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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 772 



his studies. He has become submerged, 

 and has a hard, perhaps unsuccessful, 

 struggle to get his head above water. Of 

 late years we have improved the diligence 

 of freshmen by frequent tests; but this 

 alone is not enough. In his luminous Phi 

 Beta Kappa oration, delivered here three 

 months ago, President Wilson dwelt upon 

 the chasm that has opened between college 

 studies and college life. The instructors 

 believe that the object of the college is 

 study, many students fancy that it is 

 mainly enjoyment, and the confusion of 

 aims breeds irretrievable waste of oppor- 

 tunity. The undergraduate should be led 

 to feel from the moment of his arrival that 

 college life is a serious and many-sided 

 thing, whereof mental discipline is a vital 

 part. 



It would seem that all these difficulties 

 could be much lessened if the freshmen 

 were brought together in a group of dormi- 

 tories and dining halls, under the comrade- 

 ship of older men, who appreciated the 

 possibilities of college life, and took a keen 

 interest in their work and their pleasures. 

 Such a plan would enable us also to recruit 

 our students younger, for the present age 

 of entrance here appears to be due less to 

 the difficulty of preparing for the examina- 

 tion earlier, than to the nature of the life 

 the freshman leads. Complaints of the age 

 of graduation cause a pressure to reduce 

 the length of the college course, and with it 

 the standard of the college degree. There 

 would seem to be no intrinsic reason that 

 our school boys should be more backward 

 than those of other civilized countries, any 

 more than that our undergraduates should 

 esteem excellence in scholarship less highly 

 than do the men in English universities. 



The last point is one that requires a word 

 of comment, because it touches the most 

 painful defect in the American college at 

 the present time. President Pritchett has 

 declared that " it is a serious indictment of 



the standards of any organization when the 

 conditions within it are such that success 

 in the things for which the organization 

 stands no longer appeal effectively to the 

 imaginations of those in it. ' ' We may add 

 that, even in these days, indictment is 

 sometimes followed by sentence and execu- 

 tion. No one will deny that in our colleges 

 high scholarship is little admired now, 

 either by the undergraduates or by the 

 public. We do not make our students en- 

 joy the sense of power that flows from 

 mastery of a difficult subject, and on a 

 higher plane we do not make them feel the 

 romance of scholarly exploration. Every 

 one follows the travels of a Columbus or a 

 Livingston with a keen delight which re- 

 searches in chemistry or biology rarely stir. 

 The mass of mankind can, no doubt, com- 

 prehend more readily geographical than 

 scientific discovery, but for the explorer 

 himself it would be pitiful if the joy of 

 the search depended on the number of spec- 

 tators, rather than on zeal in his quest. 



America has not yet contributed her 

 share to scholarly creation, and the fault 

 lies in part at the doors of our universities. 

 They do not strive enough in the impres- 

 sionable years of early manhood to stim- 

 ulate intellectual appetite and ambition; 

 nor do they foster productive scholarship 

 enough among those members of their staffs 

 who are capable thereof. Too often a pro- 

 fessor of original power explains to docile 

 pupils the process of mining intellectual 

 gold, without seeking nuggets himself, or 

 when found showing them to mankind. 

 Productive scholarship is the shyest of all 

 flowers. It cometh not with observation, 

 and may not bloom even under the most 

 careful nurture. American universities 

 must do their utmost to cultivate it; by 

 planting the best seed, letting the sim shine 

 upon it, and taking care that in our land 

 of rank growth it is not choked by the 

 thorns of administrative routine. 



