800 
much or little ‘attention to his students as 
he may choose. The rector is elected annu- 
ally by the professors. The curator, the 
representative of the government, the effi- 
cient man who runs things, is nowhere 
regarded as the intellectual or social equal 
of the professors. 
All this might be supposed to lead to 
abuses; but the result is there to be seen 
by every one—the great scholars and men 
of science; the contribution to national 
progress and the civilization of the world. 
No efficient machine driven by the presi- 
dent of an American university can grind 
out such flour. I fear that the German 
university can not continue its great per- 
formance of the nineteenth century. This 
was doubtless more the result than the 
eause of the idealism of the people, now 
threatened with submergence under wealth 
and luxury. The modern German univer- 
sity must have its fine buildings, must grow 
greatly in size. This is inevitable, perhaps 
desirable. Laboratories, libraries and col- 
lections are required on a scale not for- 
merly imagined; there is danger, perhaps 
need, of more administrative machinery, 
and the more machinery you have, the more 
you must get. It seems that the professors 
now tend to form a bureaucratic guild, too 
greatly concerned with their own financial 
status, and too little with the welfare of the 
docents and associate professors, of the 
students and of the people. The Prussian 
ministry is interfering more than formerly 
in the selection of professors and the man- 
agement of things. The German emperor, 
it is said, wants presidents in the American 
style—we could spare him at least one for 
each of the twenty-one German universities. 
It seems remarkable that in the bureau- 
eratic little states which have since become 
the German empire, the universities should 
have been centers of liberal scholarship and 
free personalities. But it is perhaps gen- 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 908 
erally the case that the finest exhibitions of 
the love of liberty and honor are made 
under persecution or where there are con- 
trasted conditions. It is really quite diffi- 
cult and discouraging to play the part of 
an academic hero or martyr now-a-days. 
One can do it better in Russia than in the 
United States. Thus a hundred professors 
at Moscow have recently resigned owing to 
some interference of the government with 
the liberty of the professors. In that coun- 
try students and professors strike, and the 
government institutes lockouts. They take 
their liberties seriously, and the professors 
maintain their right to choose their eol- 
leagues and their deans and rectors. 
The historic English universities, Ox- 
ford and Cambridge, have been primarily 
groups of independent colleges. The mas- 
ter and fellows are the college; they own the 
buildings and endowment and divide the 
income among themselves. They elect their 
colleagues and successors and of course 
their head. The headship is an honorary 
and social position with but few executive 
powers or duties. Government is by town 
meeting and committee. There have been 
abuses of the monastic system, and perhaps 
even now too much time is spent on details 
of management. But high standards of 
scholarship and conduct have on the whole 
been maintained. Erom among their resi- 
dent fellows and from their students great 
men have been forthcoming in every line of 
activity. Probably half the leaders of 
England in statesmanship, scholarship, sci- 
ence, poetry, have come from its two uni- 
versities, having together no more students 
than one of our larger institutions; and 
England has produced more great men 
than any other nation. 
The universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, as distinguished from their colleges, 
have long had a few endowed professor- 
ships and conducted libraries, but until 
