368 



SCIENCE 



[N.S. Vol. XXVI. No. 664 



Amherst or a Lafayette would be a blessing 

 for the true progress of the nation, and I 

 never forget to add with enthusiastic heart 

 that a Bryn Mawr and a Wellesley and a 

 Vassar must follow. I know the time for 

 all that will come, and if not to-morrow, 

 the day after to-morrow will bring it surely. 

 And from Germany it will spread all over 

 the European continent. 



That will be at last a gift of the New 

 "World to the Old, which will return the 

 stimulation and impulse that the United 

 States received from Germany. The Ger- 

 man influence gave to America the method 

 of research, the Ph.D. work, the graduate 

 school. America will now give to Germany 

 in return the college with its broadening 

 influence and with its democratic spirit, 

 which imparts culture to all alike, within 

 and without the scholarly professions. "We 

 hear so much, and sometimes perhaps too 

 much, of the exchange of professors be- 

 tween the United States and Germany. 

 Such exchange of persons may be well. It 

 has gone on, after all, for decades, as Ger- 

 man scholars have come to this country in 

 a steady flow, and American scholars have 

 always visited German universities. But 

 more important than the exchange of men 

 is the exchange of institutions. The Ger- 

 man graduate school, once imported here, 

 has had an influence which can be felt in 

 every corner of the intellectual life of 

 America. And thus, I trust that the 

 American college, once imported to Europe, 

 will never cease in its beneficial influence 

 for the culture of the non-professional men 

 and women. In this sense I feel that I can 

 add in my congratulations, brought to one 

 of the most successful colleges of the coun- 

 try, a new dignity to the many claims of 

 the American college. Each true college 

 has been, and will be in the future, not only 

 the stimulating benefactor of its students, 

 not only the helpfi;l comrade of the other 



colleges of the land, but, at the same time, 

 an inspiring guide for the eollegeless coun- 

 tries of Europe. May Lafayette flourish 

 and grow in that threefold renown through 

 the last quarter of its first century and for 

 many generations of happy students there- 

 after. 



Hugo Munsterberg 



HAEVAED UNrVEKSITY 



THE AMERICAN COLLEGE"- 

 "When Lafayette College opened its 

 doors seventy-five years ago, Harvard Col- 

 lege had ten professors and two hundred 

 and sixteen students; Columbia College, 

 six professors and one hundred and 

 twenty-five students. Harvard was then 

 one hundred and ninety-six years old, 

 Columbia sixty-eight years old. To-day 

 Lafayette has twenty-three professors and 

 four hundred and eleven students. Should 

 Lafayette grow as Harvard and Columbia 

 have grown, then when our grandchildren 

 and great-grandchildren gather to cele- 

 brate the hundred and fiftieth anniver- 

 sary, they would find here five hundred 

 professors and ten thousand students. 

 The alumni would be invited to contribute 

 toward an additional endowment of twenty 

 million dollars. 



The days to be, even more than the 

 times of the past, are for us a book with 

 seven seals. None knows what things lie 

 on the knees of the gods; it is more than 

 we can do to re-collect what has been 

 strewn from their hands. But we at least 

 believe that the American college was an 

 important factor in the higher life of our 

 country during the nineteenth century, and 

 that the part of Lafayette, in the days of 

 its adversity and in the days of its pros- 

 perity, has been no mean one. 



The citizens of Easton who met at 



^ Address at the celebration of the seventy-fifth 

 anniversary of the founding of Lafayette College. 



