istic survivals go
to indicate is a prevalence of conservatism, if not of reactionary
sentiment, especially among the higher schools where the conventional
learning is cultivated.

To these indications of a conservative attitude is to be added another
characteristic which goes in the same direction, but which is a symptom
of graver consequence that this playful inclination to trivialities
of form and ritual. By far the greater number of American colleges
and universities, for instance, are affiliated to some religious
denomination and are somewhat given to devout observances. Their
putative familiarity with scientific methods and the scientific point
of view should presumably exempt the faculties of these schools
from animistic habits of thought; but there is still a considerable
proportion of them who profess an attachment to the anthropomorphic
beliefs and observances of an earlier culture. These professions
of devotional zeal are, no doubt, to a good extent expedient and
perfunctory, both on the part of the schools in their corporate
capacity, and on the part of the individual members of the corps of
instructors; but it can not be doubted that there is after all a very
appreciable element of anthropomorphic sentiment present in the
higher schools. So far as this is the case it must be set down as the
expression of an archaic, animistic habit of mind. This habit of
mind must necessarily assert itself to some extent in the instruction
offered, and to this extent its influence in shaping the habits of
thought of the student makes for conservatism and reversion; it acts
to hinder his development in the direction of matter-of-fact knowledge,
such as best serves the ends of industry.

The college sports, which have so great a vogue in the reputable
seminaries of learning today, tend in a similar direction; and, indeed,
sports have much in common with the devout attitude of the colleges,
both as regards their psychological basis and as regards their
disciplinary effect. But this expression of the barbarian temperament
is to be credited primarily to the body of students, rather than to the
temper of the schools as such; except in so far as the colleges or the
college officials--as sometimes happens--actively countenance and foster
the growth of sports. The like is true of college fraternities as
of college sports, but with a difference. The latter are chiefly
an expression of the predatory impulse simply; the former are mo