LITERARY NOTICES. 



697 



profession. They are the acquisitions by 

 which clergymen get a living. Our old 

 colleges were all originally seminaries 

 for training professional divines. The 

 traditional curriculum was shaped for 

 the uses of a vocation. Clergymen 

 have been the heads of the colleges for 

 centuries. Every President of the Col- 

 lege of New Jersey, for a hundred and 

 twenty-seven years, from Dickinson to 

 McCosh, has been a professional di- 

 vine. Greek and Latin, rhetoric and 

 logic, and mental and moral philosophy, 

 which Bishop Harris would palm off 

 upon the Michigan boys as giving the 

 only true education, have been the 

 bread and butter of doctors of divinity 

 ever since divinity became a regular 

 business. Let Bishop Harris confine 

 his pot-boiling curriculum for preachers 

 to the technical schools of the profes- 

 sion, the theological seminaries. It is 

 high time that general education were 

 rescued from this slough of specialism 

 and placed upon loftier grounds. 



The Bishop denounces the " fell spirit 

 of utilitarianism " ; that is, the vile and 

 pernicious impulse to usefulness. What 

 does he think of the clerical spirit in 

 education, as shown, say, in the history 

 of the English universities ? Under cler- 

 ical domination they have notoriously 

 been the fastnesses of bigotry, intoler- 

 ance, proscription, and scandalous abuse 

 of trust and power. Their professor- 

 ships and fellowships and scholarships 

 have been sinecures for men in " holy 

 orders ,1 ; and the institutions have been 

 fettered and trammeled by absurd theo- 

 logical tests, which public sentiment in 

 England has been fighting for half a 

 century, and has not even yet been able 

 to extirpate. Those universities were 

 ages ago the professional schools for 

 the education of the clergy, and, under 

 continued priestly headships, they have 

 clung with desperation to the dominant 

 studies of theological culture. And, as 

 for the spirit of greed, the unscrupulous 

 perversion of endowments and the rav- 

 enous struggle for profitable places, 



which have been displayed in the long 

 hierarchical administration of those 

 great schools, have been the disgrace of 

 civilization. It is fit that the represent- 

 ative of this system should do his best 

 to keep modern science out of the cur- 

 riculum of the University of Michigan ! 

 But it is a vain and futile work. 

 Bishop Harris's vehement protest shows 

 that he recognizes the strength of the 

 new tendencies. The same newspaper 

 that brings the report of his speech con- 

 tains also the following significant para- 

 graph : " Cornell University seems to 

 have introduced a notable change in 

 commencement orations and essays. 

 Among the number chosen for public 

 presentation this year is a paper by Mr. 

 R. P. Green, on ' The Sewage of Ithaca 

 as a Hydraulic Problem,' and one by 

 Miss M. Hicks on ' Tenement-Houses, 

 a Social Problem in Architecture.' 

 Among the list from which these pa- 

 pers are chosen are several on broader 

 subjects, as ' The Relation of Modern 

 Science to Education,' etc." When 

 such topics as these are earnestly taken 

 up by students, and college studies be- 

 come a fit preparation for dealing with 

 them, society will then begin to reap the 

 substantial benefits, which have hither- 

 to been but scantily afforded by the 

 higher education. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Early Man in Britain, and his Place in 

 the Tertiary Period. By W. Boyd 

 Dawkins, F. R. S. New York : Macmil- 

 lan & Co. Pp. 537. Price, $6.50. 



The subject of primitive man and his 

 history, as obscurely traced by archaeologi- 

 cal research, has now come to be so exten- 

 sive that is has become necessary to con- 

 centrate research in special directions, as 

 the whole field is too large for any one man 

 to cultivate. Professor Dawkins has, ac- 

 cordingly, taken up the question of " Early 

 Man in Britain," and even in his elaborate 

 volume he is unable to present the discus- 

 sion in its completeness. In his work on 



