124 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



gladly; to-day good news of a slightly dif- 

 ferent tenor comes to the rich, and how 

 sweet it must be to be told that, being 

 rich, you are presumably a favored child 

 of God, and that in living a life of lux- 

 ury that might make Dives turn green 

 with envy you are simply carrying out 

 his fatherly designs ! But the eloquent 

 preacher told his wealthy hearers more : 

 he assured them that, in thus heaping 

 indulgences upon themselves, they were 

 helping the poor by furnishing them 

 with employment. Of course he be- 

 lieved it, because the whole class to 

 which he belongs, with only here and 

 there an exception, believes it ^ and that 

 is just where we see the great need for 

 the missionary work of the university- 

 extension system. Here are thousands 

 of high-feedmg, richly dressed, gospel- 

 taught people, who, in matters economic, 

 are sitting in the outer darkness of ig- 

 norance—silly enough to think that the 

 more they consume on their pleasures the 

 more benefit they confer on the world, 

 the more they lighten the toil of the poor. 

 But it is not upon economic subjects 

 only that the talk of the so-called edu- 

 cated classes betrays a woful lack of in- 

 formation and of coherent thought. 

 Upon scientific and historical subjects 

 it is mucli the same. By this time the 

 main axioms connected with the doc- 

 trine of the conservation of energy ought 

 to be the common property of all de- 

 cently educated persons, but we con- 

 stantly hear well-dressed people talking 

 as if electricity, for example, were a mys- 

 terious something derived from a mys- 

 terious nothing, and thus constituted a 

 boundless source of energy to be had for 

 the asking. It is needless, however, to 

 multiply examples ; the world, in spite 

 of all our educational institutions and 

 perhaps a little through their fault, is 

 full of ignorance in places where one 

 would think ignorance ought not to be; 

 and we may well, therefore, hail with joy 

 the introduction of a scheme which 

 seems likely to bring light and knowl- 

 edge to many thousands of minds. 



Upon one point, however, we find 

 ourselves unable to agree with our con- 

 tributor. After making out a strong 

 case for the usefulness of university ex- 

 tension, he is disposed to draw the con- 

 clusion that the national Government 

 should take it under its protection and 

 sustain it by subsidies. From our point 

 of view this would tend to mar the whole 

 scheme. Its success will depend mainly 

 on the individual zeal and public spirit 

 with which it is conducted; but if there 

 is anything that is fatal to zeal and pub- 

 lic spirit, it is a subsidy. "What is the 

 cause of the paralyzing lack of vitality in 

 our public schools if it is not that they 

 are part and parcel of a pcjlitical sys- 

 tem ? It may be granted at once that a 

 national subsidy would greatly acceler- 

 ate the movement ; but we are con- 

 vinced that what would be gained in 

 rate of growth would be more than off- 

 set by deterioration in the ethical and 

 intellectual quality of the work done. 

 If people do not get knowledge to-day 

 it is not for lack of pecuniary means ; 

 it is because they prefer to spend the 

 means they might apply to the pur- 

 pose to less worthy objects. If there 

 is one feature more than another of 

 the university-extension movement that 

 awakens our interest and commands our 

 sympathy, it is that it offers an oppor- 

 tunity for a true crusade against igno- 

 rance and folly. But the crusader and 

 the subsidy-seeker are very different per- 

 sons. The former may be mistaken, but 

 he is enthusiastic; the latter is rarely 

 mistaken, but his enthusiasm is of a low 

 quality. Now, as we have said, here is 

 a grand opportunity for a crusade — an 

 opportunity to show that those who 

 possess the keys of knowledge are will- 

 ing to unload their stores for others, and 

 that those who have means in abundance 

 are willing to contribute freely to raise 

 the intellectual and moral standard of 

 society. All the elements of a great 

 movement are present if only we can 

 count on enthusiasm — on some small 

 share of that feeling for duty and that 



