The Cap and Gown

A series of college addresses presents practical guidance for students entering and navigating university life, stressing the outsized importance of the first year and the responsibilities that come with new freedoms. It discusses curricular choices and the perils of premature specialization, the roles of athletics and fraternities, and the moral and religious considerations that should inform campus conduct. Subsequent essays counsel on choosing a life-work, embracing moral ventures, understanding returns on effort, and making use of incomplete results, while urging enlargement of vision, public-minded responsibility, and a principled opposition to war.