EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS. 541 



absolutely neglected. And, to crown all, it was found that even in 

 the classics no satisfactory work was done. Few of the pupils could 

 read even Latin with any ease, and none were ever asked to do so at 

 sight. It would have been useless.* 



Certainly no such state of affairs can be found in any American 

 institution. But there are facts in plenty with the same bearing. 

 Dissociate a body of men from their fellow-citizens, set up an inde- 

 pendent caste by endowing it financially, and the consequences appear 

 even in a country where public opinion is as omnipotent as here. The 

 difficulty of forcing progressive action on our colleges is a sufficient 

 illustration. We live in an age of unparalleled "passion, pulse, and 

 power " an age with gigantic problems suddenly laid on it ; our civ- 

 ilization is chiefly industrial, and the railway, the factory, and labor 

 organizations are the largest elements of our social life. Would any 

 one believe a priori that under these circumstances our colleges "would 

 be still haggling over the Greek and Latin question, and that only 

 one of them in the entire country should give instruction on railway 

 transportation, the most important subject now before the public, and 

 the one also on which there is such vast ignorance ? f This, however, 

 is only one instance of the disgusting narrowness of the professorial 

 intellect as " stimulated " by endowments. Everywhere we find a 

 total want of connection between the colleges especially those old 

 and rich and the life of the people. Go into a university library, 

 and, after listening to the complaints of the librarian about the paltry 

 sums at his disposal, you will find splendid and expensive editions of 

 Percy's " Reliques," Scott's "Dryden," hundreds of volumes of pe- 

 dantic discussion about Shakespeare, and you will look in vain proba- 

 bly for the great newspapers which so faithfully reflect the nation's 

 life ; and " Bradstreets," " The Railroad Gazette," and frequently even 

 " The Century," " Harper's," " The Forum," and " The Popular Science 

 Monthly " will also be wanting. Recent American literature is treated 

 with similar disdain. The want of direct responsibility to the public 

 is felt in all directions. When a railway corporation discovers that 

 a man is incompetent, it discharges him ; a newspaper takes care not 

 to retain poor writers. But no incapacity is so great that a college 

 position, once gained, need be lost. Go through any of our great in- 

 stitutions, and you will find that year after year the same complaints 

 have been made by students regarding their instructors. These have 

 produced no effect, because the stimulus of duty not re-enforced by 

 interest is not sufficient. It is a disagreeable thing to discharge a man, 

 and it is not done when the authorities have no personal interest in the 

 matter. Thus college professorships in this country come to a pass 



* I shall be suspected of heightening this picture. I can only refer to the report itself 

 for confirmation. 



f Yale is the college referred to. Harvard has recently announced a series of lect- 

 ures dealing with railways. 



