THOUGHTS ABOUT UNIVERSITIES. 351 



good collar-and-elbow hold. I have a prodigious respect for those 

 fine big words curriculum and psychological principles, and I wel- 

 come the plan for reconstructing the curriculum on psychological 

 principles the more eagerly because it is extremely simple and not 

 hard to understand, like some psychological utterances. In fact, 

 it is so very simple and easy that it is sure of enthusiastic indorse- 

 ment by innumerable children, for this reformer's plan is neither 

 more nor less than the abolition of the pedagogue. 



" If," he says, " I was director general of education for all Amer- 

 ica " (which at the present moment he is not), " I would abolish col- 

 leges, but send American youths to travel for two years in Europe. 

 In my opinion," he says, " a father who has sons and daughters 

 of a proper age to go to college will do better by his children if 

 he sends them for two years to travel in Europe than if he sends 

 them for three years to an American or English university." 



Admirable and simple as is this plan for ascending Parnassus 

 in vestibuled trains of drawing-room cars, personally conducted by 

 Grant Allen, this psychologist seems to me to err in thinking it new, 

 for it was in high favor in England during the reign of that merry 

 monarch who was always so furious at the sight of books that his 

 queen, who loved reading, had to practice it in secret in her closet. 



Euphranor having asked, in the reign of George H, " Who are 

 these learned men that of late years have demolished the whole 

 fabric which lawgivers, philosophers, and divines have been erect- 

 ing for so many ages? Lysicles, hearing these words, smiled and 

 said he believed Euphranor had figured to himself philosophers in 

 square caps and long gowns; but, thanks to these happy times, the 

 reign of pedantry was over. Our philosophers, said he, are of a 

 different kind from those awkward students. They are the best- 

 bred men of the age, men of the world, men of pleasure, men of 

 fashion, and fine gentlemen. I will undertake a lad of fourteen 

 bred in the modern way shall make a better figure and be more con- 

 sidered in any drawing-room or assembly of polite people than one 

 at four-and-twenty who hath lain by a long time at school and col- 

 lege. He will say better things in a better manner, and be more 

 liked by good judges. I say, when a man observes and considers all 

 this, he will be apt to ascribe it to the force of truth and the merits 

 of our cause, which, had it been supported by the revenues and es- 

 tablishments of the Church and universities, you may guess what 

 a figure it would make by the figure it makes without them. Peo- 

 ple begin to open their eyes. It is not impossible but the revenues 

 that in ignorant times were applied to a wrong use may hereafter, 

 in a more enlightened age, be applied to a better." 



" The money that went to found the Leland Stanford or the 



