Decembek 1, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



735 



pendent, to promote education. They 

 have done these things sometimes through 

 the machinery of government, sometimes 

 through unofficial groups. All this com- 

 munity activity has inevitably changed the 

 picture of the state in the minds of its citi- 

 zens. The commonwealth emerges as some- 

 thing far nobler than a stock company run 

 for the profit of its shareholders. It does 

 become "an ideal moral power," a larger 

 life in which men and women realize more 

 fully their best selves, and to which they 

 give something that will endure for all 

 time. The state is coming to stand for a 

 common life which seeks to gain ever higher 

 levels of efiScieney, justice, happiness and 

 solidarity. 



In a picture like this the state university 

 finds both setting and sanction. It be- 

 comes an instrument of the general pur- 

 pose, a training place of social servants, a 

 counsellor of the commonwealth, a source 

 of knowledge and idealism. It is this 

 vision which must fascinate and control 

 the men and women who are to-day taking 

 up anew the responsibility for this institu- 

 tion. Arnold Toynbee once said: "En- 

 thusiasm can only be aroused by two 

 things, first, an ideal which takes the 

 imagination by storm, and second, a defi- 

 nite, intelligible plan for carrying this ideal 

 out into practice." Here is the whole phi- 

 losophy of successful effort. Many an ideal 

 comes to naught because it lacks the right 

 means of expression. Many a well-laid 

 plan misses the emotional energy aroused 

 by a vision. Emerson's Oxford don whose 

 philosophy read: "Nothing new, nothing 

 true, and no matter" was not of those who 

 bring things to pass. We do well to-day 

 to catch a glimpse if we can of the univer- 

 sity that ought to be, with the hope that it 

 may "take our imaginations by storm" 

 and urge us to devise "definite and in- 

 telligible" plans for action. 



Francis Bacon had a dream to which we 

 turn for a moment. In his "New At- 

 lantis" he pictured an ideal common- 

 wealth organized about a Solomon's House 

 or "College of the Seven Days Works." 

 This college "sought the knowledge of 

 causes and secret motions of things, the en- 

 largement of the bounds of human empire 

 to the eiJecting of all things possible." 

 The equipment of the college was complete. 

 There were caves and mines for the study 

 of metals, minerals and cements; towers 

 for celestial observations; lakes for the 

 breeding of fish ; animal houses for biolog- 

 ical experiment; orchards and gardens in 

 which the wonders of Burbank were an- 

 ticipated; parks for studying beasts and 

 birds; kitchens for making predigested 

 foods and health-giving drinks; operating 

 rooms in which animal vivisection threw 

 light on human diseases; dispensaries for 

 medicine; laboratories for physical experi- 

 ments; shops where flying machines and 

 submarines were made; collections of min- 

 erals; sound houses, mathematical labora- 

 tories, and even a "house of the deceit of 

 the senses" in which wonders were first 

 wrought and then explained to a bewild- 

 ered public. 



But more important than the equipment 

 was the staif. The "College of the Seven 

 Days Works" was dedicated to research. 

 Twelve "merchants of light" traveled the 

 world over in search of books, apparatus, 

 and all the latest discoveries. Three men 

 collated these materials. Three others 

 verified all reported experiments. Still 

 another three known as "pioneers" or 

 "miners" undertook new investigations, 

 the results of which were passed on to 

 three compilors. All discoveries that had 

 practical utility were applied to daily life 

 by "dowry men" or "benefactors." Not 

 yet content, the college pushed its re- 

 searches further. Three "lamps" as they 



