648 AUGUSTUS LOWELL. 



as the first, but as easily the first, school of technical arts in this country. 

 To it now flock students from the farthest portions of these United 

 States: from Oregon aud Texas, from Illinois and Ohio, as well as 

 from New York and Massachusetts. And as graduates they go back 

 again to help develop the country. If any such institution may 

 fairly be called national the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is 

 the one. 



Nor is this all. Not confined to the limits of this continent, its fame 

 has successfully invaded lands across the sea. It is not long since Sir 

 Robert Ball informed the writer that it was in advance of anything of 

 the kind iu Great Britain ; a belief which he had years before acted on 

 by sending his sou to it, who is now practising in England. The belief 

 would seem to be spreading; for in June, 1901, examinations for admis- 

 sion to it were held in London. Its rank would seem even to be recog- 

 nized at home, which means that it probably is of some importance, as 

 the American believes firmly in the ignota pro magnifico. The post- 

 graduate course, pursued by the ranking men of the U. S. Naval 

 Academy at foreign institutes heretofore, is in future to be taken at the 

 Institute. It has been the custom of the Academy since 1883 to send 

 the first few scholars of the highest grade, the construction department, 

 abroad to finish their education. At first it was Greenwich they went 

 to, till the British Government ludicrously enough became sensitive to 

 the cadets outstripping their own students and forbade them. Then the 

 Navy sent men to the University of Glasgow, and lastly to the Ecole 

 Poly technique in Paris, where the recent ones have all graduated. In 

 future it will be in Boston. Evidently the United States Government is 

 convinced of the primacy of the Institute. 



What Mr. Lowell's share in this success was may best be gathered 

 from an episode which occurred about a twelvemonth before his death. 

 Feeling himself worn by a painful trouble which he had had for years, 

 he was minded in a moment of acute access of it to give up active work. 

 Accordingly he sent in his resignation to his colleagues of the corpora- 

 tion. They refused to accept it, and the committee did their best to 

 persuade him to reconsider his determination; but in vain. AVhereupon 

 a memorial was drawn up, signed by every member of the corporation 

 accessible at the time, protesting against his resignation, and begging him 

 not to withdraw his services from the institution. Such unanimous spon- 

 taneity of appreciation in a body of forty odd members is not common. 

 That he was profoundly touched by this mark of confidence and esteem 

 needs no saying. 



