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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 792 



truth to his inventions or exaggerations, 

 and the nature fakir whose literary skill is 

 his sole qualification. This interpretation 

 of knowledge is no easy matter. Compila- 

 tion will not do, for the interpreter must 

 repeat observations and experiments far 

 enough to give him a personal and familiar 

 grasp of the materials. Nor even is a first- 

 hand knowledge of the materials enough; 

 he must also be able to set them forth in 

 exposition with a combination of pedagog- 

 ical clearness and literary force. So little 

 developed is the interpretation of knowl- 

 edge in comparison with its acquisition that 

 although we have many strong journals 

 devoted to research we have almost none 

 devoted to interpretation and exposition. 

 We have two or thi'ee popular journals, 

 carried on by the devotion of loyal individ- 

 uals, but with all the conditions for success 

 against them. A suitable journal for the 

 collation, interpretation and diffusion of 

 botanical knowledge can only be conducted 

 by an institution whose credit is involved 

 in its permanence and efficiency. It should 

 be marked by dignified form, artistic dress, 

 and literary grace, with departments cover- 

 ing so completely their fields that no person 

 with a serious interest in the science can 

 possibly afford, and much less be willing, 

 to be without it. Such a journal must of 

 course be heavily subsidized, or endowed, 

 especially at first ; but there is not at pres- 

 ent any place in the educational structure 

 where an endowment would tell so heavily. 

 It would be Avorth more to education than 

 the endowment of any professorship that 

 I can think of, even a professorship of bo- 

 tanical education in my own college. Such a 

 journal should issue from a college, not a 

 university. I would like to edit it, and I 

 have the plans worked out in complete 

 detail; but I shall not undertake it unless 

 the business fovmdation can first be made 

 secure. 



Not only does the training of interpreters 

 of nature, and of other knowledge as well, 

 whether as teachers, as writers, through the 

 editing of suitable journals, or other activi- 

 ties, seem wholly appropriate to a college, 

 but I think it would offer the colleges them- 

 selves a mission which would react grandly 

 on their general efficiency. There is an 

 agreement that the first function of the 

 college is the ti'aining of young people in 

 the qualities which go to make more effect- 

 ive members of organized human society. 

 But there is also a general feeling that 

 somehow this is not by itself quite suflS- 

 cient, for while it offers a worthy and 

 amply difficult educational service, it does 

 not provide a sufficiently-absorbing intel- 

 lectual interest. Our colleges require, for 

 the maintenance of high intellectual tone, 

 both of students and of teachers, some more 

 vigorous intellectual resistance than under- 

 graduates alone can offer. It is in response 

 to this feeling that some colleges have 

 established graduate work, but in all cases, 

 so far as I know, of the investigation or 

 university type. For such work, however, 

 our students should be sent to a university, 

 which can provide far better than any col- 

 lege the facilities, companionship and at- 

 mosphere essential to its successful pursuit. 

 To encourage young people, who are never 

 well informed upon these matters and who 

 do not understand the differences between 

 institutions, to come to a college for work 

 of the univei*sity type, is little better than 

 attracting them under false pretenses. It 

 would be much better for our educational 

 system if the colleges would do no graduate 

 work at all, unless they can offer something 

 which they can do better than the univer- 

 sity. In the training of their own and 

 high-school teachers, and other interpreters 

 of knowledge, they have, from the very 

 nature of their activities and the presence 

 right at hand of the best of all practise 



