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The Value Of Honorary Degrees

The Value Of Honorary Degrees image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
June
Year
1884
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

In a timely article In t lic July Century, on Académica] Dcgrees, especially Honorary Degrccs In the United States, Ex. President Theodore D. Woolsey, of Yalei thus comment8 on the present systom of conferring titles in this country : " Vie have also a right to say that tliis distribution of honorary ilegrees is to a great extent unmeaning, It fails of selecting the mostwoithy; it disappoints many, as is probable, and gratities a few, anti those few not, of course, the best iitted to rill the place; it by DO meaiis selects the most learned and useful scholttrs, but rather those wlio have au artificial orundeserved prominence. The desirt to obtain the honor is a desire whicli no man should indulge, and yet the uneertainty and unreasonableness of the rules of selection provoke such a desire especially in persons wlio have no good claims by which t oan be justified. If the honor of a doctórate o theology isgiven to ministers of one denominantion, it vvill in the end be given to those of another,- not in order to encourage a learned miiiistry, but owlng in part to the sway of the spirit of equality, and because, in part, it gives a title which is as good as if the largest univer.sity had conferred t, as well as a standing in the upper section of one's fellow-ministers. Perhaps, too, it may help hini in getting a good paiish. The social distinction conferred on a man by an acadeinical honor whether deserved or not, Is not an Ineonsiderable motive for dcsiiiug and even for seeking it; and the value of titles is per. haps newhere more highly esumated tlnin in a democratie country lfke ó'urs. Thus the official tille which attaelies Itself to a person in a civil, military, judicial, orpoliticul sphere is commonly given rather tlian the Christian name, not merely because it is sliorter to say Colonel or Major or Mr. Smith, but also because it is supposed to afl'ord pleasure to the person so addressed. It isowing to theíe causes that addresses by word of motith, or on the covers of letters, have gradually fallen down from their original lionorary meaning, so as to be open to almost all men, - such titles, we mean, as Kfqtllre, Matter or Mr., and Honorable. In tliia widuniof of the use of titles, they come to mean at length little or nothing, and Inttead of distinctions, are bcstowei! on all men, Who that adds the tille of Jiixjuire to a name on a letter ever thinks of tne aris. tocratic employmcnt which t once denoted ? It is getiing to be very tnuoh the same in regard to doctorates in theology. They carry with thein no evidence of learning, but only a certain indefinito auperiority above otliers in the same siicred calllng

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Ann Arbor Courier
Old News