harper's Monthly, January, 1874.
^ Civil Liberty, p. 134.
^ Cambridge Union Speeches, pp. 59-60.
38 THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM.
Greece or Rome had exercised the most benefi- cial influence on the world, whether Carlyle or Mill were the truer teacher, has often, we feel no doubt, done more to determine the future lives of great men, and through them the future of England, than hundreds of so-called ' practical ' debates in the House of Commons." There is a further loss in the ignorance of parliamentary law, to the study of which the nature of secret societies is not often favorable. For these losses a private literary club has some compensations; but in the secret society system they are reduced to a minimum.
That secret societies break up the literary so-^ cieties, and do not merely supplement them, I think is beyondquestion. Baird practically ad- mits it.^ '' A radical change," says Professor Tyler, of Amherst, " has come over the old lite- rary societies in all the colleges, leaving them little else than a name."^ In 1845, the literary societies of Amherst "had long been altogether secondary in interest to the ' Greek Letter Fra- ternities,' which had in fact drawn their very life- blood out of them ;"^ and though the former still survive, they are said to be half dying. Dr. Howard Crosby says, '^ I believe that I am right in asserting that in most of our colleges the lit- erary societies (most important helps to the stu- dent in composition and oratory) have been ut- terly ruined, except as alumni centers, by the se- cret societies."* Secret societies are not allowed
^ American College Fraternities, circ. p. 195. ^ History of Amherst College, p. 316. 3 Do., p. 314.
^ College Secret Societies, published by Ezra A. Cook, Chicago ; p. 35.
THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM. 39
at Princeton, and the great literary societies are flourishing; both secret, indeed, but as both are purely literary, and membership is open to every college man, the evils of secrecy are com- paratively small. '' The rise of the new Greek Letter Fraternities,"* also says Prof. Tyler, " has obscured the light and glory of the old literary societies in nearly all the colleges. In Yale col- lege, the Linonian and the Brothers, which, like rival queens, reigned in the hearts of so many generations of students, have thus been extin- guished." Ex-President Woolsey holds the same opinion. Mr. Evarts, in the speech above referred to, "advocated the revival of the old societies and the suppression of the foolish se- cret clubs which have supplanted them." This last is denied, however; and Prof Coe^ names several causes, as the rise of the athletic system, the development of the curriculum, and a loss of interest in public speaking. Doubtless these had some influence; but no one of them, nor all together, have been as potent as the secret so- cieties. This became evident when Linonia was revived in '78. The society started with a great deal of enthusiasm ; but many of the best men had their society interest centered elsewhere. Less prominent men felt this, and could not con- tinue to be cordially united with them, partly because of the barriers between, partly because they felt that Linonia was regarded as second- rate. The devotion and loyalty which are the life of a society could not be developed. Prob- ably finding that two societies took up too much
^ History of Amherst College, p. 630. 2 History of Yale College, p. 322.
40 THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM.
time, and caring more for others than for Linonia, the society men also began to dropoff. Another reason, due especially to the class system, was the peculiar feeling between classes. Instead of being '*the gala night of all the week,"^ as in the olden time, when all classes met ''on a footing of perfect equality, though the Seniors naturally took the lead," all the under-class men felt them- selves under the power of that peculiar bedevil- ment emanating from a society man which piles barriers mountain high above them, and makes them, supposing themselves the objects of cold and critical attention, hardly dare to open their mouths. So they felt it was no place for them ; the enthusiastic leaders of the movement had raised up no successors, and for these and kin- dred reasons the society dwindled till its death. Had its members thrown away their pins, and made it the centre of their society life, I believe Linonia would have been strong to-day. What- ever good the secret societies may have done, the destruction of the literary societies, a very serious loss, is chiefly due to them.
The value of literary societies is so generally admitted that its discussion may be unnecessary ; but as this college generation, unfortunately, knows little of them, it may well be noticed. Most apparent among their advantages is that of training in public speaking. This is some- times decried, as an accomplishment of an ear- lier and less civilized age; but wrongly. Ora- tory is perhaps the noblest of arts. Neither De- mosthenes nor Cicero belonged to an unculti- vated age. Daniel Webster can hardly be rele-
^ Four Years at Yale, p. 200.
THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM. 4 1
gated to an uncivilized generation; and Eng- land might never have seen the great Liberal victories of recent times had it not been for Mr. Gladstone's peerless eloquence. That the in- crease of printing and other causes have some- what lessened the demand for public speaking may be true, but the time will never come when men will not demand the personal power of ora- tory, and be for it both wiser and better. One good campaign speaker will accomplish more than tons of printed speeches.
Public speaking is especially important under the constitutional forms of Anglican liberty. ^' A most important feature of Anglican pub- licity of legislative, judicial and of many of the common administrative transactions," says Lie- ber.^ *' Modern centralized absolutism has de- veloped a system of writing and secrecy, and consequent formalism, abhorrent to free citizens who exist and feed upon the living word of lib- erty. Bureaucracy is founded upon writing, liberty on the breathing word. * * * I do not believe that a high degree of liberty can be imagined without widely pervading orality." *' If civil liberty demands representative legisla- tive bodies, which it assuredly does, these bodies have no meaning without exchange and mutual modification of ideas, without debate, and actual debate requires the spoken word. I consider it an evil hour, not only for eloquence, but for liberty itself, when our Senate first permitted one of its members to read his speeches, on ac- count of some infirmity. The true principle has now been abandoned," in Congress. Speaking
^ Civil Liberty, pp. 128, 129, 134.
42 THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM.
is a large part, also, of two out of the three great professions. Public speaking, therefore, is in demand, and will be; at the bar, in the pulpit, on the platform, in the carrying on of govern- ment, on a thousand occasions of public life.
Kindred wnth these advantages is that of learn- ing parliamentary law, which cannot well be mastered except by practice; and with which, in a country of constitutional forms, every free- man, above all, every educated freeman, who is always likely to be a public man, ought to be familiar. Of this the athletic meetings teach little or nothing, though the case is not always as bad as when the president of Yale's leading athletic club dismissed a meeting with the re- mark, " I say, fellows, let's adjourn !"
The public college life which was one of their great advantages has not disappeared with the literary societies ; to a large extent it has gath- ered around the athletic system, and though it is now^ probably carried too far, it has features of considerable value. It interests many men w^hom a literary system w^ould not, it forms a more general bond of union between the students, and its inter-collegiate relations give it a wider scope; each college struggling for the suprem- acy in athletics almost as vigorously as ever Athens or Sparta did for the political suprem- acy. But literary societies would claim the alle- giance of many — and these often the more thoughtful — men when athletics do not and can not ; and there is also a large part of the year when athletics are quiescent. Another point may be made here, from the Pall Mall Gazette^ also referring to the Cambridge Union -} "The
^ Cambridge Union Speeches, pp. 71, 72.
THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM. 43
general, seducing, and ultimately destructive temptation to youth is the animal temptation — the temptation to enjoy early life in the pursuit of the coarsest and simplest gratifications, whether innocent or the reverse. * ^ Every student who turns from the wine-party, or the card- table, or the hunt, aye, or the cricket-field, or the river, to study a speech for the Union, or to make himself master of the arguments of others there, is exchanging a worse for a better thing, as the general rule. Exceptions there maybe in abundance, but such is the law. On this prin- ciple, as on a rock, these debating societies rest, and must continue to rest until either some bet- ter substitute is invented, or the lower part of our nature establishes a recognized supremacy over the higher. But he would greatly under- state their case who should simply rest it here.'* Beyond the value of the information attained and the principles taught, important as these are, there is a further advantage, perhaps beyond all others. This is the intellectual vivifying and broadening and clearing which comes of the influence of mind over mind, and which few things effect as well as a good discussion. This can often be exerted far more powerfully by a fellow student than by an instructor; the boy is sent to school, and the school-boys educate him. The instructor is in a different sphere of thought, so far away from his pupils, often, that they catch no inspiration from him; while from a vigorous, progressive mind, working along the same lines with themselves, they often receive unmeasured impulses to like vigor and progress. So said Lord Houghton;^ "the great
^ Cambridge Union Speeches, p. i8.
