December 23, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



905 



vestigation of the universe, with all dili- 

 gence, and from all possible points of 

 vantage. This will not be done at all ex- 

 cept in fragmentary manner, unless some 

 make it the business of their lives. No 

 professional class of men is in a position to 

 undertake this work except those who com- 

 pose the faculties of our universities. If 

 these will not do it, or are prevented from 

 doing it, new agencies will be created for 

 this special purpose, beyond the reach or 

 control of the universities. 



Professor William North Rice, of "Wes- 

 leyan, has eloquently emphasized the im- 

 portance of the faculty, more particularly 

 perhaps from the teaching standpoint. But 

 if true in reference to teaching, it is doubly 

 true in reference to investigation. He said : 



When the old universities of Europe kindled 

 anew the light of learning in the Dark Ages, it 

 was the fame of great thinkers and great teacners 

 that caused the ardent youth to throng by thou- 

 sands to those centers of learning. Vast endow- 

 ments and stately halls were a secondary develop- 

 ment. And to-day the title of a college to the love 

 of students and alumni and to the support of the 

 public rests upon the intellectual activity, the 

 high scholarship, the aptness to teach, the loyalty 

 to truth and to all high ideals, of the members of 

 the faculty. Secondary to these are stately build- 

 ings, rich museums, and even well furnished libra- 

 ries and laboratories; and without these the col- 

 lege is dead — a body without the inspiring soul. 



The university has always been the home 

 of research. Throughout the middle ages 

 men resorted thither that they might come 

 in close contact with the great masters of 

 learning. While at times faculties were 

 timid in accepting or even positively hos- 

 tile to new truth, yet it was from other 

 faculties that the new truth emanated. 



There are certain universities in the 

 world whose names every educated man 

 knows. Their fame has gone out through 

 all the earth. With them we instinctively 

 associate great names in science, philos- 

 ophy, literature, and, indeed, great names 



in all intellectual realms. In these uni- 

 versities there seem always to have been 

 great men; in them are great men to-day. 

 From these fountains of learning there 

 have issued in a never-ceasing stream, in- 

 vestigations, treatises and other multitudi- 

 nous influences which have impressed the 

 intellectual life of the world to an extent 

 beyond all estimate. Why should this be 

 true of some universities and not of all? 

 Why should not all universities, at least 

 those of larger income, occupy, as far as 

 their age permits, equally honorable places 

 in the records of the advancement of learn- 

 ing? Of how many universities can it be 

 said that the fullest history of the mental 

 achievements of the world might be written 

 without the least occasion to mention their 

 names? Every effect has its precedent 

 cause; and either there are not enough 

 great men born to supply all the universi- 

 ties, or else in some institutions there are 

 not the right conditions to develop or to at- 

 tract men of genius. A university is great 

 and influential only as its faculty com- 

 prises great and influential men. With the 

 development of scholars the environment 

 has much to do. A faculty that either 

 from choice or from necessity confines itself 

 exclusively to teaching can not develop the 

 beneficent characteristics of profound 

 scholarship. Whatever may be its local 

 influence, in the larger intellectual world 

 it is comparatively impotent. 



Examples of universities whose ideal is 

 merely teaching, spring to my mind. I 

 know several well where anything savoring 

 of research is discouraged, privately and at 

 times publicly, by some of those in author- 

 ity, and their attitude has been approved 

 by an equally short-sighted press. It 

 seems often to be accepted as axiomatic 

 that teaching and investigation can not 

 both thrive together; whereas the reverse 

 is more often true that the most inspiring 



