Ars Recte Vivendi

Ars Recte Vivendi

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William Curtis #2 in our series by George William Curtis
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Title: Ars Recte Vivende Being Essays Contributed to "The Easy
Chair"
Author: George William Curtis
Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7445] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 30,
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ARS RECTE VIVENDI
BEING ESSAYS CONTRIBUTED TO "THE EASY CHAIR"
BY
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS

PREFACE
The publication of this collection of Essays was suggested by some
remarks of a college professor, in the course of which he said that about
a dozen of the "Easy Chair" Essays in Harper's Magazine so nearly
cover the more vital questions of hygiene, courtesy, and morality that
they might be gathered into a volume entitled "Ars Recte Vivendi," and
as such they are offered to the public.

CONTENTS
EXTRAVAGANCE AT COLLEGE
BRAINS AND BRAWN
HAZING
THE SOUL OF THE GENTLEMAN
THEATRE MANNERS
WOMAN'S DRESS
SECRET SOCIETIES
TOBACCO AND HEALTH
TOBACCO AND MANNERS

DUELLING
NEWSPAPER ETHICS

EXTRAVAGANCE AT COLLEGE
Young Sardanapalus recently remarked that the only trouble with his
life in college was that the societies and clubs, the boating and balling,
and music and acting, and social occupations of many kinds, left him
no time for study. He had the best disposition to treat the faculty fairly,
and to devote a proper attention to various branches of learning, and he
was sincerely sorry that his other college engagements made it quite
impossible. Before coming to college he thought that it might be
practicable to mingle a little Latin and Greek, and possibly a touch of
history and mathematics, with the more pressing duties of college life;
but unless you could put more hours into the day, or more days into the
week, he really did not see how it could be done.
It was the life of Sardanapalus in college which was the text of some
sober speeches at Commencement dinners during the summer, and of
many excellent articles in the newspapers. They all expressed a feeling
which has been growing very rapidly and becoming very strong among
old graduates, that college is now a very different place from the
college which they remembered, and that young men now spend in a
college year what young men in college formerly thought would be a
very handsome sum for them to spend annually when they were
established in the world. If any reader should chance to recall a little
book of reminiscences by Dr. Tomes, which was published a few years
ago, he will have a vivid picture of the life of forty and more years ago
at a small New England college; and the similar records of other
colleges at that time show how it was possible for a poor clergyman
starving upon a meagre salary to send son after son to college. The
collegian lived in a plain room, and upon very plain fare; he had no
"extras," and the decorative expense of Sardanapalus was unknown. In
the vacations he taught school or worked upon the farm. He knew that
his father had paid by his own hard work for every dollar that he spent,
and the relaxation of the sense of the duty of economy which always
accompanies great riches had not yet begun. Sixty years ago the
number of Americans who did not feel that they must live by their own
labor was so small that it was not a class. But there is now a class of

rich men's sons.
The average rate of living at college differs. One of the newspapers, in
discussing the question, said that in most of the New England colleges
a steady and sturdy young