opened courses of study that seem to them to meet the terms of the law 

 in letter and in spirit. The institution which they have organized may 

 be called a scientific school, liberal in its character and practical in its aim. 

 The central departments in it are those of Physics, Mechanics, Engineer- 

 ing, Chemistry, Zoology, Botany, Geology, and Practical Agriculture, while 

 the common ground of all educational processes, namely, linguistic and 

 mathematical training, is sufficiently provided for. They are encouraged 

 to believe that they have made no mistake by the emphatic indorsement 

 that the United States Commissioner of Education, who may in some sense 

 be regarded as an official expounder of the meaning and intent of the 

 legislation referred to, gives to their view in his recently published report. 

 * There seems," he remarks,. " to be in the popular mind a misapprehen- 

 sion of the scops of the law of 1862, providing for the establishment of 

 these institutions. At the time of the passage of the act there were in 

 America very few instrumentalities for adequate instruction in either 

 theoretical or applied science ; while in Europe the schools of science had 

 already reached a high degree of development, and were exercising a far- 

 reaching influence, not only on all the professions outside of the theologi- 

 cal and legal, and in all departments of arts and manufactures, but also 

 greatly modifying theories and methods of education in nearly all its 

 phases. The international expositions had opened the eyes of our educa- 

 tors and scientists to the inferiority of our country in almost all depart 

 ments of applied science. Our students were resorting to the European 

 schools for scientific training. Few original scientific works of authority 

 were produced, or could be produced, here from the lack of the requisite 

 opportunities for scientific culture. The country abounded in material 

 wealth ; it was poor and provincial in the sciences and arts. 1J hat tra* 

 demanded for our country teas, therefore, a class of schools combining in their 

 curriculum means for thorough education in the sciences, both theoretifal and 

 applied, and in all the elements of true modern culture. Such appears to hare 

 been the intention of the act of 1862. Its spirit was broad and liberal, 

 excluding nothing which experience had shown to be valuable in modern 

 education, while expressly providing for means of scientific instruction in 

 agriculture and the mechanic arts. 1 ' 



The Commissioner further says: "The colleges which have organized their 

 curriculum claim to have provided, for special instruction of students in agri- 

 culture and in the mechanic arts. What would constitute a liberal and prac- 

 tical education in agriculture and the mechanic arts? It would probably be 

 admitted to comprise, besides a respectable knowledge of the vernacular 

 and its literature, a knowledge of the laws of mechanics and physics ; a 

 knowledge of natural history and of geology and botany ; of experimental 



