ACADEMIC ASPECTS OF ADMINISTRATION 327 



(I ignore the pardonable exception of those still overawed by their 

 own doctor's dissertations), he entertains no illusion that the fate of 

 culture rests in his hands. He recognizes the many forces that sym- 

 pathetically with his own endeavors are making for a common goal. 

 He recognizes with deep concern the many other groups of influences 

 that display the lure of cheap success, that crowd out the nobler, 

 calmer virtues by an insistent demand for immediate returns, and 

 bring the money-changers back into the temple of learning. Thus 

 coming to his own, looking backward for the benefit of experience, 

 looking inward for the illumination of what might be, he is embold- 

 ened at times to look forward to a future in which shall be more freely 

 realized the career that he cherishes, to a release in greater measure 

 from the hampering restrictions amid which he has become resigned 

 to adjust his own service. 



A sensitive barometer of the academic atmosphere is to be found in 

 what we have learned from the Germans to call Lehrfreiheit; but 

 which as made in Germany is by no means a cheap article or easy to 

 secure. This delicate instrument must be adjusted to each climate; 

 and to read its indications is something of an art. The facetiously 

 inclined like to repeat the dictum that Boston is not a city, but a state 

 of mind; but so is every locality with a title to distinction. America 

 is a state of mind; the university reflects, fosters and imbibes states 

 of mind. The state of mind marked on the intellectual map as 

 academic freedom is difficult to localize. One is tempted to say that 

 it is bounded on the north by the overshadowing mountains of the 

 check-book, on the east by the tidal waves of current opinion, on the 

 south by the chain-and-compass survey of past generations, on the 

 west by the undrained marshes of political venture. Its contours are 

 evasive and shifting. It is best recognized by the cultures it favors 

 and by the serenity and charm of its landscape. The condition it 

 implies is much more than the untrammeled freedom to teach fear- 

 lessly what reason finds true or holds plausible. It is a declaration 

 of the right of this domain to develop its own academic life, academic 

 liberty and academic pursuits of happiness. 



The university's conception of its own function and the develop- 

 ment of men and measures to further its own aims, naturally and 

 properly reflect, as they have ever reflected, age and people and con- 

 dition. But loyalty to its own ends as conceived with such wisdom as 

 the leaders of men could command, was and is indispensable to the 

 academic life. The purpose must be large, the service comprehensive, 

 the honors worthy, the career attractive to enlist the life-long devotion 

 of ability, character and ambition. The loyalty concerned flourishes 

 only when those who bring it feel themselves spiritually akin with the 

 larger life with whose fortunes they have linked their own. It is 



