Word: cante
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...previous convictions, and their previous manner of thinking, by dabbling in the pleasant but deceptive waters of philosophy and art. It is a certain fact that only one man in thirty has a fine philosophical mind; and like the "little learning" which is so dangerous, a smattering of philosophical cant develops a sophistical way of thinking and reasoning that is often absolutely destructive to high purposes. How many of the amateur philosophers and nineteenth Greeks in college to-day could give even a plausible reason for the constitutionality of a bill in Congress - a question asked on a recent examination...
...answer to this. That is to be found in the Harvard spirit of which I have already spoken. Go where you will and look at Harvard men and the work they are doing in the world. It is not brilliant, perhaps; it may lack the uncompromising vigor that the cant of our day describes as practical. But wherever you find Harmen in a body you find honest, self-respecting gentlemen, alive in rare degree to the best ideals of their time...
...fill our prominent pulpits than the graduates of any two other colleges in the land. Is it that our teaching is purely secular? Why did we come to Harvard above all other colleges, but to get teaching that was secular, free from the eternal theological dogmas and cant which distinguish so many of our sister-colleges? Is it that the tone of student thought is unhealthy and opposed to more sacred things? Here we are on difficult ground, but student thought is not opposed to religion. It is true that we do not have revivals; nor do we turn...
...staid, well-meaning friends in thinking that "those Harvard boys are the worst lot this side of Yale." But suffice to say, we do not agree to this verdict. We are not a "bad lot." There are as noble young men among Harvard students as ever despised cant and followed the right. Why then is this unfavorable opinion? It is simply because the rank grass has overtopped good, the tares grown over the wheat. Judged by such a standard as this verdict would necessitate, we would all be athletes, dudes, and writers of sentimental pessimistic verse. This, of course...
...terms with only the addition of a rather indifferent drawl in their utterance. This would seem to argue habit. But let us see if another element is not contained in the matter. Every profession whether it be that of thieves or of the clergy, possesses distinctly its class of cant phrases and slang words. This is seen in business and extraordinarily so in the profession of law. Supposing then for a moment that Harvard students are a class all engaged in one pursuit, all using the same instruments and holding before them the one great aim of mental improvement...