686 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1037 



you each year would not carry the current 

 expenses for three months. The people of the 

 state are, therefore, giving each of you more 

 than four times what it received from you. 

 Each of you becomes a debtor to the state. 

 What does the state demand from you in re- 

 turn for its generosity? There is an implied 

 moral contract between each of you and the 

 state, and unless you intend to comply with 

 your obligation to the state you should not 

 be here. The university does not exist in 

 order to support the saloons and billiard halls 

 of this town nor to afford a comfortable resi- 

 dence for loafers, and the university authori- 

 ties are not worthy of the trust imposed upon 

 them if students of this class are permitted 

 to remain here. This is not a reformatory 

 institution, nor is it an asylum for the feeble- 

 minded, the state having made provision else- 

 where for those wanting in morality and 

 intellectuality. Admission is a privilege and 

 continued residence should be permitted only 

 to those who show intelligence, industry and 

 integrity in all proper functions of student 

 life. Even admonition to more earnest work 

 or better behavior is not a duty of the uni- 

 versity teacher to his students. The purpose 

 of the university is to better fit you for citi- 

 zenship. With this end in view, the people of 

 Michigan expend on you more than one mil- 

 lion dollars annually, a sum which if capital- 

 ized at four per cent, represents twenty-five 

 millions. This means that the amount an- 

 nually paid for the support of this university 

 is equivalent to a contribution of more than 

 one third of a dollar from every inhabitant of 

 the state. Is this expenditure justified? Why 

 should the state be so generous and what obli- 

 gation do you assume in accepting this gen- 

 erosity ? If there be among you those who do 

 not feel any responsibility in this matter, in 

 all honor let such depart immediately. The 

 state does not educate you in order that you 

 may make a living more easily. It does not 

 intend to make shyster lawyers, who fleece 

 their clients, nor quack doctors who rob the 

 sick and afflicted, nor ignorant engineers who 

 build unsafe bridges, nor indifferent school- 

 teachers who perform their tasks perfuncto- 



rily, nor lazy farmers who impoverish the soil ; 

 but it does hope to educate jurists who will see 

 that only wise laws are enacted and in their 

 administration justice shall be done, physi- 

 cians who will render the sick the best serv- 

 ice and protect the well from disease, engi- 

 neers who will develop the natural resources, 

 school teachers who wiU. train the young in 

 body and mind, and farmers who will improve 

 the fertility of the soil. The state realizes 

 that intelligence, industry and integrity are 

 the great factors in the betterment of the con- 

 ditions of life and it seeks the development of 

 these attributes in all its citizens. In a gen- 

 erous spirit it offers its training in these quali- 

 ties to all who are capable of development 

 along these lines whatever their nationality, 

 color or creed may be. One who is lacking 

 in any one of these cardinal virtues can not be 

 of service to the state and should not seek his 

 education in a state university. Without in- 

 telligence development is impossible; without 

 industry life is barren; without integrity the 

 individual is a menace to the state. 



In a broad sense, education has been de- 

 fined as the modification and development of 

 behavior through experience. Since behavior 

 is determined through the mechanism of the 

 nervous system, education is concerned espe- 

 cially with the function of the nerves. Man 

 comes into the world the most helpless of all 

 animals. At birth the child is incapable of 

 locomotion and of finding unaided its food 

 supply. Eor months, and indeed for years, 

 the child remains in this helpless state. The 

 dog in the first six months of its life learns 

 more than the child does in years. It is the 

 superiority of his nervous mechanism that 

 has given man dominion over the earth and 

 all that is therein. We need sound bones, 

 strong muscles and healthy organs, because 

 these render the development of the nervous 

 system possible, and the health of the body, as a 

 whole, is essential to the well-developed man. 

 We can have no correct conception of education 

 without some knowledge of the mechanism 

 employed in its acquisition. Briefly consid- 

 ered, the nervous system consists of receptors 

 or special senses, which are stimulated by the 



