SECRETARY'S REPORT. 45 



more commonly regarded as the learned pursuits and profes- 

 sions would run down and utterly depreciate unless there was 

 a standard higher than that which is observed and cultivated by 

 those who, for convenience' sake, we will call the practical men ; 

 and all practical men, so called, are in danger of committing 

 this error, of regarding the standard of the practical man as the 

 standard of ideal excellence. My notion is, that an institution, 

 grand and generous, intended to be lasting, both in its own 

 history and in its bearings and ultimate effect, should have in 

 itself the capacity of presenting an ideal standard, not merely a 

 practical one. If it does not present something a great deal 

 better and higher than the best farmer in Massachusetts can 

 realize and actualize in his annual experimentation on his own 

 farm, it then falls far below its own proper standard. 



Now, the university or college where young men arc taught in 

 those studies which are preliminary to those in whicli they 

 engage with a view to the procurement of a particular profes- 

 sion, must have a staff of professors, it must have a laboratory, 

 it must have a library, it must have those means and appliances 

 of teaching and culture which are very far beyond those pos- 

 sessed by any one of the individual gentlemen who are its 

 patrons and supporters, and very far beyond those wliich will 

 be the private possession of any of its best pupils afterwards, or 

 else it will fall very far below the proper standard of such an 

 institution. Unless a theological school possess a library more 

 extended, more various, more rich and fertile than the private 

 library of the country clergyman, or of the most favored and 

 wealtliy clergyman of the community, it Avill turn out very 

 poorly instructed men in the domain of theological science and 

 learning. Unless the law school possesses much more ample 

 resources in respect of the particular branches of study which 

 it is necessary a young man should be taught, than are pos- 

 sessed by the mass, or even by the most favored individuals of 

 the profession in Massachusetts, you will have but a very inade- 

 quate representative of what the poorest and humblest lawyer 

 would regard as an adequate and appropriate law school of 

 Massachusetts. So, too, if you please, take the apothecary, or 

 the most learned, skilful, studious, and scientific physician, 

 engineer, mechanician, or cultivator of any of the specific 

 branches of applied science in the community, — any such person, 



