174 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. ' 



to the effect that any member of the faculty could be called upon to 

 teach any subject, under penalty of dismissal if he refused. This 

 ignorance puts a premium upon intellectual dishonesty. It needs no 

 argument to show that all such cases result in inefficiency and super- 

 ficiality ; the colleges represented by them are shunned by competent 

 men, they suffer in reputation, and at last they dwindle into mere local 

 academies. Fortunately, the law of natural selection holds good 

 among institutions as among animals, and in the long run only the 

 fittest flourish and survive. 



But all vices are not great vices, and small crimes against college 

 morality are committed even by old and famous institutions. For 

 example, a certain Professor of Natural History has been wittily de- 

 scribed as " a good theologian, slightly tinctured with zoology " ; his 

 appointment having been secured by raising false issues of the ultra- 

 sectarian kind. It is hardly necessary to add that the highly respect- 

 able college in which he teaches is not recognized as a shining center 

 of zoological research. In the same institution a teacher of mathe- 

 matics was to be appointed ; and an enthusiastic friend praised the 

 mathematical ability of a leading candidate. " No matter about his 

 mathematics," said one of the authorities, " we want to know if he is 

 a man of good moral character." The remark w T as suggestive. Of 

 course, moral character was essential, and to be scrupulously consid- 

 ered, but not above other qualifications equally important. Character 

 and competency need both to be regarded; since a man may be a model 

 of purity, and at the same time incapable of teaching even the alpha- 

 bet. Candidates for professorships are often sharply catechised. 

 " What church do you go to ? " " What are your views upon such 

 and such doctrines ? " These questions are almost invariably asked. 

 "Are you a professor of religion?" said a college trustee to a young 

 candidate for a position. " No, sir, I am a professor of chemistry," 

 was the reply, and rejection followed. Curiously enough, the college 

 represented by this instance was not a sectarian school, but a State 

 institution, founded upon the congressional land-grant of 1862. From 

 such-like impertinent questions some of the ablest scholars in America 

 have suffered. Pure character, unblemished reputation, high scholar- 

 ship, and great achievements, are not sufficient for answers. Only a 

 rigid conformity to certain dogmas can render the candidate's calling 

 and election sure. Hypocrisy may succeed where real merit would 

 avail but little. 



Since a tutorship is the natural stepping-stone to a professorship, 

 tutors should be chosen for qualifications essentially the same as those 

 which are demanded of professors. There are now available a multi- 

 tude of competent young men, who are ambitious to win professor- 

 ships, and who, with that aim in view, have devoted years of laborious 

 study to special preparation for special teaching. Some are chemists, 

 who have pursued original investigations at Berlin, Leipsic, Bonn, 



