774 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 572. 



nevertheless a sense of duty towards the 

 students in respect to the formation of char- 

 acter may be said to be characteristic of all 

 the American faculties ; and in this respect 

 they all differ widely from similar bodies 

 in Europe. The German professor, or the 

 French professor, desires to impart to his 

 students instruction and inspiration. He 

 wishes to command their respect, rouse 

 their ambition, and open their minds; but 

 he seldom feels much responsibility for the 

 conduct of university students. The old 

 English universities inherited some mon- 

 astic habits and a purpose to control the 

 conduct of their students by physical 

 means, such as requiring their habitual 

 presence in chapel and dining hall at fixed 

 hours, and the regular occupation of their 

 chambers at night behind bars and gates; 

 and to this day college buildings at Oxford 

 and Cambridge are constructed with refer- 

 ence to these survivals of an antiquated 

 discipline. The American college professor 

 or instructor, in whatever part of the 

 country he works, feels his responsibilities, 

 but of course has none of the archaic Eng- 

 lish means and methods of exercising a 

 physical control over his students. He 

 trusts to example, to good traditions, and 

 to that exhortation or guidance which rules 

 supply, even when it is notorious that they 

 can not be uniformly enforced. The fac- 

 ulty is generally reenforced in the exercise 

 of their moral control by the public opinion 

 of the alumni and by the esprit de corps of 

 the students ; but these supports are rather 

 influences than forces. Hence the great 

 importance in all the institutions of higher 

 education, where large numbers of students 

 congregate, of the transmissible spirit of 

 the place, or the body of traditions handed 

 down year by year from the older to the 

 younger students. This spirit of the place 

 is a compound of transmitted sentiments, 

 manners and customs. There are numerous 

 varieties of it ; and yet the resemblances be- 



tween the spirits, tempers or atmospheres 

 of different institutions greatly exceed the 

 differences. The sentiments nourished at 

 all the American seats of learning are par- 

 tially indicated by the few words which 

 find place as mottoes on their seals, such as 

 truth, light, learning, knoMdedge and train- 

 ing, labor, the people's safety and freedom 

 through the truth. Baccalaureate and 

 commencement addresses of exhortation, 

 congratulation and hope are astonishingly 

 alike at all the colleges and universities, for 

 the reason that the institutions cherish the 

 same aspirations and ideals. They are all 

 ardent believers in the possibility of in- 

 creasing human efficiency and happiness. 

 When they study evils and abuses, it is in 

 hope of discovering remedies or preven- 

 tives. When they give much attention, as 

 most of them have lately done, to studies in 

 history, economics and government, they are 

 looking for guidance to feasible reform and 

 sound progress. The same altruistic spirit 

 actuates them all. 



The sense of responsibility for the eon- 

 duct of the students and for the reputation 

 of the university leads naturally to the de- 

 votion of an appreciable proportion of an 

 American professor's time to matters of ad- 

 ministration. The growing authority of 

 the department as an organization has a 

 similar tendency. The group of teachers 

 that constitute a department are naturally 

 ambitious to promote the study of their 

 subject, to increase the amount of instruc- 

 tion offered by it, to improve the quality 

 of that instruction, and to win for their 

 department the increasing respect of the 

 faculty and the students. They are always 

 conferring with each other and with the 

 older students for the promotion of these 

 ends; and an appreciable proportion of 

 their working time is spent in these admin- 

 istrative ways. The general welfare of 

 the institution and its position among the 

 neighboring or kindred institutions are sub- 



