October 15, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



499 



the great difficulty of teaching cultural and 

 vocational subjects at the same time. The 

 logical result of the policy would be that 

 of Germany, where the university is in 

 effect a collection of professional schools, 

 and the underlying general education is 

 given in the gymnasium. Such a course 

 has, indeed, been suggested, for it has been 

 proposed to transfer so far as possible to 

 the secondary schools the first two years of 

 college instruction, and to make the essen- 

 tial work of the university professional in 

 character. But that requires a far higher 

 and better type of secondary school than 

 we possess, or are likely to possess for many 

 years. Moreover, excellent as the German 

 system is for Germany, it is not wholly 

 suited to our republic, which can not, in 

 my opinion, afford to lose the substantial, 

 if intangible, benefits the nation has de- 

 rived from its colleges. Surely the college 

 can give a freedom of thought, a breadth of 

 outlook, a training for citizenship, which 

 neither the secondary nor the professional 

 school in this country can equal. 



Even persons who do not share this view 

 of a professional aim have often urged that 

 in order to save college education in the 

 conditions that confront us we must reduce 

 its length. May we not feel that the most 

 vital measure for saving the college is not 

 to shorten its duration, but to insure that 

 it shall be worth saving? Institutions are 

 rarely murdered; they meet their end by 

 suicide. They are not strangled by their 

 natural environment while vigorous; they 

 die because they have outlived their useful- 

 ness, or fail to do the work that the world 

 wants done; and we are justified in be- 

 lieving that the college of the future has a 

 great work to do for the American people. 



If, then, the college is passing through a 

 transitional period, and is not to be ab- 

 sorbed between the secondary school on the 

 one side and the professional school on the 



other, we must construct a new solidarity 

 to replace that which is gone. The task be- 

 fore us is to frame a system which, without 

 sacrificing individual variation too much, 

 or neglecting the pursuit of different schol- 

 arly interests, shall produce an intellectual 

 and social cohesion, at least among large 

 groups of students, and points of contact 

 among them all. This task is not confined 

 to any one college, although more urgent in 

 the case of those that have grown the 

 largest and have been moving most rapidly. 

 A number of colleges are feeling their way 

 toward a more definite structure, and since 

 the problem before them is in many cases 

 essentially the same, it is fortunate that 

 they are assisting one another by approach- 

 ing it from somewhat different directions. 

 What I have to say upon the subject here 

 is, therefore, intended mainly for the con- 

 ditions we are called upon to face at Har- 

 vard. 



It is worth our while to consider the 

 nature of an ideal college as an integral 

 part of our university; ideal, not in the 

 sense of something to be exactly repro- 

 duced, but of a type to which we should 

 conform as closely as circumstances will 

 permit. It would contemplate the highest 

 development of the individual student— 

 which involves the best equipment of the 

 graduate. It would contemplate also the 

 proper connection of the college with the 

 professional schools; and it would adjust 

 the relation of the students to one another. 

 Let me take up these matters briefly in 

 their order. 



The individual student ought clearly to 

 be developed so far as possible, both in his 

 strong and in his weak points, for the col- 

 lege ought to produce, not defective special- 

 ists, but men intellectually well rounded, 

 of wide sympathies and unfettered judg- 

 ment. At the same time they ought to be 

 trained to hard and accurate thought, and 



