6i2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



is purer and nobler than a life of money-making or political intrigue, 

 and I would that I could so bring you to appreciate not only the nobil- 

 ity, but also the happiness, of such a life as to induce you to try to 

 live it. Do you tell me that it is only granted to a few men to become 

 scholars, and that you have been educated for some industrial pursuit ? 

 But remember, as I said before, that it is your special privilege to 

 have been educated, to have added knowledge to your handicraft, and 

 that this very knowledge, if kept alive so far as you are able, will 

 ennoble your life. Knowledge, like the fairy's wand, ennobles what- 

 ever it touches. The humblest occupations are adorned by it, and 

 without it the most exalted positions appear to true men mean and 

 low. 



Nor is it the extent of the knowledge, alone, which ennobles, but 

 much more the spirit and aim with which it is cultivated, and that 

 spirit and aim you may carry into any occupation however engrossing, 

 and into any condition of life however obscure. 



And let me add that what I have said is true not only of the indi- 

 vidual, but also, and to an even greater degree, of the nation. Our peo- 

 ple, for the most part, look upon universities and other higher institu- 

 tions of learning as merely schools for recruiting the learned profes- 

 sions, and estimate their efficiency solely by the amount of teaching- 

 work which they perform. But, however important the teaching 

 function of the university may be, I need not tell you that this is not 

 its only or chief value to a community. The university should be the 

 centre of scientific investigation and literary culture, the nursery of 

 lofty aspirations and noble thoughts, and thus should become the soul 

 of the higher life of the nation. For this and this chiefly it should be 

 sustained and honored, and no cost and no sacrifice can be too great, 

 which is required to maintain its efficiency. And its success should be' 

 measured by the amount of knowledge it produces rather than by the 

 amount of instruction it imparts. 



Harvard College, by cherishing and honoring the great naturalist 

 she has recently lost, has done more for Massachusetts than by edu- 

 cating hosts of commonplace professional men. The simple title of 

 teacher, w^hich in his last will Louis Agassiz wrote after his name, was 

 a nobler distinction than any earthly authority could confer ; but re- 

 member he was a teacher not of boys, but of men, and his influence 

 depended not on the instruction in natural history which he gave in 

 his lecture-room, but on his great discoveries, his far-reaching generali- 

 zation, and his noble thoughts. Although that man died poor, as 

 the world counts poverty, yet the bequest which he left to this people 

 cannot be estimated in coin. 



It is a sorry confession to make, but it is nevertheless the truth, 

 that, if we compare our American universities, in point of literary or 

 scientific productiveness, with those of the Old World, they will appear 

 lamentably deficient. Let me add, however, that this deficiency arises 



