326 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XV. No. 374. 



lips, Almighty God, the Father everlast- 

 ing. 



Another danger, thirty years ago, was 

 that of conflict between the advocates of 

 classical and scientific study. For many 

 centuries Greek and Latin were supreme in 

 the faculty of liberal arts, enforced and 

 strengthened by metaphysics and mathe- 

 matics. During the last half century, 

 physical and natural sciences have claimed 

 an equal rank. The promotion has not been 

 yielded without a struggle, but it is pleas- 

 ant to remember that in this place, no con- 

 flict has arisen. Among us, one degree, 

 that of Bachelor of Arts, is given alike to 

 the students of the Humanities and the 

 students of Nature and the degree of Doc- 

 tor of Philosophy may be won by advanced 

 work in the most remote languages of the 

 past or in the most recent developments of 

 biology and physics. Two illustrious teach- 

 ers were the oldest members of the original 

 faculty; — one of them universally recog- 

 nized as among the foremost geometricians 

 of the world, — the other, renowmed for his 

 acquaintance with the masters of thought 

 in many tongues, and especially for his ap- 

 preciation of the writers of ancient Greece, 

 upon whose example all modern literature 

 is based. 



Our fathers spoke of ' Church and 

 State,' and we but repeat their ideas when 

 we say that universities are the promoters 

 of pure religion and wise government. 

 This university has not been identified with 

 political partisanship,— though, its mem- 

 bers, like all patriots, have held and ex- 

 pressed their opinions upon current ques- 

 tions, local and national. Never have the 

 political views of any teacher helped or 

 hindered his preferment; nor have I any 

 idea what would be the result of the party 

 classification of our staff. This, however, 

 may be claimed. The study of politics, in 

 the sense of Freeman, ' History is past 

 politics, and politics present history,' has 



been diligently promoted. The principles 

 of Roman law, international arbitration, 

 jurisprudence, economies, and institutional 

 liistory have here been set forth and in- 

 culcated,— so that in every part of the 

 land, we can point to our graduates as the 

 wise interpreters of political history, the 

 strong promoters of democratic institu- 

 tions, the firm believers in the merit system 

 of appointments, and in local self-govern- 

 ment. 



A phrase which has lately been in vogue 

 is original research. Like all other new 

 terms, it is often misapplied, often mis- 

 understood. It may be the highest occu- 

 pation of the human mind. It may be the 

 most insignificant. A few words may 

 therefore be requisite to explain our ac- 

 ceptance of this word. When this univer- 

 sity began, it was a common complaint, 

 still uttered in many places, that the ablest 

 teachers were absorbed in routine and were 

 forced to spend their strength in the disci- 

 pline of tyros, so that they had no time for 

 carrying forward their studies or for add- 

 ing to human knowledge. Here the posi- 

 tion was taken at the outset that the chief 

 professors should have ample time to carry 

 on the higher work for which they had 

 shown themselves qualified, and also that 

 younger men, as they have evidence of un- 

 common qualities, should likewise be en- 

 couraged to devote themselves to study. 

 Even those who were candidates for de- 

 grees were taught what was meant by 

 profitable investigation. They were shown 

 how to discover the limits of the known; 

 how to extend, even by minute accretions, 

 the realm of knowledge; how to cooperate 

 with other men in the prosecution of en- 

 quiry; and how to record in exact lan- 

 guage, and on the printed page, the results 

 attained. Investigation has thus been 

 among us the duty of every leading pro- 

 fessor, and he has been the guide and in- 

 spirer of fellows and pupils, whose work 



