452 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



goes out from the school should still, at least, have been intro- 

 duced to these methods of studying Nature, in order to obtain a 

 proper faculty of observation. 



This enumeration of what belongs to a good preparation has 

 been carried out to a considerable length, not because so many 

 subjects have to be brought forward, but because in the present 

 stage of the discussion of the relation of the university to the 

 preparatory schools, the question of the measure of preparation 

 that should be required for university instruction occupies the 

 first place. In order to avoid mistakes, it may be added that to 

 one who would limit himself to the study of his specialty, much 

 of what has been named above may appear superfluous. But if 

 the purpose was merely to secure a professional training, the uni- 

 versities would be superfluous. Then we might establish, as in 

 France, separate ecoles, or as in England, special colleges, or as in 

 the Roman Catholic Church, isolated convents. If we regard the 

 university, as is our pride, to be more than an auxiliary to the 

 professional schools, we must also demand an effective interwork- 

 ing of the faculties, a general scientific course by the side of the 

 professional course. If this, to our great regret, does not exist to 

 the extent it ought and might, the blame for it lies in that want 

 of preparation which I have tried to sketch, and the remedy for 

 which I expect to follow a more exact exposition of the actual 

 conditions. 



So long as this help is not found there will be nothing left but 

 to take up in the universities much more elementary or, at least, 

 preparatory teaching, which burdens and degrades the instruction, 

 and which, though sufficient in a very few cases, fails to supply 

 the defects of preparation. The university professor has the less 

 time for such teaching, because the university is not merely an 

 institution for learning, but also for investigation. It is that 

 likewise in a double sense : first, because our nation is accustomed 

 to see scientific investigators in the university professors ; and, 

 secondly, because the state and science expect us to train at least 

 a certain portion of the students to be investigators. In this 

 sense we call the attendants as well as the institutions of the uni- 

 versity academical. 



The ancient name of the academy, which has received from 

 Plato the meaning of a school working for the highest objects of 

 mental exertion, has been applied since the times of the Medici to 

 designate, as against the professional schools and the teaching 

 schools, unions of prominent thinkers and investigators for co- 

 operative work. From them have proceeded the academies of 

 sciences. A more recent age has produced besides these all pos- 

 sible sorts of academies which do not concern us here. The contin- 

 uous investigation of scientific problems is the appointed chief 



