688 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 409. 



The presence of the professors of technical 

 subjects in a facultj' where all other sub- 

 jects of college and university instruction 

 are represented has proved to be a health- 

 ful and inspiring influence. Contact with 

 the culture side of education has in its 

 turn reacted upon the technical instructors 

 and thus the way is paved for a mutual 

 action and reaction of these two great 

 forces in education much to the benefit of 

 both and to the lasting improvement in 

 spirit and method of every grade of Ameri- 

 can education. I am aware that some 

 acute critics of American education have 

 lamented this very fact. But it seems to 

 me that their view of education is erro- 

 neous. It is not necessary, as has been well 

 said, by one of our great scholars, that 

 every man in the community should study 

 Latin and Greek for ten or twelve years; 

 it is not necessary that every man should 

 have an adequate conception of Greek and 

 Eoman civilization. It is very necessary, 

 however, to national welfare that some 

 members of oiir society should give time 

 and attention to these things; that some 

 scholars should give strength and power to 

 the mastery of this ancient civilization and 

 thiis interpret for our day and generation 

 the imperishable experiences of Greece and 

 Rome, live over for us their history and be 

 able to rewrite and reinterpret it for us 

 all. 



Now there has never been a time in this 

 country when the facilities for the study of 

 the humanities have been greater, or the 

 ardor in their pursuit more intense than 

 to-day. Never has the study itself been 

 more practical and useful than at present. 

 And it seems to me apparent that the very 

 emphasis which pure and applied science 

 has received in our modern educational sys- 

 tem by the union of technical school and 

 university has made its contribution to the 

 revolution in the study of the humanities 



which has marked the last generation . in 

 this country. Technical students leave our 

 universities defenders of the importance of 

 the study of the humanities— a justification 

 in itself of the union of the poh'technicum 

 and the university. 



As a result of all these things and many 

 more which time does not permit me to 

 discuss I believe that the American system 

 of higher education is nearer to the people, 

 commands more completely their sympathy, 

 is better understood by them and conse- 

 quently more admired and loved than ever 

 before. 



The general public is far more interested 

 in everything relating to our colleges and 

 universities; our newspapers give more 

 space to chronicling the events in the 

 academic world, take a livelier interest in 

 the discussion of college and university pol- 

 icy than ever before. All these things 

 point to the firm hold which this depart- 

 ment of education has taken of the average 

 man, developing in him an interest in and 

 affection for our higher institutions which 

 argues well for their future. 



And this has come about among other 

 things because we have secured the coopera- 

 tion of state, church and private initiative, 

 thus bringing in all classes of the commu- 

 nity; because we have secured a close con- 

 tact with the community in our very 

 scheme of organization because our institu- 

 tions have conceived it to be a. part of their 

 duty to beget by conscious activity an inter- 

 est in the great public for their work; be- 

 cause we have cared for the education of 

 women and thus enlisted the support of an 

 enormously large and ever more important 

 element of our societj^; and because we 

 have emphasized the great departments of 

 applied science in our scheme of higher 

 education as well as the traditional training 

 for the learned professions. 



I cannot let such an occasion as this pass 



