THOUGHTS ABOUT UNIVERSITIES. 353 



very handsome woman, Aliz is she named, a queen is she crowned, 

 Queen she is of England, may her soul never have trouble! In 

 Hebrew in truth Aliz means praise of God. I will compose a book, 

 may God be with the commencement! " 



As a sample of the zoological curriculum of the twelfth century 

 take this chapter: 



" Onager by right is named the wild ass; of it the Physiologus 

 says, in his speech, when March in his course has completed twenty- 

 five days, then that day of the month he brays twelve times, and 

 also in the night for this reason, that that season is the equinox, that 

 is that night and day are of equal length; by the twelve times that 

 it makes its braying and its crying, it shows that night and day have 

 twelve hours in their circuit. The ass is grieved when he makes 

 his cry, that the night and day have equal length; he likes better 

 the length of the night than of the day. Now hear without doubt 

 the signification of this. Onager signifies the devil in this life ; and 

 by March we understand all the time that we have; by the day we 

 understand good people, by right, who will go in light; and by 

 night we understand those who were Neros; and by hours we un- 

 derstand the number of people. And when the devil perceives that 

 his people decrease, as do the hours which are in the night, after 

 the vernal equinox which we have in March, then he begins to cry, 

 to deplore greatly, as the ass does which brays and crys." 



One need not go back to the middle ages for a measure of prog- 

 ress, for all who remember the American college of thirty years 

 ago know there has been notable improvement in this short time, 

 and they also know that every change has not been an improvement. 

 All who are concerned with education see many defects, and wish 

 to do what they can to remedy them, and to increase the efficiency 

 and usefulness of our whole educational system in all its branches 

 from the lowest to the highest, although I believe they still find 

 much wisdom in the advice of the prophet of old, " that we make a 

 stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us and discover 

 what is the straight and right way, and so walk in it." 



Many who are now before the public as reformers seem to me 

 to fall into error through belief that our educational system has 

 been devised by some one, either in the twelfth century or at some 

 other time, and that they may therefore hope to devise a better. 

 All who know that it is a highly complex and delicate organism 

 which has grown up imperceptibly and naturally in accordance with 

 many needs, fulfilling many different purposes and acting in many 

 diversified and far-reaching ways, know also that while reform al- 

 ways has been and always will be needed, organic change is quite 

 another matter. They know, too, that a disposition to pull it to 



VOL. LV. 27 



