1971年1月24日，Frederick Hovde博士从做了25年的Purdue大学校长任上退休，尼克松总统在晚宴上发表了重要讲话，讲话充满了对晚宴的无限向往——I think that my remarks are going to delay your dinner, so I make them brief，体现了一个大国总统的人文关怀和亲民思想，我们要认真学习深刻领会并落实到大大小小的每一个宴会。

尼总还高度赞扬了H博士25年校长生涯为大学教育树立的丰功伟绩。他的学校走出了80 000个毕业生，They have been men and women with brains, good education; but more than that, they have been men and women with character, and it is that that Fred Hovde stands for: brain and character. That is the tradition he leaves with Purdue, and with America.

以前没学习（更没认真领会）过尼总的讲话，不知道他也讲品德教育；后来发现不但他在讲，他的前辈们也曾大大地讲过——胡佛总统1948年在Wilmington学院讲On the Uncommon Man时也夸奖our small college do a special job in building morals and character. And character is the most precious asset of our country.

他们讲的morals and character前面没有修饰和界定的词儿，是纯天然的。如果加点儿别的调料，不知道是不是和王致和的豆腐一个味儿。

原来不习惯character的这个意思，尽管普通小词典里也有“品格”的义项，我还是问了《牛津词典》，那个意思“名列”第12个义项：

12.a.II.12.a Moral qualities strongly developed or strikingly displayed; distinct or distinguished character; character worth speaking of.

词典引用了1735年的一句名言（Pope Ep. Lady 2）：Most Women have no Characters at all. 这句话现在不能说了。John Mill在Liberty里对它有更具体的定义：

A person whose desires and impulses are his own — are the expression of his own nature, as it has been developed and modified by his own culture — is said to have a character. One whose desires and impulses are not his own, has no character, no more than a steam-engine has a character.

    这个定义似乎回到了character的“本意”——近乎“个性”，那么它与后天教育就无关了。从穆老师的话可以引申出一个小结论：有些“品德”教育（对应于as it has been developed and modified by his own culture）可能会消磨个人的nature。于是，character是一个矛盾的词儿，把握了它自身的平衡，才能成为一个真正的普遍意义的a man with character。