hodder: the duty of the scholar in politics. 77 



career. I desire to quote the passage,* which, according to the 

 testimony of those present, made the strongest impression upon 

 his hearers: 



"Within cannon range of this city stands an institution of learn- 

 ing which was one of the earliest cares of our forefathers. Favored 

 child in an age of trial and struggle — carefully nursed through a 

 period of hardship and anxiety — sustained from its first foundation 

 by the paternal arm of the commonwealth, by a constant succession 

 of munificent bequests and by the prayers of good men — the 

 University of Cambridge now invites our homage as the most 

 ancient, most interesting and most important seat of learning in 



the land It appears from the last Report of the Treasurer, that 



the whole available property of the University, the various accu- 

 mulations of more than two centuries of generosity, amounts to 

 $703,000." 



"Change the scene and cast your eyes upon another object. 

 There now swings idly at her moorings in this harbor a ship of the 

 line, the Ohio, carrying ninety guns, finished as late as 1836 at an 

 expense of $835,000 — more than $130,000 beyond all the available 

 wealth of the richest and most ancient seat of learning in the land. 

 Choose ye, my fellow citizens of a Christian state, between the two 

 caskets, — that wherein is the loveliness of truth, or that which 

 contains the carrion death." 



"Pursue the comparison still further. The expeneliture of the 

 University during the last year amounted to $48,000. The cost of 

 the Ohio for one year of service, in salaries, wages and provisions 

 is $220,000, being $172,000 above the annual expenses of the 

 University and more than four times as much as those expenciitures. 

 In othf^r words, for the annual sum lavished upon a single ship of 

 the line, four institutions like Harvard University might be sup- 

 ported. " 



A similar comparison between the cost of a modern warship and 

 a modern University would be interesting, were the material at hand 

 for making it. The average cost in recent years of a large man-of-war, 

 without armament, has been over three million dollars. There have 

 recently been added to our navy six battle ships — the Indiana, the 

 Iowa, the Maine, the Massachusetts, the Oregon and the Texas, anei 

 two arnioreei cruisers — the Brooklyn and the New York. Their total 

 cost, making allowance for armament, is twenty-five million dollars. 

 This amount exceeds by ten million dollars the total income of the 

 four hundred and seventy-six colleges and universities in the United 

 States to-day and at the present rate would defray the current 

 *Sumner's " Works," Vol. 1. pp. 80-3. 



