166 THE UNIVERSITY 



most unwise, for often those excluded are better fitted for its work 

 than those admitted, who may be admitted for other reasons 

 family or political or religious connections, ability to pay the prices 

 demanded, and so on. Nor does restriction on account of sex seem 

 to me possible of retention for many years longer. One has only to 

 compare the situation of to-day with that of twenty-five years ago 

 to understand how irresistible is the tendency toward equality of the 

 sexes in respect to opportunities of education. The desire for large 

 numbers of " graduates " and professional students, merely from 

 satisfaction in the contemplation of large numbers, is a serious danger 

 to which American universities are peculiarly exposed. In advanced 

 work not a very great number of students can be properly handled at 

 one time; for mere lectures it makes perhaps little difference whether 

 the instructor addresses twenty-five or two hundred students, but 

 the more modern methods of laboratory and seminar have brought 

 with them a necessary restriction in the size of classes, and the 

 personal relations borne by the most successful teachers towards 

 their advanced students cannot, in the nature of things, be extended 

 to very many at once. A selection must always be made. In the 

 first instance only those thoroughly qualified by previous training 

 to profit by the courses should be admitted to them except in 

 certain cases as " hearers " or " auditors ' ; - and only the most 

 promising of the whole number to the advanced work. It is in my 

 opinion a very grave though a widespread error to suppose that the 

 university which admits the most students does the greatest service 

 to the community. That greatest service is done by the institution 

 which holds its standards high and firm; not so high indeed that 

 only the exceptional student can hope to reach them, but so high 

 that its certificate of approval, its degree, shall be accepted at a 

 premium all over the educational world. This view is often decried 

 as " undemocratic," particularly in America, and when applied to 

 the professional schools of our universities. But democracy can 

 here logically imply no more than the lack of restrictions arising from 

 birth, class, belief, or sex; no democratic spirit can insure the making 

 of a competent scholar out of poor material, or justify hampering the 

 man of good endowment and training by yoking him with others 

 who can never maintain his pace. The welfare of the country de- 

 mands that there be some who can push on far in advance of their 

 fellows, and it is the worst spirit of trades-unionism which would 

 hinder them under pretense of giving all others an equal chance with 

 them. The welfare of the country is greater than the apparent col- 

 lective welfare of all the units that compose it; in things spiritual 

 the whole is often greater than the apparent sum of its parts, because 

 some of the most important parts cannot be estimated alone, but only 

 in their effect upon others, as quickening and inspiring influences. 



