Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/251

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lu- added another and another, 'Stop, Mr. - ,' said ( it -in Tal Lee, ' one good reason should be sufficient to satisfy an honest mind,' with emphasis on the word 'honest.' that spoke vol- umes.

"Another, an excellent student, now a distinguished lawyer in Tennessee. was once beguiled into an tincxcused absence. The dreaded summons came. With his heart in his boots he entered General Lee's office. The General met him smiling: ' Mr. M., I am glad to see you are better.' ' But General, I have not been sick.' 'Then I am glad to see you have better news from home.' ' Hut General, I have had no bad news.' 'Ah,' said the General, ' I took it for granted that nothing less than sickness or distressing news from home could have kept you from your duty.' Mr. M. told me, in relating the incident, that he then felt as if he wished the earth would open and swallow him.

1 ' To a recalcitrant student, who was contending for what he thought his rights as a man, I once heard General Lee say: 'Obedience to lawful authority is the foundation of manly character ' in those very words.

"On rare occasions of disorder, actual or threatened, General Lee would post a manuscript address to students on the bulletin board. These were known among the boys as his ' General Orders.' They never failed of their effect. No student would have dared to violate General Lee's express wish or appeal if one had done so the stu- dents themselves would have driven him from the college.

IDLENESS A VICE.

" I wish to add one other important fact, illustrating General Lee's view of discipline, in a case of frequent occurrence. He held idle- ness to be not a negative, but a positive vice. It often happened that the plea was made that an idle student was doing no harm and indirectly deriving benefit, etc. General Lee said, ' No. A young man is always doing something; if not good then harm to himself and others.' So that merely persistent idleness was with him always sufficient cause for dismissal.

"General Lee's ideal of education was the training of manly character, and that, lor him, meant Christian character. To a ven- erable minister of Lexington he said: ' I shall be disappointed, sir I shall fail in the leading object that brought me here unless these young men all become consistent Christians.' When he came to