Word: merited
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...given to "greatest happiness" is enough to cause Bentham to turn in his grave. The position which this fallacy about government is intended to support is an entirely unwarranted assumption. It asserts that the class at large is incapable of settling on suitable men for Class-Day officers. Merit, it holds, secluded in the societies is unrecognized by the class. We breathe not a word against societies. Admission to them, though not the final criterion of character our author would have us believe, is undoubtedly an honor. We do object, however, to his remarks, "A non-society...
...return to the assertion that the class at large is not capable of choosing suitable officers for Class Day. Though the glitter and tinsel of popularity will undoubtedly attract the "outside barbarians," the merit which is confined to "limited bodies of men of fashion" is not the stuff for class officers. The avenues open to ability, by which it may come before the whole class, are so numerous that any particular individuals who have failed to identify themselves with their class are not the men to fill its offices. Despite the formation of cliques, four years of association between cultivated...
Thus far we have been concerned with the exaggerated and atrabiliar statements of the writer. His co-ordination of the facts with the phenomena that had been the subject of this discussion is hardly ambitious enough to merit the name of reasoning. A fondness for the universal affirmative or negative is not to be cultivated in writings of a controversial nature. Having published with boldness "that culture is only the perfect blossom of moral character," singularly enough a few lines later he tells us "that it is, in short, only the result of long study, rich experience," and moral character...
...result, we pass to the passage reading: "His elaborate application of Mr. Spencer's doctrine would be only amusing, did it not result in such astounding conclusions . . . . the knowledge which considers such theories the legitimate outcome of the doctrine of evolution is certainly superficial." Superficial writings have certainly the merit of being easily understood, and if such were here the case, the epithet would indeed be welcome; but this profound specialist seems to have failed to comprehend the whole bearing of the argument. The "elaborate application of Mr. Spencer's doctrine" consisted in a passing reference, seven lines in length...
...this is the development of reason fished from the ultramarine depths of modern thought, we may save ourselves the trouble of classifying it; for it is an exceedingly nasty creature, and was known to our old-fogy ancestors under the name of gratuitous invective. However, such argument has the merit of being easily confuted. As the premises and the conclusions are identical, we suppress both by denying, with varying degrees of earnestness, all the former, - speaking comparatively, of course, with reference to any other secular college; for we should hesitate to predicate anything concerning the relation of our general morality...