AMERICAN COLLEGES vs. AMERICAN SCIENCE. 473 



in America until, in this respect, the colleges mend their ways. Men 

 must be chosen professors because of their fitness to teach specified 

 subjects, and not on account of their notions, real or professed, con- 

 cerning abstract theological dogmas. Moral character ought, of 

 course, to be considered ; but mere speculative belief, never. 



Another objectionable result of college scattering is the under-pay- 

 ment of professors. Even our best universities have shortcomings in 

 this respect. A teacher upon small salary is naturally somewhat un- 

 settled in his mind, is apt to be looking about for better employment, 

 and is liable to feel a constantly diminishing interest in his work. Sta- 

 bility of place and freedom from pecuniary anxiety are very important 

 to an investigator; and just these requisites few American colleges 

 are able to supply. A large salary is not absolutely necessary to a 

 scholar, but a, certain means of comfortable subsistence is. At pres- 

 ent, when wholly inadequate payment is offered, there is scarcely any 

 inducement to attract a young man into the scientific life. A profess- 

 orship or tutorship may be accepted for a year or two, perhaps, just 

 as a stepping-stone to something more lucrative, but how rarely is the 

 teacher's vocation taken up as a career ! Almost every other impor- 

 tant occupation yields surer rewards, and a fairer prospect of attain- 

 ing to a competency. A young lawyer, doctor, or merchant, if care- 

 ful and industrious, may reasonably look forward to possessing at 

 some time a home of his own, with the means of sustaining and prop- 

 erly educating his children; The young devotee of science, however, 

 has rarely any such possibilities before him. His labor is as arduous as, 

 and demands even more talent than, that of the attorney or physician, 

 but the recompense is vastly less. If, as he ought, he gives his leisure 

 moments to the advancement of learning, he will find his salary insuf- 

 ficient for the maintenance of a family. In order really to live, he 

 must constantly be doing outside work. He will thus struggle along, 

 year after year, in constant danger of being discharged or supplanted, 

 and, in his old age, weary and broken down, will find himself little 

 more than a pauper. Is it strange, then, that the best intellectual 

 talent of America is repelled from professorial positions, and attracted 

 into other fields of labor? Can science be expected to flourish under 

 such a system? "We pay mere popular lecturers well enough; and 

 surely the real workers, who create science, ought to be fairly recom 

 pensed also. But we can hope for little improvement until the num- 

 ber of colleges is reduced, and the means of those remaining suitably 

 enlarged. Science must offer careers to men of ability, with the re- 

 wards which capacity, skill, and faithful industry, always ought to 

 receive. 



But, after tracing all the effects produced by the division of edu- 

 cational forces, we shall still find other points in which our college 

 system is prejudicial to science. Glance over the curriculum laid 

 down in almost any college catalogue, and see how the scientific in- 