44 THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM.
gain ^ ^ is in the fair conflict of intel- lects; it is in the meeting of man and man, of mind and mind." The Spectator^ also :^ '^ With- out the ' mere talk ' of young men's theoretical discussions, the collision of taste with taste, of intellect with intellect, of conscience with con- science, of spirit with spirit, the characters of the best men in the nation would scarcely come to the birth at all." Those who witnessed the re- cent attempt to revive Linonia, at Yale, wnll re- member the interest taken by many prominent graduates, and their strong testimony to the value of the literary societies. "Mr. Evarts,"said an editorial in the Hartford Courant, containing the speech by him mentioned above, " who has few equals and no superiors as a ready thinker and talker, attributes no small degree of his great success to the training of these societies ; and the same may be said of the ablest men who have been graduated from Yale during the last century." At Linonia's centennial, in 1853, Mr. Evarts said in his oration : " I speak but the common sentiment of the graduates and friends of Yale college, and of all others who have had occasion to compare the system of education here, and its results, with the methods of other universities, when I attribute no small share of the permanent hold upon the confidence and re- spect of the w^hole country, which this university has ever retained, to the influence of these great literary societies; when I ascribe to the impulse and the bent given to young minds in their arena, no trivial portion of the service which in every prorince of public activity the scholars of
^ Cambridge Union Speeches, pp. 54-55.
I
THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM. 45
this discipline have rendered to their genera- tion."
It may be worthy of notice that while the ad- vantages of literary societies much outweigh their evils, some of these must be admitted. They may trench somewhat upon the regular studies; yet not often seriously. The best speakers are very generally the best students. Lord Houghton, in the address already referred to, spoke of the time when Tennyson, Hallam, Trench, Alford, Spedding, Merivale, Kemble, Kinglake, Maurice, were at Cambridge, saying, *' Of these men, all, I believe, were members of the Cambridge Union society, and most of them active participants in its debates,"^ and met this very objection by adding, " The majority of these men won your highest honors, and at the same time were tlie best speakers in the Union." Literary societies may sometimes encourage superficiality ; but if there is anything which will leave the ordinary man with a more pro- found respect for the opinions of others, and a deeper sense of how little he knows, than a good discussion, it is rarely found. The Spectator may here be quoted again :^ ^^ De- bating societies for young men are not, prop- erly speaking, schools of loquacity at all. There is an age — the university age — when adequate speech on the various motives and ends of life becomes something altogether beyond mere speech, the natural work, the appropriate ac- tion, the characteristic energy of the mind — and when there is every reason for aiding this ex-
^ Cambridge Union Speeches, p. 11. 2 Do., pp. 54, 59.
46 THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM.
pressive crystallization of thought and feeling ; ^ * an age at which theoretical discussions ought to be, if they are not, the very means of life and growth, when it is as silly to call such discussions mere talk, as it is in later life to call a cabinet council " such. *^ This is not talk, it is preparation for action, it is the stringing up and organization of intellectual energy, it is intel- lectual volition."
Some value is claimed for the secret societies, particularly under the class system, as raising scholarship by exciting emulation. Not dwell- ing now on the important truth that the desire to beat, or to win position, is not the true foun- dation of scholarship, which knows far nobler ends : taking into account the dropping off in the later years of the course, and the general society influence, it is very doubtful if the final result would show much gain. " We regard their influence as unfavorable upon the pre- scribed course of study,"^ says a college Presi- dent. " College secret societies interfere with a faithful course of study," says Dr. Crosby.^ ** I always found the best students were those who either kept out of the secret societies, or who entered very slightly into their operations."
With the class system, especially, the general eff'ect of the societies upon college thought is de- pressing. This cast-iron system, with its silence, its repression, its apparent spirit of criticizing men, is fatal to the spirit of freedom and prog- ress which is the spring of enthusiasm, and of that buoyant intellectual life which comes forth
^ Hitchcock's Reminiscences of Amherst College, p. 323. 2 College Secret Societies, as above : p. 34.
THE SECRET SOCIETY SYSTEM. 47
sparkling in poetry or surging in oratory. Un- reality, fascinating mystery, an eager struggle for three years, and silent exclusion with its consequent bitterness, make no soil for poetry or eloquence or scholarship or letters.
Considered from the intellectual standpoint, therefore, the secret societies do not fill the place of the literary societies. For the destruction of the latter they are chiefly responsible, and in this destruction there have been lost educational institutions of great value. The societies do not help scholarship, on the whole, and they lie like a heavy weight on the young intellectual life of the college, repressing hope and enthusiasm, and taking away the liberty out of which arises thought and " oratory — the aesthetics of liberty."