612 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 568. 



state entomologist's office and the state 

 water survey. 



Such is the university now. What is 

 to be its future? At the risk of incurring 

 the fate of a prophet I will undertake to 

 forecast the future of this institution to a 

 limited extent; and I do it with more 

 confidence because the history of other 

 state institutions has already indicated 

 some of the things in store for us— institu- 

 tions in whose footsteps we are sure to fol- 

 low, and if at first longo intervallo yet 

 with increasing determination to press 

 them ever harder in all those things which 

 pertain to a true university. 



I take it first of all, then, that this insti- 

 tution is to be and to become in an ever 

 truer sense, a university. That, I pre- 

 sume, has been settled once for all by the 

 people of this state. It was settled, even 

 though unconsciously, when the word 'in- 

 dustrial' was stricken out of the title, leav- 

 ing it simply 'The University of Illinois'— 

 by no means the first time that the sub- 

 traction of a word from an expression has 

 indicated an addition to the meaning. 



It has been settled anew at each succes- 

 sive session of the legislature, as by one in- 

 crease after another in the appropriations 

 the representatives of the people in the 

 general assembly have set the seal of their 

 approval on the large and wise policy of 

 the trustees. 



It has been settled by the ever-increasing 

 purpose of the great mass of the people of 

 this state, the plain people of the farm and 

 the mill, of the country, the village and 

 the city, to build here a monument which 

 will be to them and their children an honor 

 and a glory forever, an evidence which all 

 the world can see and understand, of their 

 corporate appreciation of the things of the 

 spirit. 



What then is a university— that which 

 this institution is to be and become'? 



Men of different nations and different 

 times would give different answers to this 

 question. Nay, men of the same nation 

 and of the same time would give different 

 ansAvers. In fact so different would be 

 the answer given by different men in the 

 United States at the present time to this 

 question, that one might well wonder 

 whether there is any common agreement 

 as to what a university, really is. 



I must, therefore, answer this question 

 for myself, for this time, and this place, 

 and this institution without, however, re- 

 flecting in any way upon what other insti- 

 tutions bearing this name are or may be- 

 come. I believe that the system of institu- 

 tions which shall satisfy the educational 

 demands of a nation like this must embrace 

 higher institutions — universities if you 

 will — of many different types. In sketch- 

 ing out the future of the University of 

 Illinois, therefore, I do so with due regard 

 to the fact that we have in this state im- 

 portant and valuable institutions of an 

 entirely different type whose work the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois will thus supplement and 

 complete. 



I should define a university briefly as 

 that institution of the community which 

 affords the ultimate institutional training 

 of the youth of the country for all the 

 various callings for which an extensive sci- 

 entific training, based upon adequate lib- 

 eral preparation, is valuable and necessary. 

 You will note the elements in this defini- 

 tion. By virtue of the function thus as- 

 signed to it, it is in a certain sense the 

 highest educational institution of the com- 

 munity. It is the institution which fur- 

 nishes a special, professional, technical 

 training for some particular calling. This 

 special, technical, professional training 

 must, however, be scientific in character, 

 and must be based upon adequate prelim- 

 inary preparation of a liberal sort. 



