402 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 741 



is inattentive, I try to interest him. When 

 he is wilful, I try to get past his wilful- 

 ness as I can. I do not know what, as a 

 teacher, I accomplish. I simply try my 

 best. And I suppose that, for me, with 

 my limitations, such relatively unreflec- 

 tive efforts to do my best are most useful 

 to me as a teacher. And similarly, as 

 to the general conduct of a college, I avoid 

 theories. I attend various faculty meet- 

 ings, and have a natural and somewhat un- 

 critical fondness for the wisdom of my 

 administrative leaders and colleagues. 

 But I do not understand college admin- 

 istration, especially under modern condi- 

 tions. I have listened pretty patiently to 

 some long and learned faculty debates 

 upon the problem of college entrance ex- 

 aminations. I have never been able to 

 comprehend the subject. I prefer to re- 

 flect upon such straightforward and solid 

 problems as that of the absolute. I leave 

 such airy topics as the reform of the sec- 

 ondary schools to those who know about 

 them. There seem to be many such 

 knowing persons. I hope that together 

 they have wisdom enough to meet the 

 issues of their time. But never, by my 

 own choice, would I venture to take part 

 in the counsels of the wise regarding the 

 theory and the general conduct of what is 

 called the American college. For I know 

 that I am merely a servant of the college, 

 who can do best by holding fast to my own 

 work. Since, however, men much wiser 

 upon this topic than I am have insisted 

 upon my taking part in this debate, I offer 

 my views simply as the personal impres- 

 sions of a college teacher, who has tried 

 for years to be faithful to his calling, but 

 who has no general theories as to the col- 

 lege. I come here simply as ein Thor, 

 who, if I have any sort of insight into 

 my practical tasks as a teacher, or into 

 the value of the American college for life, 

 possess this insight merely as one who am 



perhaps a very little durch Liebe erleuch- 

 tet. I am told that testimony is desired 

 here, as well as comprehension. Upon 

 these topics my comprehension is of the 

 slightest. Let me merely offer my testi- 

 mony. 



I may begin the summary of my impres- 

 sions by relieving you of the notion that I 

 have any right to speak as a representa- 

 tive of a distinctively Harvard point of 

 view. I have tried to serve Harvard as I 

 could for more than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury. And my personal love for Harvard 

 and for my work there is indeed at the 

 heart of whatever I can say. But I am a 

 graduate of the University of California. 

 My educational prejudices were first 

 formed under the conditions of far western 

 state university life, and were later modi- 

 fied by study at the Johns Hopkins 

 University. I keep many of my early prej- 

 udices still. And they result in this im- 

 pression, viz., that some of the most 

 important problems of what your title 

 calls the American college will have to be 

 worked out under the conditions of the 

 great state universities. The senter of 

 gravity of our future American academic 

 life can not always, can not, I think, very 

 long remain east of the AUeghenies. 

 Through a perfectly natural and inevitable 

 evolution, the state universities of the 

 middle west and of the far west, sup- 

 ported as they are, and will be, by the 

 vast resources of their own communities, 

 and guided by constantly improving edu- 

 cational ideals, will within a generation or 

 two occupy a very nearly central place in 

 the academic life of our country. I do 

 not imagine that the older eastern insti- 

 tutions will fail also to advance rapidly 

 and effectively. But they will in many 

 ways need to undertake functions more 

 closely analogous than their present func- 

 tions are to those of the state universities. 

 That is, as institutions whose influence 



