730 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Bachelor of Surfaces, was regarded as far inferior to the time- 

 honored B. A. In the inner circle of education it was regarded as 

 no degree at all, and its existence was a concession to the utilita- 

 rian spirit of a non-scholastic age. The scientific course was, in- 

 deed, inferior, for it lacked substance. There was no lime in its 

 vertebrae. The central axis of Greek had been taken out, and no 

 corresponding piece of solid work put in its place. Gradually, 

 however, even this despised degree has risen to a place with the 

 others. Slowly and grudgingly the colleges have admitted that 

 under some circumstances the study of science might be as worthy 

 of recognition as the study of Greek. When science was worthily 

 studied, this proposition became easy of acceptance. In our best 

 colleges to-day the study of science stands side by side with the 

 study of language, and the one counts equally with the other, 

 even for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For not the Greek itself, 

 but the culture it implies, was the glory of the course of arts. 

 When equal culture and equal work come through other chan- 

 nels, they are worthy of this degree. To deny this would be to 

 make of the degree itself a mere child's toy, a play on words. 

 As a matter of fact it can be little more, and sooner or later the 

 college will have no need for degrees. It was the firm belief, I am 

 told, of Chancellor Gregory, who laid broad the foundations of the 

 University of Illinois, that the work of the future college should 

 need no stimulus from honors or degrees, and that these play- 

 things of our educational childhood might some day be laid aside 

 forever. In this feeling I fully sympathize. All these things are 

 forms, and forms only, and our higher education is fast outgrow- 

 ing them. Science has shown herself a worthy suitor of the high- 

 est degree the university can give. She will show herself strong 

 enough to care for no degrees at all. In the great schools of the 

 future, each study shall become its own reward. Let all come 

 who will, and let each take what he can, and let the ideals be so 

 high that no one will imagine that he is getting when he is not. 

 Scholars can be made neither by driving nor by coaxing. In any 

 profession the inspiration and example of educated men are the 

 best surety that the generation which succeeds them will be like- 

 wise men of culture. 



Not the least of the aids to freedom in science was the Morrill 

 Act, under which a certain part of the public lands was given for 

 the foundation of schools of applied science. Unhappily, much of 

 this fund was wasted outright by thriftless management. Much 

 more was in some States half wasted by the formation of separate 

 schools for applied science, where State colleges of the old type 

 already existed. Indeed, in many States, the college and the tech- 

 nical school were so far separated, that the legislators of 1868 

 saw in them nothing in common. Nevertheless, the highest wis- 



