478 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



near Boston. Harvard University at once made a very liberal offer ; 

 namely, that if the Methodists chose to establish merely a theological 

 school, and to place the same in Cambridge, it would give them rent 

 free the use of a lot of land for their building, and would permit their 

 students to have access to the great library, and to attend, without 

 expense, fifty courses of lectures. This magnificent offer was foolishly 

 declined, and the Methodists founded, only four miles away, the Bos- 

 ton University a school for which there was no real demand, and 

 which signified merely sectarian folly. If at that time the Massachu- 

 setts Legislature had refused to grant a charter, a good move would 

 have been made. The money bequeathed by Isaac Rich might per- 

 haps have gone to the Wesleyan University at Middletown, making 

 that comparatively weak institution really strong. As it was, the 

 Methodist denomination, with more zeal than discretion, divided its 

 forces in New England, started a college within half a dozen miles of 

 at least three others, and contributed heavily toward the perpetuation 

 of the present vicious policy. Tufts College is another wealthy insti- 

 tution close to Harvard, doing little save to adorn a high hill with 

 brick and mortar, and wholly unable to compete with its great rival. 

 All over the country there are to be found similar examples of what 

 is at once multiplication of means and division of forces. Galesburg, 

 Illinois, has two colleges : one Presbyterian, the other Universalist. 

 Nashville rejoices in four: one Methodist Episcopal, another Method- 

 ist Episcopal South, a third for colored people, and the fourth vaguely 

 described as " non-sectarian." This senseless scattering of appliances 

 ought never to have been permitted. The true policy is, to establish 

 great central universities, around which as nuclei the theological 

 schools may cluster. A plan of consolidation among existing colleges 

 would be difficult to carry out, but to some such plan we must event- 

 ually look for reform. 



Perhaps at some future time it may also become possible to regu- 

 late colleges by law, and to compel them to maintain certain stand- 

 ards of scholarship. If a few institutions which are now doing sham 

 work should be summarily deprived of their charters, and so rendered 

 unable to confer degrees, much good would result. No Legislature, 

 however, could as yet be induced to take such a step, even supposing 

 it to be perfectly legal. A policy of this kind must follow after the 

 awakening of public sentiment. But the principle that every institu- 

 tion of learning ought to be what it pretends to be, is unquestionable. 

 No kind of fraud is more objectionable than fraud in education. 



As a matter of course, legislation upon the college problem would 

 have to be different in different States. Neither lthode Island nor 

 New Hampshire need act at all upon the question ; but Ohio, Indiana, 

 and Illinois, ought to move vigorously. In these and other Western 

 States, espec : ally the States which sustain universities at public ex- 

 pense, a healthy and judicious system of taxation might be desirable. 



