Apbil 6, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



out the other is like bread without salt, and 

 both are necessary to a wholesome intel- 

 lectual diet. The heart-searchings and 

 modesty of the great souls in science are 

 unknown to the world. The leaders need 

 interpreters. The cocksureness of science 

 is its danger; to be cocksure of different 

 things at such short intervals does not in- 

 spire confidence in the conclusions, which 

 have to be adjusted accordingly. It is the 

 admixture of scientific research and the 

 historical sciences— philosophy, philology 

 and politics— that will produce the type of 

 a.ssurance which properly characterizes the 

 university spirit. Here stands either a 

 pharos or a wrecker's beacon; do we cast 

 athwart the storm a broad beam of firm- 

 ness in maintaining- tried and tested ex- 

 pedients of life; or does a sputtering arc- 

 light of novelty gather the moths and gnats 

 to wonder and stare and perish ? 



' Aurum accepisti,' said Vincent of Le- 

 rino, 'aurum redde.' Ages ago the stand- 

 ard yardstick was deposited in the Tower 

 of London. It is, if you like, a clumsy, 

 arbitrary standard; but it has kept order 

 in the affairs of millions, generation after 

 generation. Its value is in its perma- 

 nence: fixed, true and immutable, though 

 imperfect as other mundane things are, it 

 has been an invaluable guide and has not 

 been superseded, because nothing better has 

 been found for homely daily use. So with 

 the value of other standards and measures ; 

 their value is partly in their accuracy, but 

 far more in their homely honesty, their 

 maintenance of an intelligible and familiar 

 standard. Some may desire for excellent 

 reasons to substitute the meter for the 

 yard, but no one has suggested that the 

 yard be called a meter or the meter a yard. 

 If the public desires one and rejects the 

 other, very well; but it will have no jug- 

 gling with the name. 



Like other living organisms, Columbia 

 needs new resources every day and hour. 



She was richly endowed for certain definite 

 purposes by the founders; the deposit she 

 received from them of learning, of morality 

 and of religion, she must guard as talents 

 entrusted to her by her master; and, like 

 the faithful servant, she must win there- 

 with other five. In the painstaking per- 

 formance of this duty she has appeared to 

 the thoughtless quidnuncs to be a very 

 weather-cock of public fickleness, sensitive 

 to public clamor in the never-ceasing adap- 

 tation of her course of study to public 

 demands, a sort of department store of 

 knowledge, with wares for every customer. 

 It is estimated that even now by the doc- 

 trine of permutations and commutations 

 and probabilities, we should be compelled 

 to take fifteen thousand bachelors of art in 

 order to find two who had done the same 

 work for that degree. 



Many wonder whether we do not respond 

 too easily to the zephyrs of novelty blown 

 every hour from off the Mars Hill of edu- 

 cation in the American Athens. The idea 

 is baseless. It is but fair to ourselves and 

 our great community to announce from the 

 housetop that, after three years of stock- 

 taking and careful analysis of all the re- 

 sults of our experiments, we have reached 

 a decision as to the meaning and nature of 

 our degrees which shows us still fixed on 

 the rock of our inheritance, accepting the 

 old responsibilities as well as the new and 

 performing the duties they entail. In this 

 we want, as we believe we have, the en- 

 thusiastic support of all intelligent New 

 Yorkers. Our society is not asking for 

 revolutions or devolutions, but demands 

 just such a trained leadership, bold and 

 steady, loyal to tradition and history. The • 

 latest arrival among us is proud of the 

 city 's past and eager to catch its spirit. 



And tolerance! "What does this mean 

 and how are we to exercise it? Does a 

 tolerant spirit mean an indifferent one? 

 Specialization and devotion mark the great 



