74 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



venture to assert that no candid person 

 can read this production, in connection 

 with that of Mill, without recognizing 

 that, to all the intents and purposes of 

 the discussion, the American student of 

 railroads has given a crushing answer 

 to the English philosopher. 



We are first of all glad to recognize 

 that Mr. Adams has dealt with the sub- 

 ject with the freedom of entire fear- 

 lessness, and has set a much-needed ex- 

 ample. He has not minced matters, 

 but has boldly and bluntly said what a 

 great many others think but hesitate to 

 express. There is a good deal more in- 

 tense conviction upon this matter than 

 gets publicly uttered. Most men who 

 have invested in classical education, 

 and find that they have been sold, are 

 anything but eager to acknowledge it. 

 Having been cheated, they prefer to 

 keep quiet about it. But Mr. Adams 

 told the authorities of Harvard College 

 to their faces that he had been vic- 

 timized by their policy, and was there 

 to arraign it on that very intelligible 

 ground. In most explicit terms he char- 

 acterized the worthlessness of the fun- 

 damental studies of that school, and 

 which are the fundamental studies of 

 most other colleges. But little further 

 progress is to be made in the way of 

 plain speaking when the staple of col- 

 lege study is openly denounced in the 

 halls consecrated to it, and in the con- 

 gregated presence of all parties to it, 

 not only as a superstition, but as a 

 superstition of the lowest and grossest 

 sort. Greek and Latin, as pursued in 

 our higher institutions, he pronounced 

 to be nothing less or other than a " col- 

 lege fetich." It is among the native 

 African negroes that fetichism is in 

 most eminent vogue. A fetich is some 

 object, no matter what a tree, a moun- 

 tain, a beast, a bit of wood, a lion's 

 tail, an old bone which the besotted 

 native adores as possessed of religious 

 potency, and to which he ascribes mar- 

 velous or magical power. A " college 

 fetich " is, therefore, a study which is 



looked upon with a kind of stupid ven- 

 eration, as capable of exerting myste- 

 rious and wonderful influences upon 

 the minds of those devoted to it. The 

 dead-language fetich is a matter of blind 

 adoration. It is of but little use to ar- 

 gue against it of but little use to rea- 

 son with the fetichistic state of mind 

 for the peculiarity of any inveterate 

 superstition is that it may be riddled 

 with logic through and through, and its 

 absurdity demonstrated over and over, 

 without impairing in the slightest de- 

 gree the mystical faith in its efficacy. 

 Mr. Adams, therefore, confined himself 

 mainly to an exposure of the results of 

 the dead-language superstition, as he 

 knew it and had suffered by it, in the 

 college which gave him his education. 

 His point of view was thus indicated : 

 " To-day, whether I want to or not. I 

 must speak from individual experience. 

 Indeed, I have no other ground on 

 which to stand. I am not a scholar ; I 

 am not an educator; I am not a phi- 

 losopher ; but I submit that, in educa- 

 tional matters, individual practical ex- 

 perience is entitled to some weight. 

 Not one man in ten thousand can con- 

 tribute anything to this discussion in 

 the way of more profound views or 

 deeper insight. Yet any concrete ac- 

 tual experience, if it be only simply 

 and directly told, may prove a contri- 

 bution of value, and that contribution 

 we all can bring. An average college 

 graduate, I am here to subject the col- 

 lege theories to the practical test of an 

 experience in the tussle of life." Mr. 

 Adams then describes how he entered 

 the Latin School and learned two gram- 

 mars by heart, and spent five years in 

 mastering " the other rudiments of 

 what we are pleased to call a liberal 

 education," and then went through 

 Harvard College, devoting himself in- 

 dustriously to all the regulation studies 

 of which Latin and Greek were funda- 

 mental. Entering upon active life with 

 his college preparation, he took hold of 

 one of the large problems which has 



