170 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



could extirpate the last individual of this liliputian insect-host from 

 her soil, La belle France would be cheaply rid of the enemy. Had the 

 world, twenty years ago, possessed the knowledge we at present have 

 of this insect and of its dangerous power, a few francs might have 

 originally stayed its invasion of that great vine-growing and wine- 

 making country. Needs there any more forcible illustration of the 

 importance of economic entomology ! 



SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTKIAL EDUCATION IN THE 

 UNITED STATES.^ 



By ANDREW D. WHITE, LL. D., 



PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



A LITTLE more than two hundred years ago, in England of the 

 Roundheads and Cavaliers, a voice was raised to propose that 

 young men receive instruction bearing on the various national indus- 

 tries. He who proposed this was a man of great genius — one of the 

 true priests and prophets of his time. He foresaw and foretold many 

 great modern inventions, and among them the steam-engine. His 

 brain helped to think out its principles, his hands helped to shape its 

 groundwork. With pen and tongue he sought to promote the " new 

 education;" but he had fallen on evil times. With Strafford and 

 Laud on one side, and Hampden and Cromwell on the other, there 

 was but poor hearing for the industrial ideas of the Marquis of Wor- 

 cester. Persecuted, maligned, and a bankrupt, he died, and, to all 

 appearance, his idea died with him. For two centuries afterward Ox- 

 ford and Cambridge solemnly ground out the old scholastic product 

 in the old scholastic way. 



About fifty years ago, a body of the best scholars and thinkers in 

 England made another attempt. Their endeavor was, to found an in- 

 stitution giving an education fitted to the needs of their land and time. 

 They established the University of London. Never had a plan more 

 brilliant advocates. Brougham, Sydney Smith, and Macaulay, spoke 

 and wrote for it ; but their success was small. The institution was 

 unsectarian, therefore the Church declared against it as " godless ; " 

 it gave instruction in modern learning as well as in ancient learning, 

 therefore the great body of solemn scholars declared it unsound ; 

 some of its ideas and methods were new, therefore a multitude of 

 leaders of society declared it unsafe. The institution was kept down, 

 and from that day to this has never taken the high place to which its 

 plan and work entitled it. 



1 An Address delivered before the New York State Agricultural Society, revised by 

 the author for the Popular Science Monthly. 



