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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 834 



danger of having our judgment over- 

 whelmed by the material part of the uni- 

 versity, and lamentably fail to recognize 

 that the university may not be accomplish- 

 ing its larger purpose. No objection can 

 be urged against these things in themselves, 

 provided that a necessary and fundamental 

 distinction is observed between such aids to 

 intellectual development and intellectual 

 development itself. 



It must ever be kept in mind that the 

 university has two great general functions : 

 first, the creation ; second, the dissemina- 

 tion of knowledge. I put the creation of 

 knowledge first in importance, for, obvi- 

 ously, if the university had not originated 

 and systematized knowledge, there would 

 have been little to disseminate. Upon the 

 second of these functions, the greater, but 

 still not too great, stress has hitherto been 

 laid in American universities. Yet we are 

 not satisfied that we are getting the best 

 results possible; or perhaps we can speak 

 with certainty, and say we are satisfied 

 that we are not getting the best possible re- 

 sults. For, as President Woodrow "Wilson, 

 of Princeton, is reported to have said: 



We must remember ttat information is not 

 education. The greater part of the work that we 

 are doing in our colleges to-day is to impart in- 

 formation. 



However imperfectly it may perform its 

 function, the university does serve its com- 

 munity by educating the youth of that 

 community. But by virtue of its power of 

 creating knowledge, the university benefits 

 not only its own immediate constituency, 

 but the world at large; for knowledge 

 when published becomes available for 

 the instruction of students wherever 

 an institution of higher learning ex- 

 ists. By acting merely as an informa- 

 tion bureau a teacher may instruct a 

 hundred students; by discovering and 

 elucidating a new truth the same teacher 



will instruct a hundred thousand. His 

 power and influence, when investigation is 

 added to teaching, are multiplied beyond 

 measure. To make but a single reference: 

 Had Sir J. J. Thomson confined himself to 

 teaching mathematical physics he would 

 have instructed a few score students: 

 through the profound and brilliant re- 

 searches which he has conducted and in- 

 spired, he is teaching in every university 

 in the world. How immeasurably greater 

 has been his influence, and that of his uni- 

 versity, than it would have been had he 

 chosen or been compelled to devote his life 

 to teaching! 



Civilization advances by the advance- 

 ment of knowledge. Should investigation 

 cease in every line of mental activity, the 

 world would progress no further than it 

 would be carried by the intellectual mo- 

 mentum which it has acquired through the 

 wonderful and almost intoxicating increase 

 of knowledge in the last century. Should 

 investigation cease, should we not repeat 

 the history of China 1 That intelligent 

 people had at one time progressed far in 

 knowledge, which must have been the re- 

 sult of a great mental activity. But from 

 some cause or probably combination of 

 causes, intellectual inquiry was stifled, 

 with the result that for centuries China, 

 self-satisfied, has been, if one may use such 

 an expression, a living mummy, wrapped 

 in the impeding cerements of a frigid pride 

 in its past, a backward vision and strange 

 forbidding customs. 



In order that the necessary progress in 

 extending the ever-widening boundaries of 

 knowledge may be made in the best and 

 most economical manner, some special 

 class of men must adequately prepare 

 themselves for this high duty, and "lay 

 aside every weight that they may run with 

 patience the race that is set before them." 

 A divine impulse urges mankind to the in- 



