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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. i 



scholar of tried worth and reputation— one 

 who in another country would be an homme 

 arrive, with a secure living— should still 

 find the very wherewithal of his sustenance, 

 and the appraisal of his rank meted out to 

 him by the uncertain esteem of one or two 

 of his colleagues— for such the president 

 and dean are— placed in a position of au- 

 thority by reason of qualities unrelated to 

 any such Jupiterian function. His help- 

 lessness in a situation for which inadequate 

 administration or administrative autocracy 

 has left no place for remedy, hardly even 

 for protest, may well invite despair. 



The disastrous consequences of this un- 

 fortunate situation appear most notably in 

 the discordant notes that break into what 

 remains of the cherished harmony of the 

 academic spirit; and it appears in the loss 

 of appeal of the academic career to those 

 best fitted by endowments and interest to 

 enter its ranks. The drift within the uni- 

 versity is toAvards winning those marks of 

 success upon which administrative domi- 

 nance sets greatest store. Colleges engage 

 in what the press is pleased to call a 

 friendly rivalry to secure the largest crop 

 of freshmen; and undue influences are set 

 at work upon departments and professors 

 to attract large classes. Facilitation of ad- 

 ministrative measures and some practical 

 executive efficiency are more apt to meet 

 with tangible rewards than are more 

 academic talents. It takes a sturdy de- 

 termination, a sterling character and a 

 large measure of actual sacrifice to with- 

 stand this manifold pressure. Those who 

 resist it least, or are least sensitive to any- 

 thing to be resisted, are likely to find 

 themselves in the more prominent places; 

 and so the unfortunate emphasis gathers 

 strength by its own headway. The spirit 

 of academic intercourse, the influence of in- 

 dividual character, the stamp of the domi- 

 nant occupation, subtly yet inevitably lose 

 their finer qualities. There comes to be 



developed a type of academician {sit venia 

 verio) who pursues his career in a decid- 

 edly 'business' frame of mind. At the 

 worst, he degenerates into a professorial 

 commis, keen for the main chance, ready to 

 advertise his wares and advance his trade, 

 eager for new markets, a devotee to sta- 

 tistically measured success. At the best, 

 he loses with advancing years that mellow 

 ripening of the scholar, lays aside all too 

 willingly the protecting segis of his ideals 

 and his enthusiasm, and fails to maintain 

 in his activity the very vital quality that 

 appreciative students should, and com- 

 monly do look upon, and look back upon, 

 as the choicest advantage of their academic 

 intercourse. 



If any one consequence of this serious 

 situation may be rated more serious than 

 the rest, it is the effect of it all upon the 

 younger members of the instructional staff 

 during the most valued portions of their 

 lives. A Teutonic student of our educa- 

 tional situation recently pointed out to me 

 this disastrous phase of our unadjusted 

 university arrangements as the most potent 

 reason for our unproductiveness in original 

 effort, and as the chief obstacle to our cul- 

 tural advance. He contrasted the situation 

 with that of the Privat-docent, who, though 

 with most precarioiis income, found no 

 hindrance, when once launched vipon acad- 

 emic seas, to shaping his career according 

 to his talents, in steering for such ports and 

 by such routes as his survey of the chart 

 directed. That intense and crippling sense 

 of accountability — to which President Prit- 

 chett has likewise directed attention— is all 

 but absent from the Privat-docent 's career, 

 as it is likely to crowd out by its insistent 

 demands almost every other serious pur- 

 pose of the young instructor. Confessedly 

 the advantages are not all on one side ; but 

 the unnecessary hazards placed in the way 

 of the academic aspirant among us, make 



