UNIVERSITY-BUILDING. 333 



such knowledge rests the acquisition of it. One Helmholtz, the inves- 

 tigator, is the parent of a thousand Edisons, the adapters of the knowl- 

 edge gained by others. The great function of the German university- 

 is that of instruction through investigation. The student begins his 

 work on a narrow space at the outer rim of knowledge. It is his duty 

 to carry the solid ground a little farther, to drive back ever so little 

 it may be the darkness of ignorance and mystery. The real university 

 is a school of research. That we possess the university spirit is our 

 only excuse that we adopt the university name. A true university is 

 not a collection of colleges. It is not a college with an outer fringe of 

 professional schools. It is not a cluster of professional schools. It 

 is the association of scholars. It is the institution from which in every 

 direction blazes the light of original research. Its choicest product is 

 'that fanaticism for veracity' as Huxley calls it, that love for truth, 

 without which man is but the toy of the elements. Its spirit is the 

 desire ' to know things as they really are ' which is the necessary attri- 

 bute of ' him that overcometh.' No institution can be college, pro- 

 fessional school and university all in one and exercise all these func- 

 tions fully in the four years which form the traditional college course. 

 To attempt it is to fail in one way or another. We do attempt it and 

 we do fail. In the engineering courses of to-day we try to combine in 

 four years professional training with research and culture. This can 

 not be done, for while the professional work is reasonably complete, 

 culture is at a minimum and research crowded to the wall. The sub- 

 ject of law requires three solid years for professional training alone. 

 Three or four culture years go with this and are surely none too many. 

 The same requirement must soon be made in engineering. We can not 

 make an engineer in four years if we do anything else for him, and 

 there are very many things besides engineering which go to the making 

 of a real engineer. 



But this we can do in the four years of college culture. We can 

 show the student the line of his professional advancement and can see 

 him well started in its direction before he has taken his first degree. 

 We can give in the college course something of the methods and results 

 of advanced research. In any subject the advanced work has a higher 

 culture value than elementary work. Thorough study of one subject 

 is more helpful than superficial knowledge of half a dozen. To know 

 one thing well is in Agassiz's words 'to have the backbone of culture/ 

 By limiting the range of individual training to a few things done thor- 

 oughly it is possible to give even to the undergraduate some touch of 

 real university method, some knowledge of how truth is won. To 

 accomplish this is one vital part of the university's duty. It welds 

 together the three functions of a university, and in so doing it will 

 give the American university its most characteristic feature. 



