40 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 654 



the professors and pay the term bills. 

 And the western people say that their way 

 is best; that every one must have his 

 chance ; that at least his chance is not to be 

 taken away upon a false premise ; that if he 

 "flunks out" after having had his chance 

 it is his fault and no one is going to worry 

 abo^^t it; and that it is better to regard 

 the graduation standards and apply them 

 to four years' work that the faculty must 

 knoAV all about than to make a fetish of 

 entrance requirements and have so much 

 ado about prior work— about which they 

 can know very little at the best. It is all 

 worth thinking about. I am not a west- 

 erner: I am thoroughly a New Yorker. 

 But I am for the open, the continuous 

 and the smooth road from the primary 

 school to the university, and for every one 

 having his chance without any likelihood 

 of his losing it upon a misunderstanding 

 or a hazard. 



The large and strong universities will 

 not only wax larger and stronger, but they 

 will multiply in number. Because there 

 will be so many of them, no one of them 

 will serve so widely scattered a constituency 

 as heretofore. Women axe going to have 

 the same rights as men to the higher 

 learning. Boys will not always go to a 

 university because their grandfathers went 

 there. The time will come, while members 

 of this graduating class are yet in middle 

 life, when every large and vigorous city 

 and the territory naturally tributary there- 

 to will have a great university, able not 

 only to satisfy its needs of the culturing 

 studies but also its demands for profes- 

 sional and business upbuilding. 



What is to become of the literary col- 

 leges ? They are to flourish so long as, and 

 wherever, they can provide the best instruc- 

 tion in the humanities, and do not assume 

 names which they have no right to wear, 

 and do not attempt to do work which they 



can only do indifferently. They will train 

 for culture and they will prepare for the 

 professional work as of yore. And wher- 

 ever one does this well and is content to do 

 so, it is to have every sympathy and sup- 

 port which an appreciative public can give. 

 But no institutions, of whatever name or 

 grade, are going to fool all the people for 

 a great while, and the young men and 

 women of America are going to have the 

 best training that the world can give, and 

 have it not a thousand miles from home. 

 It is no longer necessary to cross the sea 

 in order to get it, and even our own older 

 universities are close upon the time when 

 their work must be reinforced from the 

 newer ones, more than the newer ones from 

 the older ones. 



Obviously, the American university, as 

 no other university in the world, must re- 

 gard the life, and especially the employ- 

 ments, of the people. It must exhibit 

 catholicity of spirit; it must tolerate all 

 creeds; it must inspire all schools; it must 

 guard all the professions, and it must strive 

 to aid all the industries. It must quicken 

 civic feeling in a system where all depends 

 upon the rule of the people. It must stand 

 for work, for work of hand as well as of 

 head, where all toil is alike honorable and 

 all worth is cornered upon respect for it. 



In a word, our immigration is making a 

 nation of a wholly new order; our democ- 

 racy is developing a new kind of civiliza- 

 tion; our system of common schools, pri- 

 mary and secondary, has brought forth a 

 type of advanced schools peculiar to the 

 country. Institutions that would prosper 

 may better recognize the fact. The uni- 

 versities that would thrive must put away 

 all exelusiveness and dedicate themselves 

 to universal public service. They must not 

 try to keep people out: they mvist help all 

 who are worthy to get in. It is not neces- 

 sary that all of these institutions shall 



