THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



5i9 



of the rich alumni. The Swan bequest 

 of $300,000 for a graduate college then 

 became available, and there was differ- 

 ence of opinion as to its site. Mr. 

 W. C. Proctor at this stage offered to 

 give $500,000 for the graduate college 

 as planned by Dean West and on condi- 

 tion that an equal sum should be sub- 

 scribed by others. There was again 

 difference of opinion as to the site and 

 the control of the college, and while 

 the president and a committee of the 

 trustees were trying to come to an 

 agreement with Mr. Proctor, he with- 

 drew his gift. 



The question of site is somewhat 

 trivial except in so far as it has be- 

 come identified with policies. Whether 

 the residence hall should be in the 

 midst of the Princeton campus or on 

 its outskirts can not be a matter of 

 serious consequence. The fact is that 

 the president of the university and 

 some of the trustees were unwilling to 

 place the dean of the graduate school 

 in as complete control of its develop- 

 ment as the acceptance of Mr. Proctor's 

 gift might have implied. The real 

 trouble is one of men rather than of 

 measures. 



It is a curious circumstance that 

 President Wilson and Dean West are 

 in pretty close agreement in favor of a 

 financial democracy and of an intel- 

 lectual aristocracy or snobbishness, as 

 one may please to call it. When Dean 

 West favors a residential college Avitli 

 oak-panelled dining hall in which the 

 students shall dine in evening dress, he 

 does so because he wishes to give the 

 young men without money a chance 

 to live in the environment which he 

 regards as proper to the scholar and 

 the gentleman. The ideal of such 

 a college was well put in an address 

 made some years ago. We read of 



a place removed — calm Science seated 

 there, recluse, ascetic, like a nun. not 

 knowing that the world passes, not 

 caring, if the truth but come in answer 

 to her prayer; and Literature, walking 

 within her open doors, in quiet cham- 

 bers, with men of olden time, storied 

 walls about her. and calm voices infi- 



nitely sweet; here "magic casements, 

 opening on the loam of perilous seas, 

 in fairy lands forlorn," to which you 

 may withdraw and use your youth for 

 pleasure. 



Those who have followed the recent 

 Princeton controversy may be surprised 

 i to learn that this not a quotation from 

 Dean West, but from the concluding 

 part of Dr. Wilson's address on the 

 occasion of the Princeton sesquicenten- 

 nial celebration. It might be that 

 President Wilson had learned new 

 tilings in the meanwhile, but at the 

 meeting of the Association of American 

 Universities a couple of months ago, 

 he presented a paper urging the old 

 ideas of amateurism and dilletantism 

 in college studies. He writes: 



All specialism — and tnis includes 

 professional training — is clearly indi- 

 vidualistic in its object; that is, the 

 object of professional training is the 

 private object of the person who is 

 seeking that training. . . . The minute 

 professionalism enters learning, it 

 ceases to wear the broad and genial 

 face of learning. It has become a 

 commodity; it has become something 

 that a man wishes to exchange for 

 means of support. It has become some- 

 thing that a man wishes to use in 

 order to get the better of his fellow- 

 men; to enhance his fortunes; to do 

 all the things that center in and upon 

 himself; and it is professionalism that 

 spoils the game, the game of life, the 

 game of humanity, the game of coop- 

 eration in social undertaking, the whole 

 handsome game that we are seeking to 

 throw light upon by the processes of 

 education. 



It is a remarkable and interesting 

 fact that Princeton is becoming a great 

 university and a great scientific center 

 almost in spite of those in control. 

 The large gifts made to the university 

 have found their way to build fine labo- 

 ratories and to secure scientific men of 

 the first rank. The preceptors intended 

 for less modern purposes brought to 

 Princeton a large group of younger 

 men from various institutions who 

 have given it new life. The efforts for 

 a graduate residential college, which in 

 Dean West's words should " show that 

 God is the end of all our knowing and 



