EDITOR'S TABLE. 



125 



" Two hundred and twenty com- 

 positions of all sorts and sizes, the work 

 presumably of the best boys and girls 

 of the schools of literary New England ! 

 What anticipations the first sight 

 aroused ! What originality, what fresh 

 sincerity of thought and expression 

 must lie in all this new work of new 

 minds, unconfined by any narrow limi- 

 tation of subject! Yet the end was 

 almost absolute disappointment. The 

 faults are greater than of mere im- 

 maturity. There is a painful con- 

 straint, a self-consciousness almost in- 

 variably present. There is an effect 

 of insincerity, an inability or disincli- 

 nation to write out real thought, that 

 gives to the whole work a wearisome, 

 perfunctory appearance. It may fairly 

 be claimed that these compositions are 

 typical. This, then, the best work that 

 the best scholars of our schools can ac- 

 complish fails so completely of its ob- 

 ject that the fault must be essential 

 either to system or subject." 



The general result was that, of the 

 two hundred and twenty who com- 

 peted, the vast majority simply made 

 themselves ridiculous. What, then, may 

 we infer of those who did not com- 

 petethe remaining members of the 

 graduating classes, whose number must 

 have been to that of the competitors as 

 at least ten to one ? We can only sup- 

 pose that their average condition of 

 culture would be markedly below that 

 of the competitors. It is evident, then, 

 that our grammar schools, indispensable 

 as their work is, are not adequately 

 providing for the culture even of the 

 comparatively limited class attending 

 them. It would indeed be making an 

 altogether excessive demand upon them 

 to require that they should. As to our 

 universities, they are all doing useful 

 and many of them excellent work, and 

 if we looked only at the ever-extending 

 recognition which our scholars and 

 savants are receiving in the centers of 

 learning of the Old World, we should 

 have every reason to be satisfied with 



the intellectual progress of our country. 

 More than this is wanted, however, for 

 the object we have now in view the 

 spread of true culture throughout the 

 mass of the community. As lately 

 noticed in these columns, a hopeful at- 

 tempt in this direction is being made by 

 the university-extension system, which 

 we can not doubt has a great and useful 

 future before it ; but, in view of the 

 very recent articles we have published 

 on this subject, we need not dwell 

 specially on it to-day. 



Another agency for the spread of 

 culture is the public library, an institu- 

 tion existing in nearly every town of 

 any size, and which might be turned to 

 very good account. A generation ago 

 the lecture system was in full activity, 

 and was an important agent of popular 

 education. In the present day it has 

 been to a large extent supplanted by 

 the newspaper and magazine press, the 

 extraordinary development of which is 

 one of the marvels of the age. The 

 lecture had, however, one advantage 

 which the magazine or newspaper does 

 not possess, and that is that it drew 

 people together and gave them a com- 

 mon interest in the subjects treated. 

 This we consider to be a more hopeful 

 foundation for culture, as far as it goes, 

 than individual reading of books and 

 papers ; and here we are brought to the 

 main point we desire to make on the 

 present occasion which is that culture 

 can only become general by being so- 

 cially pursued. Every educated man 

 and woman who has a living interest 

 in the things of the intellect might and 

 should carry on a kind of university- 

 extension work in a quiet way among 

 his or her own friends. Let little in- 

 formal societies be formed for mutual 

 help let us say, in the understanding 

 and appreciation of works of literature, 

 or in the comprehension of social ques- 

 tions, or in intellectual effort of any 

 kind and let it be understood that the 

 ulterior object is to promote in some 

 small measure the great end of right and 



